Nigeria was facing its second week of a crippling general strike on Sunday after union leaders rejected a government offer to scale back a fuel price hike.
”People are now more determined to prosecute the strike,” Adams Oshiomhole, president of the umbrella Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), told a news conference in the capital Abuja.
The protest — which has shut down small businesses, banks and government offices across the west African country — now looks certain to enter its eighth day on Monday.
Oil markets will be watching keenly to see if the action disrupts Nigeria’s key crude oil exports.
And, if not resolved soon, the protest could embarrass President Olusegun Obasanjo during the week in which he is due to welcome US President George Bush to Nigeria for the first time.
The NLC launched a nationwide strike last week in protest at a decison by Obasanjo to abolish fuel subsidies and raise the price caps on petrol, diesel and kerosene by more than 50%.
Pump prices on petrol shot up from 26 naira per litre to 40 (31 US cents), triggering a wave of public anger.
Government has offered to scale back the increase, reducing the petrol price to 35 naira per litre, but the unions are holding out for 32.
”The NLC wishes to reaffirm the resolution of its national executive committee to continue the ongoing strike action,” Oshiomhole said.
”The resolution of the NEC is pursuant to the rejection of 35 naira per litre being offered by the federal government,” he said.
On Saturday the NLC’s executive council voted to give Oshiomhole the authority to negotiate with the government and to call off the strike if the government improved on its offer.
He demanded an audience with Obasanjo to settle the dispute.
But on Sunday Obasanjo’s spokesperson Remi Oyo said: ”The president has not met the unions since their meeting (on Saturday). I am not aware of any plan for him to do so.”
The president was due in the Liberian capital Monrovia on Sunday for talks with his counterpart Charles Taylor on ending the conflict in his country, and was not expected back in Nigeria before late evening.
Obasanjo may be counting on the general strike — which last week paralysed small businesses, public transport, banking and administration but left the strategic oil industry unruffled — running out of steam.
On Friday there were already signs that more Nigerians were heading back to work, and on Saturday the white collar unions represented by the NLC’s rival Trades Union Congress (TUC) suspended their own strike action.
The TUC climbdown removes the threat by management employees in oil export terminals and electric power plants to shut down operations and was seen as a serious blow to the strike.
But Oshiomhole dismissed their decision, insisting that their members had barely taken part in the strike in any case, and accusing the government of trying to divide the strike movement.
Despite being Africa’s largest exporter of crude oil — with an Opec quota of more than two million barrels per day — Nigeria suffers from crippling shortages of refined fuels such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.
Obasanjo’s first serious decision since his re-election on April 19 was to deregulate fuel distribution.
He hopes that by dropping the subsidy paid to the tottering state oil company and upping the price cap, he will lure private capital to refurbish Nigeria’s decrepit refineries, increase imports and generate competition.
He also argues that the 250-billion naira ($1,95-billion) his government reportedly spends annually on the subsidy would be better spent on health and education. – Sapa-AFP