Nigerian trade unions angrily demanded talks with the federal government on Monday as the deadline loomed for a nationwide general strike over fuel price rises.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, and labour leaders have threatened to disrupt crude exports and shut down government offices and firms from Thursday if the hike is not reversed.
”The government is very insensitive and adamant,” John Odah, general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said on Monday.
”Do you know that since we issued the strike notice on Saturday no invitation for dialogue has been extended to us? It simply shows the kind of government we have in place in this country.”
The NLC, Nigeria’s largest labour umbrella group, announced on Saturday that it was preparing to renew a country-wide work stoppage, which it suspended in July after 10 days of unrest.
The previous strike ended after Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo agreed to cap the pump price for subsidised petrol and diesel at 34 naira per litre.
The cap was removed last week, and fuel prices in major cities immediately shot up to 39,95 naira per litre and beyond.
Odah said the earlier shutdown would be repeated, and raised the stakes by threatening a complete closure of Nigeria’s airspace by striking airport and air-traffic controllers.
”Flight operations will be disrupted. There won’t be local or international flights. We appeal to our international friends to bear with us until we resolve the crisis,” he said.
In June and July, major cities were paralysed by a public transport shutdown, cash dried up because banks were closed and at least a dozen protesters were shot dead by police.
But despite labour’s warnings, the previous strike did not cause much disruption to international flights and had no apparent effect on Nigeria’s crucial oil exports.
Nevertheless, world oil markets are jittery over threats of renewed action. Oil prices rose in London trading on Monday as traders kept an eye on developments.
”Technically, the market is very strong. There are concerns about the Nigerian strike,” said broker Mark Head.
Nigeria is the fifth biggest exporter in the Opec cartel, with a quota of 2,018-million barrels per day out of a world total of 24,5-million, under a ceiling due to take effect next month.
Although rich in crude, Nigeria refines little petrol of its own and relies on expensive imported fuel, which it subsidises to keep down the price of a commodity most here regard as a birthright.
The NLC strike is due to begin on Thursday, but the oil union Nupeng said that it will ”phase in” its participation and only shut down rigs and oil terminals if the government refuses to budge.
”The issue at stake concerns our industry, the oil sector, and the struggle will be in phases,” Nupeng president Peter Akpatasan said on Monday.
And in a sign of potential divisions in the labour movement, he said that Nupeng would not oppose deregulation so long as more was invested in Nigeria’s own decrepit refineries.
”Our union is not against deregulation in so far it brings about healthy competition and efficiency in the sector. What we are against is exploiting Nigerians,” he said.
”We have told them to concentrate on the local refining of petroleum products, which will force down prices,” he said.
The blue-collar union Nupeng, its white-collar ally Pengassan and Nigeria’s state oil firm are to hold talks on Tuesday to try to head off industrial action, union and company officials said.
Thus far there has been no sign that Obasanjo is ready to compromise for a second time on fuel price deregulation, the key first stage in a promised programme of economic reform.
The government argues that if filling stations sell at market rates, competition will mean prices will stay down and the subsidy currently spent supporting the industry can be redirected to public services.
But for almost a week, Obasanjo has refused to speak on the price cap’s removal, hiding behind a decision by a fuel pricing agency that was set up in June as a front for deregulation.
”I don’t think the government has anything to do with the fuel price increase,” a spokesperson for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Ndu Ughamadu, said on Monday.
”Government no longer fixes prices. Prices are now determined through the interplay of demand and supply.” — Sapa-AFP