Nigeria’s largest labour movement is on Wednesday to begin a series of nationwide protest rallies against rising inflation, poverty, the deregulation of the oil sector and slow electoral reform.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the first rally would begin from its offices in Lagos on Wednesday morning. Further rallies are to take place across the country in the next 10 days.
The organisation wants to see minimum wages brought up from the current level of just less than $40 a month.
”The issue of pay rise for workers in the country is fundamental, given spiraling inflation and excruciating poverty which has made it impossible for workers to meet their basic needs,” Lakemfa Owei, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said in a statement.
Inflation dipped slightly in March due to an improved harvest, but still came in at 14,4%.
The NLC also wants to see electoral reform, promised after widespread fraud in the 2007 elections, and an end to plans to deregulate the oil sector.
Nigeria is one of the world’s largest crude oil exporters, yet still has to import the vast majority of its petroleum needs due to a lack of refining capacity.
The NLC says deregulating the industry will just make the situation worse for ordinary Nigerians.
”If anything, the recurrent petroleum shortages — which have led to long queues and the high costs of kerosene and diesel — have justified Labour’s position that government’s moves to deregulate the sector will lead to mass suffering, closure of factories and the pauperisation of the populace,” said Owei.
The government has called on the NLC to return to the negotiating table, saying the protests will be used as a pretext to ”cause chaos”. — Sapa-dpa