Ocean Seal
13th January 2012, 15:06
A GENERAL strike has brought business and transportation in key Nigerian cities to a complete standstill over the past week. Millions of Nigerians have refused to work in protest over the government's decision to cut a state gasoline subsidy.
For decades, the program has helped control the price of transportation and electricity in a country where two-thirds of the population--or about 104 million people--live on less than $1.25 per day.
On January 1, Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan announced that the subsidy would be immediately ended, and official gas prices were more than doubled overnight. In some places, the price jumped by nearly five times (http://sahelblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/response-to-ethan-zuckerman-on-occupy-nigeria). While the government had been discussing a cut to the subsidy for the past year, the sudden suspension of the program exposed the undemocratic nature of the decision.
Protests began immediately on January 2 across the country, and within a week, over 100,000 people had taken part in demonstrations in all of the regions of the country. The two main Nigerian trade union federations, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union of Nigeria (TUC), quickly called for a general strike to begin on Monday, January 9. The unions have vowed to continue with the strike until the fuel subsidy is reinstated.
Most spectacularly, the two largest cities in Nigeria, Lagos and Kano, are effectively shut down, and the strike has been equally successful in the capital of Abuja and other major urban areas, including Kaduna and Benin City.
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THE SIGNIFICANCE of a general strike in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. It is the most populous country in Africa, with almost twice as many people as any other country on the continent. Nigeria's economy is the second largest in all of sub-Saharan Africa, and over 10 million people live in the port city of Lagos alone--more than New York City.
While most Nigerians are simply refusing to work or go to school in adherence with the strike call, mass demonstrations also continue across the country. In Lagos, tens of thousands of people gathered in Gawi Fawehinmi Park on Monday. Hundreds of doctors participated, offering to provide medical attention for protesters in anticipation of attacks by security forces, which have been common during the past week-and-a-half of protests.
In Kano, thousands blocked main roads, forced gas stations to close and surrounded the home of the Nigerian central bank chief Lamido Sanusi. Protesters renamed the city's main square "Liberation Square," taking inspiration from the Egyptian revolution and Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Some Nigerian protesters have even begun referring to the movement as "Occupy Nigeria," linking its aspirations to the Occupy movement in the U.S.
On the first day of the strike in the capital city, Abuja, speakers blasted the anti-corruption songs of Nigerian singers like Fela Kuti and Idriss Abdulkareem. Protesters managed to shut down the airport, carrying placards with slogans reading "Subsidy removal is a huge economic fraud" and "One day, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich." The Nigerian president is now widely derided as "Bad luck" Jonathan, with strikers printing signs showing Jonathan with devil horns pumping gasoline.
Simultaneously in London, hundreds of people gathered outside the Nigerian High Commission for a solidarity protest organized by Nigerian student and youth organizations. In the U.S., Nigerian activists led a protest in front of the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. (https://www.facebook.com/lesindesirables/posts/162227837213805), as well as in New York City (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXekmbw0tjM).
In multiple Nigerian cities, security forces responded to the protests with violence. In Kano, police shot more than a dozen people on Monday. At least three protesters in Kano and Lagos died from either gunshot wounds or tear gas on the first day of the strike, prompting unions to call off public demonstrations in Kano on Tuesday, while maintaining the strike call.
However, the police murder of demonstrators has provoked even larger protests in cities like Lagos, where 500,000 people came back to Gawi Fawehinmi Park on Tuesday (http://saharareporters.com/news-page/lagos-grounded-occupy-protetsers-day-2).
Although workers in some areas of the country have not joined the strike, at least so far, the mass work stoppage of an estimated 8 million Nigerians has already had an impact on the Nigerian economy.
The BBC reported that the country's stock exchange plunged (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-africa-16486196), with total share prices trading at one-fifth of their previous value. The strike has shut down all of the country's ports and stopped cocoa beans moving from farms to processing centers--a major disruption in the world's fourth-largest cocoa producing country.
Thus far, Nigeria's most important industry, oil extraction, has not been directly affected by the strike, but that may soon change. Babatunte Oke, a spokesperson for one of the two main oil workers unions in Nigeria, told Bloomberg news service (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/nigeria-s-jonathan-faces-his-defining-battle-amid-general-strike.html), "Oil production is being shut down gradually in the anticipation that the government will so something, but if government doesn't do something about the strike, then it will be shut by the weekend."
Royal Dutch Shell has avoided commenting on the movement's impact, but Shell and ExxonMobil's main offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt have remained closed since the general strike began.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN THE past, fuel prices have often risen above the state mandated price, but now with costs skyrocketing, most Nigerians face the reality of even deeper impoverishment.
The end of the fuel subsidy will increase the cost of nearly every aspect of life in Nigeria. Communal transport fares have already increased, and the price of food and other basic necessities is expected to soon rise, too. One Nigerian writer pointed out that a sachet of drinkable water, a product many Nigerians rely on, has already doubled in price where he lives (http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/guest-articles/time-to-pay-for-a-breath-of-fresh-air.html).
In addition, as municipal electrical power is inconsistent--or simply unavailable--families in many parts of Nigeria depend on gasoline-powered generators, which they may no longer be able to afford to operate.
Uche Madakulam, a 28-year-old information technology worker in Lagos explained what the end of the fuel subsidy has meant for him (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16468112). He earns $3 per day and used to spend $1 per day on transportation to and from work. With his small savings, he would send money to his parents so they could operate a generator to provide electricity in the village where he grew up.
However, since the beginning of the year, he now has to pay $2 per day--two-thirds of his salary--simply to get to work. The cost of gasoline for his parents' generator will increase, but he has no money left over to help them purchase fuel.
Having met with this surge of resistance, Nigerian President Jonathan is on the defensive, and is trying to divert the protests.
Over last weekend, Jonathan tried to undermine the first day of the strike by announcing he would cut the salaries of his executive appointees by 25 percent, while paying public workers ahead of schedule. Additionally, he pledged to reduce the amount of money spent on political leaders' foreign travel. Finance Minister Ngozi Okongo-Iweala has promised that the money saved from cutting the fuel subsidy would be redirected toward maternal health programs, railroad infrastructure and the immediate provision of more public diesel buses.
Jonathan has attempted to deflect anger directed at himself and Okongo-Iweala by appointing a committee to oversee a "Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program" (SURE). This was no doubt in response to the widespread belief that the money saved from cutting the subsidies would end up in the bank accounts of the Nigerian political elite, and not in public services. Tellingly, SURE is to be headed by the wealthy former director of the Cadbury company in Nigeria, a choice that has instilled little confidence in most Nigerians (http://socialistbulletin.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/our-day-has-come-by-baba-aye).
Joanathan and Okongo-Iweala are simply trying to mask a program of austerity and privatization with the promise of new services. Even if the administration follows through on its pledges--which few believe it will--better maternal health programs will bring little relief to Nigerian women when the vast majority face insurmountable increases in the prices of food and transportation.
However, it is also clear that the Nigerian government is attempting to intimidate the movement with police violence and economic threats.
Nigerian security forces have been allowed to use tear gas and live ammunition on peaceful protesters, and the repression is sure to increase as the strike goes on. And on Tuesday, the attorney general announced the strike had been ruled unlawful and that public-sector workers would lose their pay.
More on the website
http://socialistworker.org/2012/01/12/general-strike-rocks-nigeria
Things are starting to heat up in Nigeria. If it get more going for it, I think we should propose a newswire for it.
For decades, the program has helped control the price of transportation and electricity in a country where two-thirds of the population--or about 104 million people--live on less than $1.25 per day.
On January 1, Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan announced that the subsidy would be immediately ended, and official gas prices were more than doubled overnight. In some places, the price jumped by nearly five times (http://sahelblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/response-to-ethan-zuckerman-on-occupy-nigeria). While the government had been discussing a cut to the subsidy for the past year, the sudden suspension of the program exposed the undemocratic nature of the decision.
Protests began immediately on January 2 across the country, and within a week, over 100,000 people had taken part in demonstrations in all of the regions of the country. The two main Nigerian trade union federations, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union of Nigeria (TUC), quickly called for a general strike to begin on Monday, January 9. The unions have vowed to continue with the strike until the fuel subsidy is reinstated.
Most spectacularly, the two largest cities in Nigeria, Lagos and Kano, are effectively shut down, and the strike has been equally successful in the capital of Abuja and other major urban areas, including Kaduna and Benin City.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE SIGNIFICANCE of a general strike in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. It is the most populous country in Africa, with almost twice as many people as any other country on the continent. Nigeria's economy is the second largest in all of sub-Saharan Africa, and over 10 million people live in the port city of Lagos alone--more than New York City.
While most Nigerians are simply refusing to work or go to school in adherence with the strike call, mass demonstrations also continue across the country. In Lagos, tens of thousands of people gathered in Gawi Fawehinmi Park on Monday. Hundreds of doctors participated, offering to provide medical attention for protesters in anticipation of attacks by security forces, which have been common during the past week-and-a-half of protests.
In Kano, thousands blocked main roads, forced gas stations to close and surrounded the home of the Nigerian central bank chief Lamido Sanusi. Protesters renamed the city's main square "Liberation Square," taking inspiration from the Egyptian revolution and Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Some Nigerian protesters have even begun referring to the movement as "Occupy Nigeria," linking its aspirations to the Occupy movement in the U.S.
On the first day of the strike in the capital city, Abuja, speakers blasted the anti-corruption songs of Nigerian singers like Fela Kuti and Idriss Abdulkareem. Protesters managed to shut down the airport, carrying placards with slogans reading "Subsidy removal is a huge economic fraud" and "One day, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich." The Nigerian president is now widely derided as "Bad luck" Jonathan, with strikers printing signs showing Jonathan with devil horns pumping gasoline.
Simultaneously in London, hundreds of people gathered outside the Nigerian High Commission for a solidarity protest organized by Nigerian student and youth organizations. In the U.S., Nigerian activists led a protest in front of the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. (https://www.facebook.com/lesindesirables/posts/162227837213805), as well as in New York City (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXekmbw0tjM).
In multiple Nigerian cities, security forces responded to the protests with violence. In Kano, police shot more than a dozen people on Monday. At least three protesters in Kano and Lagos died from either gunshot wounds or tear gas on the first day of the strike, prompting unions to call off public demonstrations in Kano on Tuesday, while maintaining the strike call.
However, the police murder of demonstrators has provoked even larger protests in cities like Lagos, where 500,000 people came back to Gawi Fawehinmi Park on Tuesday (http://saharareporters.com/news-page/lagos-grounded-occupy-protetsers-day-2).
Although workers in some areas of the country have not joined the strike, at least so far, the mass work stoppage of an estimated 8 million Nigerians has already had an impact on the Nigerian economy.
The BBC reported that the country's stock exchange plunged (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-africa-16486196), with total share prices trading at one-fifth of their previous value. The strike has shut down all of the country's ports and stopped cocoa beans moving from farms to processing centers--a major disruption in the world's fourth-largest cocoa producing country.
Thus far, Nigeria's most important industry, oil extraction, has not been directly affected by the strike, but that may soon change. Babatunte Oke, a spokesperson for one of the two main oil workers unions in Nigeria, told Bloomberg news service (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/nigeria-s-jonathan-faces-his-defining-battle-amid-general-strike.html), "Oil production is being shut down gradually in the anticipation that the government will so something, but if government doesn't do something about the strike, then it will be shut by the weekend."
Royal Dutch Shell has avoided commenting on the movement's impact, but Shell and ExxonMobil's main offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt have remained closed since the general strike began.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN THE past, fuel prices have often risen above the state mandated price, but now with costs skyrocketing, most Nigerians face the reality of even deeper impoverishment.
The end of the fuel subsidy will increase the cost of nearly every aspect of life in Nigeria. Communal transport fares have already increased, and the price of food and other basic necessities is expected to soon rise, too. One Nigerian writer pointed out that a sachet of drinkable water, a product many Nigerians rely on, has already doubled in price where he lives (http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/guest-articles/time-to-pay-for-a-breath-of-fresh-air.html).
In addition, as municipal electrical power is inconsistent--or simply unavailable--families in many parts of Nigeria depend on gasoline-powered generators, which they may no longer be able to afford to operate.
Uche Madakulam, a 28-year-old information technology worker in Lagos explained what the end of the fuel subsidy has meant for him (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16468112). He earns $3 per day and used to spend $1 per day on transportation to and from work. With his small savings, he would send money to his parents so they could operate a generator to provide electricity in the village where he grew up.
However, since the beginning of the year, he now has to pay $2 per day--two-thirds of his salary--simply to get to work. The cost of gasoline for his parents' generator will increase, but he has no money left over to help them purchase fuel.
Having met with this surge of resistance, Nigerian President Jonathan is on the defensive, and is trying to divert the protests.
Over last weekend, Jonathan tried to undermine the first day of the strike by announcing he would cut the salaries of his executive appointees by 25 percent, while paying public workers ahead of schedule. Additionally, he pledged to reduce the amount of money spent on political leaders' foreign travel. Finance Minister Ngozi Okongo-Iweala has promised that the money saved from cutting the fuel subsidy would be redirected toward maternal health programs, railroad infrastructure and the immediate provision of more public diesel buses.
Jonathan has attempted to deflect anger directed at himself and Okongo-Iweala by appointing a committee to oversee a "Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program" (SURE). This was no doubt in response to the widespread belief that the money saved from cutting the subsidies would end up in the bank accounts of the Nigerian political elite, and not in public services. Tellingly, SURE is to be headed by the wealthy former director of the Cadbury company in Nigeria, a choice that has instilled little confidence in most Nigerians (http://socialistbulletin.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/our-day-has-come-by-baba-aye).
Joanathan and Okongo-Iweala are simply trying to mask a program of austerity and privatization with the promise of new services. Even if the administration follows through on its pledges--which few believe it will--better maternal health programs will bring little relief to Nigerian women when the vast majority face insurmountable increases in the prices of food and transportation.
However, it is also clear that the Nigerian government is attempting to intimidate the movement with police violence and economic threats.
Nigerian security forces have been allowed to use tear gas and live ammunition on peaceful protesters, and the repression is sure to increase as the strike goes on. And on Tuesday, the attorney general announced the strike had been ruled unlawful and that public-sector workers would lose their pay.
More on the website
http://socialistworker.org/2012/01/12/general-strike-rocks-nigeria
Things are starting to heat up in Nigeria. If it get more going for it, I think we should propose a newswire for it.