>From: "Johannes Schneider" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Here is an update on the Nigerian general strike from the BBC: > >http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_782000/782242.stm > >A general strike is under way in Nigeria after talks failed to resolve a >dispute between the government and unions over fuel price rises. Witnesses >in the commercial capital, Lagos, said protesters were barricading roads >into the main business districts. Shops and banks were also reported closed. > >"The streets are deserted because protesters turned back the few commercial >transport operators on the roads," one witness told Reuters news agency. > >Talks between the government and the unions went on late into Wednesday >night, but eventually broke up without their having reached any agreement >which might have averted the strike. > >Negotiations began on Wednesday, folowing riots in several cities against >the price rises. > >There are reports that the government may have offered a compromise - >perhaps a smaller rise in the fuel price - but that the unions were >unwilling to accept any rise at all. > >Cheap petrol > >The price of petrol and diesel has long been one of Nigeria's hottest >political issues. > >The country has large oil reserves and its production costs are low, so >Nigerians have come to see very cheap petrol as their right - the one >certain benefit they get from their national oil wealth. > >Every attempt to raise the price has brought angry reaction on the streets. > >But every barrel sold to the local refineries for $9.50 is one barrel less >for export at a world price now nudging $28. > >So cheap is the pump price in Nigeria that vast quantities are smuggled >across the borders into neighbouring countries. > >And the combination of this smuggling and the country's creaking refineries >has meant that the Nigerian Government has been having to pay world prices >to import refined products to make up the shortfall. > >So both sides feel very strongly about the issue and are reluctant to back >down. > >This dispute has also become the first real test of trade union strength >since the return to democracy a year ago. > >General Sani Abacha's military dictatorship crushed the Nigerian Labour >Congress. > >Now it has revived, and this strike, over a popular issue, will show how >much support it can command. > > > > > > --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
