Labor unions in Nigeria announced Monday that they have called of their strike demanding the reinstatement of a scrapped fuel subsidy after the government agreed to restore the subsidy partially following negotiations with union representatives.
Leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress described the their six-day-long strike against the scrapping of fuel subsidy as a success at a press conference held in capital Abuja on Monday, and welcomed the government's recent pledge to investigate corruption in the oil sector as well as other sectors of the economy.
"We are sure that no government or institution will take Nigerians for granted again," Abdulwaheed Omar, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, told the news conference.
The development came hours after President Goodluck Jonathan announced a 30% cut in fuel prices in a national address telecast on Monday morning. Jonathan said he decided on the partial repeal of the fuel price hike after considering "the hardship being suffered by Nigerians."
He said the decision was taken after consultations with State Governors and the leadership of the National Assembly, and added that the government would "continue to pursue full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector".
Jonathan's announcement followed two days of intense negotiations between government officials and union representatives of the country's labor unions. The unions had suspended their general strike for two days to allow negotiations with authorities over the weekend.
The negotiations were initiated by the president on Thursday after the country's main oil workers union, the Pengassan, threatened to shut down production at the country's oil facilities from Sunday unless the government restores the scrapped fuel subsidy.
Nigeria had been witnessing widespread protests and a general strike called by the trade unions demanding reinstatement of the fuel subsidy since last Monday. The protests paralyzed normal life in Nigeria, with almost all schools, offices, shops and fuel stations closed. Violent clashes between protesters and security forces were also reported in several Nigerian cities.
The New Year day scrapping of fuel subsidy program, which costs about $8 billion annually to the government, had resulted in petrol prices shooting double-fold from 65 naira ($0.40) to 140 naira per liter. It has now been reduced to 97 naira (about $0.60) per liter.
Government had said earlier that the funds saved by lifting the fuel subsidy would be used to improve the country's erratic electricity supply system as well as the health and education sectors. Also, the International Monetary Fund has been consistently urging Nigeria to withdraw the subsidy program.
The government had revealed its intention to remove the fuel subsidy months ago, insisting that the scheme had resulted in huge amounts of state money flowing to the cartel importing fuel to the country. In an effort to convince ordinary Nigerians to back the move, the Nigerian government released a list of people it claimed benefited from the subsidy. The list contained names of some of the country's richest businessmen as well as owners of fuel-importing firms.
Nigeria remains Africa's largest oil-producing nation and is also the world's eighth largest exporter of crude oil. Notwithstanding the earnings of more than $1.19 trillion in oil revenue over the past 37 years, most of Nigeria's 140 million people live in poverty. Experts blame the country's high poverty levels on poor performance in governance and corruption.
Mismanagement and corruption has left Nigeria's state-owned refineries without adequate capacities to refine oil into petrol and other fuels to meet the nation's needs, forcing the country to import fuel. Further, building new refineries to tackle the issue would take years to complete.
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