Nigeria: Labour unions call off nationwide strike

Nigeria labor unions on Monday called off the nationwide strike over government’s removal of subsidy on petrol, hours after President Goodluck Jonathan announced a new petrol pump price of 97 Naira per liter, down from an earlier 141 Naira.

The Nigeria Labor Congress and Trade Union Congress had on January 9 called a nationwide strike to protest the new price regime which took effect on New Year's day, calling for a reversal to the original price of 65 Naira. The strike had paralyzed economic activities and the protests, though largely peaceful, had led to several deaths across the country. "The labour movement and its allies who had the responsibility of coordinating the historical mass actions have had cause to review the various actions and decided that in order to save lives and in the interest of the country, these mass actions should be suspended" said the NLC president Abdulwahed at a news conference in Abuja. On Monday, soldiers were deployed to the streets of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve center, as government unilaterally announced the new pump price, urging workers to return to work. “Even though the (price) reduction was done unilaterally, we are going to explore the Belgore committee,” Omar said in the live televised news conference, explaining the suspension of the strike would not stop negotiations. “We are going to lay our cards on the table.”