Three people were killed and several more injured after several million Nigerians took to the streets Monday, protesting the government’s decision to scrap fuel subsidies earlier this month, Nigerian television reported.
Among the dead are two children who were killed in Kano when protesters clashed with policeman, a local journalist told dpa.
Major trade unions, including the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), had called for the strike across the country of 160 million.
Peaceful protests were reported in some areas, but police broke up demonstrations in Abuja, Lagos and the troubled northern city of Kano.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s economic engine, many commuters found public transport options non-existent as the drivers of shared taxis and buses joined the strike.
The Lagos-Ibadan expressway, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, was completely blocked by protesters who lit bonfires early Monday.
Police were reportedly using force to break up the protests.
‘I went to board a bus to my place of work but there were none,’ a commuter from Lagos, who identified himself as Nathaniel, told The Vanguard newspaper.
‘There is no movement of people,’ he said. ‘Right now, policemen are shooting tear gas at Ketu bus stop and a lot of people are injured.’
In the central city of Kaduna, traffic came to a total standstill and the local electricity grid shut down.
By noon Monday, debris and torn signs littered the streets of Abuja. ‘For us there is no retreat, no surrender, we will fight with the last blood till government reverses its position,’ said Patricia Nkom, a human rights worker.
High-profile individuals joined the strike, including Africa’s most widely published writer, Chinua Achebe.
Achebe issued a statement saying that he and other luminaries stood ‘with the Nigerian people who are protesting the removal of oil subsidies, which has placed an unbearable economic weight on their lives.’
President Goodluck Jonathan has refused to back down on the removal of the fuel subsidy, which has seen the price of fuel double since January 1.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, churning out 2.5 million barrels per day. But it cannot afford to refine the oil it produces and exports most of it for processing and sale abroad.
For years, many Nigerians regarded the fuel subsidy as one of the few benefits of living in the resource-rich nation.
But now they say they cannot afford to travel to work or run the fuel-powered generators on which livelihoods depend.
There are implications across other sectors, too.
The president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Azubuike Okwor, said Monday that the price of medicine could increase by 50 per cent as a result of increased transport and production costs.
This opened up a greater window for the production of fake drugs, he warned – an industry that some poor Nigerians have already paid for with their lives.
Jonathan, who says the removal of the subsidy will unlock 8 billion dollars, made a last ditch effort to halt the strikes on Sunday, saying he would cut the salaries of civil servants – including his own wage – by 25 per cent, to free up cash for infrastructure spending.
He also launched the first phase of a boost to the public transportation sector, bringing 110 new buses into service in Abuja.
But the protesters say that such moves are a drop in the ocean.
NLC President Abdulwaheed Omar said Monday there was no going back on the strike unless the government revoked the removal of fuel subsidies.
Jan92012