9 January, 2012
ICEM’s two affiliated oil workers’ unions – the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) – joined the call of Nigeria’s two labour federations in a nationwide strike today over the government’s sudden 1 January removal of consumer fuel subsidies.
The indefinite strike by Nigerian workers in all sectors was authorized last week by the executive boards of both the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). NUPENG’s board approved today’s walkout at a meeting of union leaders yesterday, while PENGASSAN’s National Executive Council (NEC) gave strike approval on 5 January.
In a statement issued after the NEC meeting in Lagos, PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun called government’s fuel subsidy removal “illegal, hasty, without consultation, and lacking of transparency.” The union challenged the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to work on behalf of Nigerian people rather than for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Both PENGASSAN and NUPENG called on the government to rescind the New Year’s Day elimination, roll back fuel prices to 2011 levels, and then engage the unions of Nigeria in honest dialogue.
The lifting of subsidies immediately shot fuel prices up as much as 225% one week ago. It also sparked a price rise in food and transport costs across Nigeria. Many human rights groups and civil liberty organizations began protests last week. Petrol filling stations in many states were blockaded and protests spilled into many roads across the country, blocking traffic.
Even though Nigeria produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil, the government is forced to import roughly 70% of its gasoline supply because of inadequate and run down refineries. The country of 160 million people depends on only three operable refineries for retail consumption.
Jonathan acted on the recommendation of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), a body notorious for irregularities and one that has paid billions of naira to so-called “brief-case companies” and middle men in import subsidies.
Nigeria’s National Industrial Court ruled on 6 January that Labour’s indefinite strike would be illegal but similarly to a mass national strike in 2003 when a previous government attempted to lift remove fuel subsidies, strikes across the country went ahead today and are expected to continue throughout the week.