AfricaNews Monitoring Team with files from Reuters
Nigerian unions launched a nationwide strike on Monday to protest against the removal of a fuel subsidy by that country's government. Nigeria's fuel regulator announced the end of the subsidy on January 1 as part of efforts to cut government spending and encourage badly needed investment in local refining.
Those who support scrapping the subsidy say it only served to fill the fuel tanks of the rich and middle classes at the expense of the poor, fed corruption and siphoned off billions of dollars of public funds to a cartel of fuel importers.
"It was 25 percent of total expenditure in the budget, the single biggest item - more than education, health and agriculture combined," said Bismarck Rewane, chief executive of Lagos-based consultancy Financial Derivatives. "As long as they spend the money right, removing the subsidy has to be good."
But unions and ordinary Nigerians are furious that overnight, the price of a litre of petrol has shot up to around 150 naira from about 65 naira before.
Last week thousands of Nigerians gathered in cities, including the capital Abuja and commercial hub, Lagos, to show their anger, and mass demonstrations by ordinary Nigerians are planned to coincide with the strike on Monday.
Oil industry experts say the strikes are unlikely to have an impact on oil output as production is largely automated and installations well guarded.
President Goodluck Jonathan pleaded with Nigerians to support the removal of subsidies in a live televised speech on Saturday and the lower house of parliament urged both sides to back down in an emergency session on Sunday.
