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Nigeria lawmakers oppose president ahead of strike
Meeting in an emergency session, Nigerias House of Representatives shouted down supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan as they voted for a resolution calling on him to restore subsidies that cost the country about $8 billion a year. But their moves failed to mollify unions organizing the strike set to start Monday. There exists a 1 percent cabal. It is upon this plank and premise the executive seeks to remove the subsidy, said Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, a member of the opposition party Action Congress of Nigeria. This cabal and their associates represent perhaps the biggest economic and financial crime in the history of Nigeria. Gas prices have risen from $1.70 per gallon (45 cents per liter) to at least $3.50 per gallon (94 cents per liter) since the subsidy ended Jan. 1 at Jonathans order. That spurred a spike in prices for food and transportation across a nation of more than 160 million people where most live on less than $2 a day. In response, two major unions have said they will carry out a strike Monday, despite a court order restraining them from it. That sets up a situation similar to one faced by the OPEC member nation in 2003, when strikers over eight days attacked shops that remained open, took over air traffic control towers and cut into oil production in a country vital to U.S. energy supplies. Already, activists have begun a loose-knit group of protests called Occupy Nigeria, inspired by those near Wall Street in New York. Their anger extends beyond just the fuel subsidy to the governments weak response to ongoing violence in Nigeria by a radical Muslim sect that killed at least 510 people last year, according to an Associated Press count. Protesters also remain angered by decades of corruption that has seen billions of oil dollars stolen by politicians as electricity and clean drinking water remain scarce. During Sundays session, televised live from the capital Abuja across the country, even members of Jonathans ruling Peoples Democratic Party spoke out against him. Others said the fuel subsidy removal came without their knowledge, signaling Jonathans administration moved unilaterally on an issue now dividing the country. Some lawmakers also said the fuel subsidy removal could lead to a revolution like those that swept across some Middle Eastern countries last year. Posted by: Steve White 2012-01-09 |
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