LAGOS (AFP) - Tens of millions of Nigerian workers began a four-day nationwide strike over rising fuel prices as labour leaders launched their latest challenge to President Olusegun Obasanjo`s economic reforms.
Nigeria is Africa`s largest oil producer, with exports of around 2.5 million barrels per day, and world markets were watching nervously to see if workers manage to disrupt supplies at a time when world prices are at record levels.
On September 23, petrol prices in Nigeria jumped by around 25 percent to 55 naira (around 40 cents) per litre. The pump price has been rising since October last year when Obasanjo`s government deregulated the fuel market.
The protest was called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and was backed by civil society and opposition groups, who have called for the west African giant`s long-suffering 130 million citizens to stay at home until Friday.
But participation was varied around the country.
In the commercial capital Lagos passenger transport was thin on the ground and banks, offices and markets deserted in many areas of the city. Support for the strike was strong, even if some workers had little choice in the matter.
At the Iyana-Itaja junction in the city`s northern suburbs two busloads of activists from the O`odua People`s Congress, an illegal ethnic militia, blocked traffic and threatened to break commuters` car windows if they tried to pass.
"We are part of the struggle," declared OPC leader Ganiyu Ajadi at the makeshift roadblock. "The NLC has given a directive that has to be obeyed.
"We will not allow anybody to frustrate this action, but we`re not making any trouble as long as people comply with the stay-at-home order," he warned.
Large numbers of riot police were deployed to flashpoint areas. In June, when Nigeria last witnessed a fuel price strike, clashes between security forces and protesters claimed at least a dozen lives.
Despite the intimidation, however, most workers seemed to support the strike and all were united in their anger at Obasanjo`s government.
"The NLC is our government now," declared 33-year-old Olusola Adekola, a self-employed businessman. "The stay-at-home order will be obeyed."
In the capital Abuja, banks and businesses were closed and government ministry carparks empty as the day began. A police squad tried to enter the NLC`s national headquarters, but union activists shut the gates against them.
In the northern city of Kano, however, private businesses and markets were working normally. Only public services such as schools, hospitals and the airport were closed. Nevertheless, there was support for the strike`s aims.
"I have to work every day to feed my family," complained 32-year-old bus driver Sabi`u Ibrahim. "But I support labour on the strike."
And even those suffering the most from the work stoppage blamed Obasanjo`s administration rather than the strikers.
"If the government had listened to the cries of Nigerians, this would not have happened and Ahmed would be getting treatment," said 58-year-old Hafsat Dabo as she led her anaemic nine-year-old grandson away from a closed hospital.
Oil company spokesmen and oil unions said it was too early to say whether the strike would have any effect on Nigeria`s exports of crude oil.
Labour representatives in the sector insisted their members were heeding the strike call, but production and exports have always remained unaffected during the early stages of previous strikes.
The NLC has said that the strike will last four days and then be suspended for two weeks to give government a chance to bring fuel prices down.
Nigeria earns billions of dollars in oil revenues every year, and its citizens see cheap fuel as a birthright, and possibly the only tangible benefit their often brutal and corrupt governments give them.
With oil prices above 53 dollars a barrel -- and a 2004 national budget based on a predicted 25 dollars per barrel -- many fail to see why the massive projected budget surplus should not rain on them in the form of cheap fuel.
But Nigeria`s own refineries have been laid waste by mismanagement and corruption, and the country relies on expensive imports for refined fuels.
More than three-quarters of Nigeria`s 114 million people live on less than one dollar per day, a proportion which has doubled in the 40 years since oil was first discovered in the country.