ABUJA (AFP) - Nigerian union leaders vowed Monday to push on with a four-day general strike over rising fuel prices after side-stepping an attempt by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government to appease them with talks.
After tens of millions of workers stayed at home or held low-key protest rallies, Obasanjo invited strike leader Adams Oshiomhole to join a high-level committee set up to seek a way to cushion the effect of high petrol costs.
Oshiomhole, leader of the powerful Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), agreed to join senior government ministers and civil society leaders on the body, but refused to halt a protest which had paralysed much of the country's economic life.
In doing so, he effectively condemned Africa's biggest oil exporter to another three days of chaos, as the next meeting of the committee will not be until Thursday, when labour leaders plan to suspend the strike.
"The strike continues tomorrow because before you can begin to tinker with the strike you have to have irreversible progress. We haven't yet got there," Oshiomhole told reporters after the inaugural committee meeting.
"We need to see proof that the appeals of the Nigerian people will be taken into consideration. Our position is clear; that the prices should revert to their old level," he said. "Not much has been done."
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.
That decision triggered great public anger in a country whose citizens have traditionally regarded subsidised fuel as a birthright, but the president insists that his reform programme will eventually reinvigorate the economy.
"Most leaders in the world who have been reformers have been often misunderstood, not by strangers, but mostly by their own people, when they were executing needed and desirable reform," Obasanjo said.
"Populist options may be sweet but they do not endure... We believe that tough decisions must be taken when necessary, but must also be mediated with cushioning measures as necessary. Hence this committee," he explained.
Oshiomhole, however, rejected "palliative measures" and insisted that the prices must be cut back if the strike is not to restart again two weeks after its planned suspension on Thursday.
Nigeria exports around 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, and world markets were watching nervously to see if the stoppage would disrupt supplies at a time when world prices are at record highs.
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, although oil unions said that their members had heeded the strike call.
Nevertheless, concern over the longer term effects of the dispute, along with another strike in Norway's oil fields and burgeoning demand in China and the United States, forced crude prices towards a record 54 dollars per barrel.
Strike leaders had called for the west African giant's long-suffering 130 million citizens to stay at home until Friday or until Obasanjo imposes lower prices on fuel, 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.
"The NLC is our government now," declared 33-year-old Olusola Adekola, a self-employed businessman. "The stay-at-home order will be obeyed."
Large numbers of riot police were deployed to flashpoint areas around the country, but there were few reports of violence.
In the northern city of Kaduna, however, 12-year-old Sani Hamisu was killed by a stray police bullet, witnesses said,
In the capital Abuja, banks and businesses were closed and government ministry car parks 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 and in many regional centres private businesses and markets were working normally. Only public services such as schools, hospitals and the airport were closed.