Stores close, streets deserted as Nigerians strike to protest fuel prices

[Robbien]

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Children played soccer in the deserted streets of Lagos and stores shuttered their doors across Nigeria on Wednesday as unions representing millions of workers launched a general strike over fuel price hikes.

The strike, which began Wednesday, threatened oil exports from Nigeria, Africa's largest producer and the source of a fifth of the United States' oil imports. Labour leaders claimed that workers from Nigeria's two major oil unions joined the strike. But oil companies said there had been no immediate impact on production or exports.

Joseph Akinlaja, secretary general of the powerful Nigeria Labour Congress, said its members "stopped work at the oil terminals." But he said it would take days to effect exports, since automated loadings had been pre-programmed.

. . .

At fuel stations on Tuesday, gasoline sold for $51.5 cents Cdn a litre - up from $41.8 cents before the May 29 increase. Critics argue the inflationary burden is too much for most citizens of oil-rich Nigeria, more than 70 per cent of whom live on less than $1.35 Cdn a day. Commuters besieged gas stations, banks and shops Tuesday in order to stock up on fuel, money and groceries ahead of the strike - which unions warned would last until fuel prices come down.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/06/09/492240-ap.html