NEWS- Nigeria’s Government and Union workers have today began a new nationwide strike that threatened to shut down key services while people are angry about soaring inflation and growing economic pain.
It is reported that since assuming officelast year, President Bola Tinubu has enacted policies that include doing away with fuel subsidies and unifying the country’s multiple exchange rates, leading to a devaluation of the naira against the dollar.
The President of the Nigerian Labor Congress, Joe Ajaero, said that gasoline prices have more than doubled and inflation has shot up as a result, reaching close to 30% last month, the highest in nearly three decades, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
We are hungry. There is nobody that doesn’t know this,” said Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigerian Labor Congress saying that the protest was the only way to get the government’s attention.
It should be remembered that in October last year the government labor unions reached a deal with the government to end strikes in return for monthly stipends and subsidies to cushion the blow of the new policies but nothing was done.
Nigerian Labour Unions say the government has failed to deliver on promises that included a monthly wage increase of approximately 20 dollars for all workers for six months and payments of approximately 15 dollars for three months to millions of vulnerable households.
“Things are getting out of hand,” said Christian Omeje, a shop owner in the capital, Abuja. “Prices keep soaring, the aid the government said it would dole out has not been provided.”
A pledge to roll out gas-powered buses for mass transit last year also failed to materialize and even most services today appeared to continue with just reduced workforce.
Additional Reporting by Associated Press
