NIGERIA
Strike paralyses nation
Published: 12-OCT-04
Several of the nation's biggest cities were paralysed yesterday as a result of the general strike. In Lagos, banks, schools, offices and businesses were closed and usually crowded streets were deserted as millions heeded the call by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) trade union movement to stay at home. The strike also had a major impact in Ibadan, Kano and Port Harcourt. In all three cities, schools, banks, government offices and many private businesses were forced to close.
In Abuja, the strike was only partially successful. Buses and taxis continued to ply the streets, while some offices and banks worked under heavy police guard. But in most of the country, government services were shut down and business activity was greatly reduced. In Lagos anti-riot police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters that blocked a major urban freeway, smashing the windscreens of the few motorists that ventured out during the morning. In Kaduna, police fought running
battles with protesters who lit bonfires of old tyres on the streets.
The trade unions and their allies, which include civic groups and opposition parties, said that after the first four-day stoppage they would give the government another two weeks to reverse the price hikes. If the prices remained unchanged after the two weeks, there would be an indefinite general strike, they said. The two powerful oil unions said they had joined the strike yesterday, raising fears of further disruptions to global oil supplies at a time oil prices are at historic highs of over US$50 per barrel. However, union leaders and oil company officials acknowledged the strike was unlikely to have any short-term impact on Nigeria’s 2.5 million barrels per day oil output.
Peter Akpatason, president of the blue-collar National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG), said members of his union working in offices had been asked to stay at home. NUPENG was also refusing to allow
crew changes at oil platforms and export terminals, but it had not yet asked its members working on these facilities to down tools, he added. The white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) said that although it was not a member of the NLC, it had asked its own members to stay away from work for one day on Monday in sympathy with the NLC demands.
Asked whether the strike had affected operations, a spokesman for Shell, which accounts for about half of Nigeria’s oil production, said: “Administratively, yes. But the oil is flowing.” Udom Inoyo, an executive of ExxonMobil, which is Nigeria's second largest oil producer, said there had been no serious impact on its own operations. “For people who don’t feel safe to come to work, caution is the word.
But there has been no impact on production and exports,” Inoyo said. However, industry experts believe the impact will begin to tell on oil operations if the strike is
prolonged. Perhaps bearing this in mind, Obasanjo met Oshiomhole and other union leaders later on Monday.
Meanwhile in other realted news .......
The world oil prices hit new highs ($53.63) amid strikes in Nigeria.
World oil prices shot to new record high points yesterday, nearing 54 dollars in New York, following the general strike in Nigeria and as a long-running industrial dispute in Norway intensified. The price of reference light sweet crude for November delivery rose 32 cents to reach a new summit of 53.63 dollars a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
It was a new high in the contract's 21-year history and beat a peak of 53.40 dollars reached last Friday. After hitting a new record, the contract traded at 53.52 dollars. In London Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November hit 50 dollars a barrel for the first time in the contract's 16-year history, rising by 51 cents to 50.22 dollars in early
afternoon deals on Monday. It later traded at 50.15 dollars.
The new records "are above all due to worries about the strikes in Norway and Nigeria", Societe Generale analyst Frederic Lasserre. The worry, he explained, was that both countries were producers of light sweet crude, highly sought after because light sweet crude is easier and cheaper to refine into petrol, gasoil and heating oil, according to analysts. Analysts have said that supply worries are having a magnified impact on prices because of concerns about unbridled consumption in the United States and Asia as well as the low level of US commercial oil inventories
Source- Nigeria Online Today
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