Nigeria fuel strike called off
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigerian unions formally called off a general strike over rising fuel prices, hours after its half-hearted start on Wednesday, because the government promised to stop collecting a new tax on petrol sales.
"Since the government has agreed to suspend the illegal collection, we are also able to suspend our strike and resume work," Adams Oshiomhole, leader of the Nigerian Labor Congress, told a news conference after top unionists met in Lagos.
The compromise was hammered out by an appeal court in the capital Abuja on Tuesday, which ordered the government to stop collecting the tax and told unions in the oil-exporting country to suspend their action.
President Olusegun Obasanjo said on state television on Tuesday night that the court order must be obeyed, and the government's head of fuel pricing said he had instructed that the tax be suspended immediately.
But unions had waited until Wednesday morning before taking a final decision.
Oshiomhole said unions could review the decision to suspend the strike if the government resumed collection of the controversial tax at any time.
The strike was only partially observed by Nigerian workers. Most banks stayed shut on Wednesday morning and some workers took the day off.
But public transport was operating and oil companies reported no impact on crude oil supplies from the world's seventh largest exporter.
Many fuel stations in urban centers were open -- and still charging the new tax at the heart of the dispute in the impoverished African country.
"It has not been removed yet. But we expect it to be any time," said a pump attendant at a government-owned fuel station in Lagos.
The last-minute brinkmanship is reminiscent of a similar chain of events only three months ago, when unions also called off a strike over fuel prices hours before it was due to start.
Nigeria's two million barrels of daily oil production and exports, which provide the bulk of government income, are rarely affected by general strikes in the OPEC member country.
Controlled by multinationals, the industry is more vulnerable to ethnic violence and insecurity in the Niger delta region.
Despite being a top crude oil exporter, Nigeria depends on costly fuel imports to meet local demand because its four oil refineries do not work properly.
The government has doubled gasoline prices over the past year to remove subsidies and deregulate the market before a planned privatization of the plants in the middle of the year.
But many in Africa's most populous nation resent the hike in transport costs at a time of stagnant economic growth. The tax was the last straw for unions which had already been angered by the price hikes caused by deregulation.
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