On Wednesday 11th of May, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kaichukwu, on behalf of the Federal Government announced the removal of subsidy from the sale of petrol and placed a benchmark price of ₦145 per litre for petrol. This announcement elicited a series of reaction from different sections of the country culminating in this ‘ongoing’ nationwide strike which begun by 12 midnight last night.
This was a strike that was doomed to fail even before it began, first with the Federal Government obtaining a court injunction from the National Industrial Court asking the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) not to strike, and in Labour itself being divided with one faction calling for the strike and the other calling for further deliberation.
News coming in from various parts of the country reports that though there was a few demonstration in some places, most people went about their daily duties especially with the federal government instituting a no work, no pay policy for striking workers. Protests were reported to have occurred in Ibadan, Benin, Lagos, Asaba, Abeokuta, Ado-Ekiti and Abuja.
An online survey conducted by naij.com reveals that most Nigerians are not prepared to go on strike and do not support the Labour Unions. This nonchalant attitude of Nigerians is most likely because, from a history of past Labour strikes, there is no yield of any positive result. Most Nigerians seem to have lost faith in both Labour and in the Federal Government, though some are still watching the union and government to see where the issue of the removal of subsidy and possible reactions with respect to it will lead to.