Nigeria’s government has warned an ongoing, paralyzing national strike risks “anarchy” in the oil-rich nation, as demonstrations over spiraling fuel prices and government corruption entered their third day yesterday.
Nigerian Attorney General Mohammed Bello Adoke’s comments come as at least nine people have been killed in violence during strikes over the government removing subsidies keeping gasoline prices low in Africa’s most populous nation.
In a statement, Adoke described the strike by major labor unions as illegal. An industrial court earlier issued an order barring the groups from striking.
Photo: Reuters
Adoke warned public workers that the government would implement a “no work, no pay” policy for those who join the strike. However, public workers sometimes go weeks without pay in Nigeria, where corruption and mismanagement has plagued the government for decades.
“Continuing disregard of that order is [vital] to the public interest as it constitutes an open invitation to anarchy,” Adoke said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.
The nationwide strike, which began on Monday, came after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan removed subsidies on Jan. 1 that had kept gasoline prices low. Overnight, prices at the pump more than doubled, from US$0.45 per liter to at least US$0.94 per liter. The costs of food and transportation also doubled in a nation where most live on less than US$2 a day.
Jonathan insists the move was necessary to save the country an estimated US$8 billion a year, which he promises will go toward badly needed road and public projects. However, protesters — who joined the strike under the slogan “Occupy Nigeria” — say the time has come to end government corruption in a nation where military rulers and politicians have stolen billions.
The strike has closed Lagos’ busy Apapa Port, cutting off cargo shipments. Businesses remain shuttered, while air carriers canceled more international flights. Organizers say the strike will continue until the government restores the subsidies.
Meanwhile, gunmen from the radical Islamist group known as Boko Haram opened fire on Tuesday night at a beer parlor in northeast Nigeria, killing eight people, including four police officers as part of their ongoing sectarian battle against the government, authorities said.
The shootings come as the sect has promised to target Christians in Nigeria’s Muslim north, expanding its campaign of assassinations and bombings. The sect is blamed by the government for killing at least 63 people in less than week, according to an Associated Press count, as it continues its campaign to impose strict Shariah law across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.
Tuesday night’s attack occurred in the town of Potiskum in Yobe State. Local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said the six gunmen began shooting as patrons drank beer, which the local Shariah law technically opposes, though bars remain open for those living there.
“We didn’t confront the gunmen at the beer parlor,” Lawan said. “Any police that goes there went on his own.”
Nigeria’s central government has been slow to respond to the sect. On Dec. 31, President Goodluck Jonathan declared regions of Borno, Niger, Plateau and Yobe states to be under a state of emergency, meaning authorities can make arrests without proof and conduct searches without warrants.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese