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.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS