By REUTERS
PUBLISHED: 10:42 GMT, 18 May 2016 | UPDATED: 10:42 GMT, 18
May 2016
By Livinus Chime and Olivia Eze
 |
| NLC President Aliyu Wabba |
ABUJA/LAGOS, May 18 (Reuters) - A Nigerian union defied a
court ban to launch a general strike on Wednesday in protest at a planned hefty
increase in fuel prices, though many businesses and government offices opened
as normal.
The government hopes lifting costly fuel subsidies, causing
prices to rise by up to two thirds at the pumps, will help alleviate the worst
crisis in decades in Africa's biggest economy.
A wave of strikes ensued the last time Nigeria tried to
introduce a similar measure in 2012, and authorities eventually reinstated some
subsidies.
This time around the Nigerian Industrial Court blocked
industrial action due to the risk of civil disorder, but late on Tuesday the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said it would go ahead with its planned indefinite
strike anyway, starting on Wednesday.
"The government was not ready to accede to our demands,
so we walked out of the meeting," Chris Uyot, deputy general secretary of
the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), told Reuters.
A second union, the Trade Union Congress (TUC), abandoned
its strike plans in response to the court ruling.
Reuters witnessed government offices, shops and banks in the
capital Abuja mostly opening as normal on Wednesday.
Some 300 union activists gathered there to stage a march,
and some 200 protested in the commercial capital Lagos, where some banks and
many shops were also doing business.
'LEFT WITH NO CHOICE'
A fall in oil prices has eaten into the foreign reserves of
Nigeria, which relies on crude sales for around 70 percent of national income.
The central bank has adopted a fixed exchange rate to protect further depletion
of reserves.
On Tuesday, vice president Yemi Osinbajo said President
Muhammadu Buhari had been "left with no choice" but to raise petrol
prices.
"What can we do if we don't have foreign currency? We
have to import fuel," Osinbajo said.
Nigeria needs to import almost all of its fuel as its
refineries are largely out of action after years of neglect and mismanagement.
There were some flight delays on Wednesday as airlines
struggled to get jet fuel, but airports in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt in
the oil-producing Niger Delta were operational.
(Writing by BE INFORMED CREW
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