"At least removing the fuel subsidies should help calm things down a bit....."
Ah 212 man, how right you are
By Chijioke Ohuocha
LAGOS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Protesters shut petrol stations, formed human barriers along motorways and hijacked buses in Nigeria's biggest city Lagos on Tuesday in anger at the shock doubling of fuel prices, and one demonstrator was reported shot dead in the country's west.
The fuel regulator announced the end of fuel subsidies on Sunday under sweeping economic reforms meant to improve fiscal discipline in Africa's biggest oil-producing state, but a hugely unpopular act that could cause social unrest in the short term.
More than 1,000 people in the main market area of central Lagos sang, chanted and waved placards reading "no to fuel price hikes" and "we demand living wages".
Protests also occurred in other parts of Nigeria, including Kano in the north, the Niger Delta in the southeast and in Ilorin, Kwara State, in the west, where the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said one man was shot to death.
"The victim was shot dead around the Post Office... The perpetrators of this crime were armed policemen," a statement said. "We hold the Jonathan administration liable for murder."
Police spokesman Yemi Ajayi said he had received no report of a protester being shot.
In Lagos, a group of demonstrators set up a roadblock of burning tyres on a major highway. Police in riot gear kept watch but the protest was largely peaceful apart from a brief scuffle between a protestor and a soldier, a Reuters witness said.
Protesters in President Goodluck Jonathan's Niger Delta home region in the southeast, including former militants who wreaked havoc until a series of peace deals ending in 2010, blocked the Warri-Port Harcourt highway, until three vanloads of soldiers turned up to chase them away.
In the city of Kano, in the far north, police arrested nine demonstrators but later released them, local police spokesman Magaji Majiaya said by telephone.
STRIKES, PROTESTS
Economists say the subsidy filled the fuel tanks of middle-class motorists at the expense of the poor, encouraged massive corruption and waste, and handed over billions of dollars of government cash to a cartel of wealthy fuel importers.
Removing it pushed pump prices to 150 naira ($0.92) per litre from 65 naira overnight.
The subsidy removal is part of an effort to cut Nigeria's exorbitant cost of government, a flagship policy of Jonathan and his economic management team, alongside fixing the broken power sector and reducing waiting times for goods at ports.
Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealahas said scrapping the subsidy would save more than 1 trillion naira ($6.16 billion) in 2012. Central Bank governor Lamido Sanusi supports the move.
But with the majority of Nigerians living on less than $2 per day, slashing subsidies is politically explosive.
"The prices of everything will increase - transport, housing, school fees, food, etc. The common man will not be able to survive," said Ganiat Fawehinmi, widow of a human rights lawyer.
The Trades Union Congress and NLC called on Sunday for mass action to repeat strikes and street protests that thwarted previous attempts to do away with subsidies.
"Jonathan has shown that he can't be trusted," Issa Aremu, NLC vice president, told demonstrators. "He said he was engaging in dialogue and all of a sudden he ... increased the price."
Jonathan released a statement saying he had appointed a committee to ensure the money saved in subsidies was well spent.
Many Nigerians fear any savings made from the subsidy removal will be consumed by corrupt politicians.
The committee would produce monthly savings estimates and make sure the funds are transferred to a special account in the central bank which would finance programmes to alleviate poverty, Jonathan's statement said.
Lawmakers have been divided on the subsidy removal, leaving the future of the measure potentially in doubt.
If they decide to block it, they can add a subsidy to the 2012 budget which they have still to vote on. But they would need to find a way to pay for it, probably by cutting spending elsewhere. ($1 = 162.3000 naira) (Additional reporting by Mike Oboh in Kano, Tim Cocks and Camillus Eboh in Abuja, and Owen Segun in Yenagoa; Writing by Tim
There are quite a few photographs on the Sahara Reporters Photonews
Occupy Nigeria Fuel Protests
To many Europeans, the price per litre of petrol in Nigeria may seem very low compared with what they pay, but for the average Nigerian worker still living on less than $2 per day, the downstream effect of the subsidy removal is going to be enormous. It certainly doesn't help that in the way of politicians everywhere having their snouts in the trough and looking after themselves, the 2012 budget makes more than adequate provision to help ease the terrible financial burden of being a politician in Nigeria
.
Amongst some of the examples of how senior politicians are looking after them selves
$1.75 million for new bulletproof limousines for the President Jonathan and Vice President Sambo (they'll probably need them with the growing fuel subsidy removal protests and increasing violence of Boko Haram).
$2.3 million for replacement of 'aged' vehicles in the presidential fleet - that will cause much pleasure to the average Nigerian queueing to catch a cr*ppy old Tokunbo bus whose fare has just doubled
$800,000 for refurbishing the presidential power house generators - no putting up with the many (and long) power cuts that the majority of poor Nigerians have to endure
The President will be spending $6.25 on food in 2012. Nutrients are essential and for the low, low price of a billion naira, the President and his Vice can get all their proteins and vitamins on a polished silver platter.
N477million is set aside for grocery shopping and “catering materials supplies” for the president’s office.
The poor masses of oil-rich Nigeria will also spend an additional $1.8 million to provide “refreshment and meals” for the president’s comfort at his home and office, and yes, that is different from the grocery shopping mentioned above.
$285,000 will be needed to buy canteen and “kitchen equipment” for the president’s household; they bought some of the same stuff from the 2011 budget, but that doubtless needs replacing now.
The money budgeted for presidential feeding would pay the average wages of 1,200 Nigerians for a year.