ABUJA, 27 Feb: Nigeria\u2019s government and union workers began a new nationwide strike Tuesday that threatened to shut down key services while people are angry about soaring inflation and growing economic pain.
\nSince assuming office in Africa\u2019s most populous country last year, President Bola Tinubu has enacted policies that include doing away with fuel subsidies and unifying the country\u2019s multiple exchange rates, leading to a devaluation of the naira against the dollar.
\nGasoline prices have more than doubled and inflation has shot up as a result, reaching close to 30% last month, the highest in nearly three decades, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
\n\u201cWe are hungry. There is nobody that doesn\u2019t know this,\u201d said Joe Ajaero, president of the the Nigerian Labor Congress.
\nOthers said the protest was the only way to get the government\u2019s attention.
\n\u201cThings are getting out of hand,\u201d said Christian Omeje, a shop owner in the capital, Abuja. \u201cPrices keep soaring, the aid the govern-ment said it would dole out has not been provided.\u201d
\nThis is just the latest strike action. In October, government labor unions reached a deal with the government to end strikes in return for monthly stipends and subsidies to cushion the blow of the new policies. Still, the unrest continued.
\nUnions say the government has failed to deliver on promises that included a monthly wage increase of approximately $20 for all workers for six months and payments of approximately $15 for three months to millions of vulnerable households.
\nA pledge to roll out gas-powered buses for mass transit last year also failed to materialize.
\nMost services appeared to continue Tuesday with a reduced workforce. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABUJA, 27 Feb: Nigeria\u2019s government and union workers began a new nationwide strike Tuesday that threatened to shut down key services while people are angry about soaring inflation and growing economic pain. Since assuming office in Africa\u2019s most populous country last year, President Bola Tinubu has enacted policies that include doing away with fuel subsidies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-235724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}