THE stage seemed set for today’s petrol prices strike as some protesters were seen in Abuja with blankets ready to camp out.
A senators’ last-minute effort to stave off the strike failed. Labour mapped out details of its action and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) called on lawyers to join the strike.
Besides, the House of Representatives advised the Executive to roll back the prices. But the Presidency described the resolution as inciting.
Petrol now costs between N138 and N200 per litre, up from N65 before the New Year’s Eve’s sudden withdrawal of subsidy.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Acting Secretary General Owei Lakemfa issued a directive on the protest in Abuja.
He said: “The NLC and TUC have directed that Abuja residents converge on Berger Roundabout daily by 8.00am from Monday January 9. Please pass on information to others by means.”
Some would-be protesters arrived at the Eagle Square yesterday, carrying mattresses, blankets and tents – ready for the action.
The Lagos State council of the congress will begin its protest from the Labour House in Tejuosho.
NLC Deputy President Promise Adewusi said he was not aware of any official invitation to a meeting with senators.
Said Adewusi: “I am not aware of any formal invitation by the National Assembly. So, I will not attend a meeting without an invitation as that will be tantamount to gate crashing. We are not likely to go for any negotiation now without PMS pump price being firstly reverted to N65 per litre as that will amount to negotiating under duress. Nigerians have been fully mobilised by hunger, poverty, anger and angst and are primed for the start of the strike tomorrow. Like our President ordered, ‘no retreat, no surrender’.
NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) leaders shunned the Senate’s invitation for a meeting over the planned strike.
The Senator Wilson Ake-led Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity scheduled the meeting for 3p.m. yesterday. It was not to be.
A source said: “Members of the committee were actually at the Senate, expecting the labour leaders who did not turn up. After some time, the senators went to the Labour House to meet with the leaders but they were not there. Efforts to reach them on phone did not yield positive results as the phones were switched off.”
The Nation learnt that most of the labour leaders were in Lagos to perfect plans for today’s action when members of the Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity were waiting for them in Abuja.
Labour leaders could not also be reached for comments.
Senator Ake had in a statement expressed worry over the consequences of a nationwide industrial action proposed by labour, civil society organisations and professionals against the federal government’s removal of fuel subsidy.
He called for restraint, warning that an industrial action could be catastrophic.
Ake dismissed the notion that the government was deliberately punishing Nigerians, saying all parties should cooperate in the collective interest of the nation.”
The nationwide indefinite strike begins today.
In Lagos, officials of Labour and Civil Societies Coalition (LASCO) met to put finishing touches to their plan for the strike.
NLC Deputy President, Joe Ajaero said after the meeting that nothing has happened to change Labour’s position. The strike and protests will begin today, he stressed.
His words: “Nothing has happened to change our position, not even the House of Representatives session. The President’s speech was also empty; it did not address the issue. We are not intimidated. It is a challenge to the Nigerian people, not only Labour. Therefore, the strike begins tomorrow (today) as scheduled. If Government is ready to listen to the people, the president should invite us. We will meet with him.”
LASCO Secretary Abiodun Aremu named the co-ordinating centres for the peaceful street protests to include NLC Lagos Secretariat, Yaba, TUC Secretariat, Ikorodu Road, Textile Union House, Acme Road, Lagos State University, Ojo, and Agric Union House, Alaguntan, Iyana Ipaja.NLC is the central coordinating centre.
Protesters will converge on NLC office and set out from there for the street rally at 8am.
Read more from The Nation
For readers in Nigeria, how do you plan to 'survive' during this strike? The Power Holding Company has been on life supply due to 'epilepsy' since I was brought to Nigeria in the 80s. So yo can be rest assured that you shall not be enjoying your DSTV and DVDs without blowing off steam as your diesel/petrol back up goes down. Thank God for Indomie Noodles and egg...the SUBSIDY MEAL after 'cassava-garium and peanuts'...LOL. Anyways, we journalists don't strike so I am on my way to work.
(Photo Credit: vantagereportage.com)It appears Vladamir Duthiers is now assigned to cover Nigeria and the West Africa region for CNN. He has been seen/heard on-air, reporting from Nigeria. If that's the case, he takes over from Christian Purefoy who did a fabulous job while on the beat for seven years. Here's Purefoy's tweet, confirming his exit.
Before joining CNN, Duthiers spent 20 years in the investment management industry at AllianceBernstein Investments – a $400 billion asset management company. As managing director, Duthiers managed a $10 million budget and a global staff of 12. He traveled through 40 countries, meeting interesting people in interesting places: from the ruler of the United Arab Emirates to Kannushi Shinto priests in Kyoto and the Bouquinistes of Paris. Seeing the stories behind the places and people of his journeys sparked his decision to leave the world of finance for journalism.
For many, such an abrupt transformation seemed spontaneous at best and reckless at worst. But, ever since reading Thoreau’s Walden as a child, he had always been inspired by the words, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”Now, his passion is to find a unique vantage point to those stories and tell them well to a global audience.
Duthiers earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rhode Island and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also served in the U.S. Army with the Reserve Officer Training Corps. while attached to the 169th Military Police Company of the Rhode Island National Guard from 1988 to 1992.
He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, South Asian Journalists Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. He speaks French, Haitian-Creole and is learning Mandarin Chinese. In his spare time, Duthiers is an amateur rock guitarist, pop-culture historian, and a student of several martial arts. He has written several screenplays and was the lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist in the Surrender Monkeys – a pub band that played to dozens of fans across Europe. (info culled from www.vantagereportage.com)
Welcome to Naija, Vlad!
More About Christian Purefoy
Purefoy was named to the position in early 2008 an was an integral part of CNN’s presence in Lagos, where he regularly reported stories of global relevance from within the region.
Purefoy served for three years as a producer, editor and cameraman on various assignments for CNN that included extensive work on Inside Africa, CNN’s weekly current affairs program that provides global viewers with an inside look at political, economic, social and cultural affairs and trends in Africa.
Before joining CNN full time, Purefoy was based in Lagos, Nigeria and worked as a freelance journalist writing for a variety of UK and US newspapers and publications including The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Newsweek.
He first joined up with CNN International in June 2002 as a producer at ‘Vivid Features’, an Africa-based production company, where he helped produce a number of CNN-commissioned projects. Purefoy is British and studied International Politics and International History at Keele University.
Goodluck Chris and Congrats on holding down the beat!
This weekend, the African National Congress celebrates its 100th year. The party, which currently holds power in South Africa was founded on January 8th 1912 n Bloemfontein. First called the South African Native National Congress, the party was formed in response to injustice meted out to black South Africans by the minority white/Afrikaan population who were in power.
Soldiers in the Joint military Security outfit, OP-MESSA shot dead Niyi Ehindero and injured three others in Mushin, Thursday. According to reports, Niyi is the nephew of former Inspector General of Police, Sunday Ehindero.
The incident took place at Bada Street, Idi-Oro, Mushin, Lagos, South West Nigeria around 4.30 pm when Ehindero came to the area to spend the holiday with his friend.
Eye witnesses said the deceased was inside a Highlander SUV, with registration number FF 605 ARD when he was gunned down by the team leader of the OP-MESSA, a 2nd lieutenant soldier.
The OP-MESSA officers came to the area in a vehicle marked 030 and were alleged to have immediately accosted the deceased and shot him dead without a brawl.
Ehindero, 37, who lived at 5, Ogungbade Street, Mende, Maryland was said to be a businessman who distributed in diesel and had been married for five years without a child.
A police source from the Alakara Police Station confirmed that the soldiers shot dead Ehindero and that the culprits escaped before arrest, saying that the deceased was in his SUV with his friend when the OP-MESSA officers stormed the area.
It was gathered that Ehindero’s friend ran into the house when he saw the OP-MESSA officers while the deceased waited.
An eye witness said the team leader of the OP-MESSA ordered Ehindero to get out of his SUV but opened fire on him almost immediately and he died on the spot.
According to This Day, the Nigerian Army has instituted a board on inquiry into the killing.
Hmmmmhh!!! These trigger happy men-in-uniform have done it again. Does anyone remind them that that thing they are holding in their hand is not WATER GUN!! What ever happened to a simple 'stop-and-search' or 'show-me-your-particulars/id". These men really need to be trained on how to handle unarmed and non-threatening members of the public. It is not the same as when you are dealing with armed criminals.
I read stories like this a lot and hardly is there ever an outcome that gives justice to the victim. As these mumu men-in-uniform have basically killed 'OGA PIKIN', I hope this will be the case that will help bring an end to these extra judicial killings and uniform brutality that we have come to live with and bring justice to those who have been victims. Then and only then can we say that this young man has not died in vein. As a saying goes in Igbo, "Eburu apati ozu onye ozo n'agafe, odi k'ebu osisi/ukwu nku, tupu osi n'ulo mmadu aputa' (translation: When a coffin is carried past in a funeral procession, it appears to be a mere log of wood/bundle of firewood, until the day the coffin is carried out of ones house). May the soul of the departed and those before Rest in Peace!
Over to you Nigeria Police and Nigeria Army!
An industrial court in Nigeria, Friday, gave authorities legal backing to break up any work interruption by labor groups. It ordered unions to halt a planned nationwide strike over spiraling gasoline prices due to the New Year's Day removal of subsidy. That action has seen the doubling of the cost of goods and services, including transportation, leaving many stranded and cash strapped in the countryside, where they went to celebrate the holiday.
The order by the National Industrial Court came as protests continue in several Nigerian cities over the removal of government-sponsored fuel subsidies. The nation’s House of Representatives will also meet on Sunday to address the concerns of the people despite the apparent unwillingness of Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan to balk to the pressure.
Gas prices rose from $1.70 per gallon (45 cents/ 65 Naira per liter) to at least $3.50 per gallon (94 cents/ 141 Naira per liter) since the subsidy ended Sunday. Keep in mind that Nigeria, is a nation of more than 160 million people where most live on less than $2 a day, as many international press and agencies never fail to add in every article and report.
The court order by Justice Babatunde Adejuwon came after the federal government filed as suit to stop the Nigeria Labor Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria from holding a planned strike Monday. Only government lawyers attended the hastily called court hearing in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
“Economic activities within the country will be adversely affected, as will the health and safety of the citizenry, if the impending strike is allowed to hold,” Adejuwon wrote in his order.
The Nigeria Labor Congress issued a statement after the ruling dismissing the order. “There is no going back on next week’s protests and shutdown,” it said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria's federal police promised Friday to protect peaceful protesters ahead of a planned national strike but much could not be said of that promise when only a short distance away from police headquarters in the nation's capital Abuja a heavy presence of police, soldiers and other security agents — some carrying gas masks — blocked protesters from demonstrating in the national parade ground near federal offices.
Read more from the Associated Press in The Washington Post
(credit: AFP)
Forget the motor bikes, this ram comes in handy. This will get you to your destination before the Lagos government notice and start imposing fee on the use of rams. 
Exchanging brazillian/ Aunty Funmi hair extensions is also an option if you are looking for ways to internally generate revenue
A parody in the making, and the singer W4, didn't see this one coming. If you know him, kindly tell him to remix one for the masses.
Petrol is now highly expensive and thus can be stolen by family members, more so than domestic staff. One has to shine their eye and prevent the unforseen.
This one is one of those pictures where you would rather a belt to flog the person in the picture. A bottle of Hennessy is not equivalent to one liter of petrol (I would usually end at this point with an insult, but in the spirit of christmas i shall blame this one on the government)
If the rams can't hold up, import a camel.
(Photo Credit: www.world-gazetteer.com)
But further up, towards the coastal line, where the Reuters crew visited, the villagers there are feeling the effects of an oil spill. I say an oil spill because according to the report, Shell says it's not their oil.
While villagers and environmentalists are saying the oil washing up the coast is from the Bonga accident, Shell says five ships were used to disperse and contain the spill and that should keep any oil from washing up the coast. Therefore it can't be their oil.
So who's the naughty oil spiller and sneaky environmental polluter keeping quiet and letting Shell take all the heat and how bad does it have to get before Nigerians get mad and scream bloody murder like the American did with the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico?
And as much as I hate to be the pessimist, should we just assume that Shell is going to get the kid-glove treatment on this one because the minister of petroleum is a former executive of the company? Hmmh....I just wonder. Too many questions arising as this saga unfolds.
Your thoughts...
Read more at Reuters and Sky Truth
Well HELLO Y'ALL!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I can't believe I'm actually posting on blogger after almost 3 years. I feel like a prodigal daughter who's returned to her humble beginning or a rebel soldier back from the battle field. It's clear evidence that Nigeria is kicking my butt. However, this young blood is kicking back too and mighty hard if I may add. I sure as heck ain't going down without a fight and some collateral damage. You feel me? 
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