Nigeria: A general strike against rising fuel prices

In Nigeria, this Wednesday was announced a general strike against the increase in the price of gasoline. After two days of discussions with the government, and despite the ban, a trade union has maintained its call for strike action. A movement following the government's announcement, last Wednesday, put an end to subsidies of gasoline. While Nigeria is the leading producer of black gold in the continent, it imports most of its fuel consumption. Today a litre of petrol costs 145 naira, or 64 cents. The unions claim that the price of gasoline at the pump is almost divided by two.

It is necessary that the situation is getting worse to get better. It is in a nutshell, the party that took the government of Nigeria. Until last Wednesday, he subsidized gasoline. That is to say that it maintained a price at the pump low enough and paid the difference to the importers. But they had the unfortunate tendency not to distribute the gas as they had not reached their subsidies, leading to shortages.

By deregulating the sector, the nigerian government hopes, therefore, two things : first, reduce its expenses while the price of oil, the main source of income in the country, have collapsed, and with them the value of the local currency. Then, put an end to the shortages of fuels, which weigh heavily on the country's economy, since importers can now obtain supplies in their own way.

But still it is necessary that they have sufficient funds to purchase the refined oil. Most are struggling to find foreign exchange in the legal market. A dollar is worth today approximately 199 naira on the black market, it can go up to 350.