Abuja, Nigeria - The Nigerian government has no plans to revert to old fuel prices despite the protests which have greeted the removal of fuel subsidy and the threat of a showdown by the country's workers' unions next week, government officials said. The decision-making Federal Executive Council (FEC) rose from its meeting in the capital city of Abuja on Wednesday with a decision to roll out immediate palliative measures to cushion the effect of the high prices occasioned by the subsidy removal.

Such measures include the planned procurement of 1,600 mass transit buses, early payment of January salaries to public-sector workers and the filling of vacancies in government ministries and agencies.

On New Year's day, the government announced it was withdrawing fuel subsidy, an action that raised petrol prices from 65 naira (0.4 cents) per litre to a range of 141-200 naira (US$0.90-1.3) and immediately impacted on the cost of goods and services.

The government's action was met with protests across the country, including in the central city of Ilorin where one person died on Tuesday.

Following up on the protests, the umbrella Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday decreed a nation-wide strike, with effect from Monday, aimed at forcing the governing to rescind its decision.

The strike, the unions said, will shut down the country's oil production and close air and sea ports, banks, markets and schools.

However, indications are that the government is not yet ready to bulge.

“Previous governments have postponed deregulation. The intended benefits did not come through because for as long as government continues to monopolise the sector, no private sector will come in and invest in it.

“Having taken this plunge, to go back will be to cripple the economy. That is why we are calling on our citizens to bear with us. In no time, the prices will come down unlike in the past where marketers used to hoard fuel because government was subsidising,' Information Minister Labaran Maku told journalists after the FEC meeting.

Meanwhile, the fuel price protests spread to the northern city of Kano on Wednesday, with thousands of residents converging on the Jubilee Square in the Central Metropolitan area.

“We will be here. We have had enough of difficult times, now we want our freedom and it seems we have to call on our compatriots to support our cause and volunteer to provide food to us,” the private Daily Trust newspaper quoted one of the protesters, Abdul-Aziz Muhammad, as saying.

“What we are demanding from the Federal Government is a total reversal of the policy on the fuel subsidy withdrawal. There is no employment for the youths. Most of us are educated but we don’t have jobs, and now the federal government has withdrawn subsidy on fuel,” he added.

But the paper said the police later prevented the protesters from occupying the square.

Pana 05/01/2012