Charlie Onyeagba, chairman of the Anambra branch of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), said the workers would not go back to work until their demands were met. Railway workers have also been on strike and hundreds of retired soldiers have organized protests demanding the government pay their pensions.

The labor actions took place during the first African tour of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) new managing director Horst Köhler, who arrived in Nigeria July 3. Three days later, Nigerian cops assaulted strikers who had gathered outside the main town hall in Lagos. One worker was killed when a tear gas canister fired by police exploded next to him, as the cops tried to break up the gathering.

The IMF has demanded the Nigerian regime impose "economic reforms," which include eliminating subsidies on fuel prices and deregulating the fuel industry as a condition for granting a $1 billion loan. The country is already crippled by a $31 billion foreign debt, the bulk of it owed to imperialist banks and investors.

Despite being a nation rich in oil gas, coal, and iron, one-third of the population lives below the official poverty line and 28 percent of the workforce is jobless. After decades of imperialist plunder of the country's resources, many of Nigeria's 113 million people lack basic services like water and electricity.

"I wonder when our leaders will start taking into consideration the welfare of the people of this country rather than satisfying the doubtful advice of the global financial institutions," said James Osuwa, a resident of Lagos, responding to a survey conducted by BBC News on the recent nationwide strike against a government-ordered fuel price increase. Attempts to raise gas prices have provoked angry protests in the streets. Last June the NLC launched a five-day strike in response to a 50 percent fuel price hike ordered by the regime of Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.

The strike paralyzed public transportation, shut the airports in Lagos, and closed down schools, hospitals, shops, and banks in major cities across the country. The main oil workers union also joined the strike, which reflected a measure of growing union power one year after the end of military rule. The regime eventually backpedaled and reduced the price increase to 10 percent.

"The president was forced into a humiliating climbdown that has strengthened the unions and cast doubt on his government's ability to drive through economic reforms," London's Financial Times reported July 5.  
 
 
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