Strike: Nigerians count losses ...MAN puts figure at $840m � NLC suspends protest for two weeks
Our Correspondents
Thursday was a day for stocktaking as the Nigeria Labour Congress suspended its four-day nationwide strike over the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products.
Apart from about $840 million, which the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria claimed that the Federal Government lost to the strike, reports from Ibadan, Oyo State, indicated that 10 patients at the University College Hospital died during the period of the strike.
A 12-year-old boy, Sani Hamisu, was said to have been shot dead by a policeman in Kaduna on Monday, while a protester described as a �tout� was killed in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
And just as MAN reviewed the impact of the strike, policemen in Ibadan swooped on demonstrating University of Ibadan students and arrested 10 of them.
The police impounded a vehicle belonging to the Students� Union of the University.
At a different occasion in Abuja on Thursday, the NLC President, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, had, after a meeting of the independent committee to cushion the effects of the fuel price hike, announced the suspension of the strike.
�We have resolved now to suspend the strike for two weeks,� Oshiomhole told journalists.
�We are hoping that within the two weeks, the immediate issue of price reversal would have been resolved, otherwise our coalition will meet to fix a date to resume the strike.
�We would also decide on the duration of that second phase. It is not that we want to threaten anybody; it�s just that we cannot in the light of our previous experience whenever a strike is suspended, the government will refuse to have a dialogue.
�The strike took place because of the unwillingness of the government to enter into dialogue. We are convinced that to merely reverse the prices and allow deregulation as presently conceived and structured, would be to continue with the vicious cycle.
�The committee has, therefore, agreed that it must find a holistic resolution that will, among other things, guarantee price stability in future,� he added.
The Chairman of the Independent Committee, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, who also spoke after the panel�s meeting, said that members agreed to take the NLC�s demands into consideration, although no decision had yet been made.
Mantu said, �The committee resolved to discuss all issues including the current and future prices of petroleum products and a mechanism for achieving stability in prices.
�It requested organised labour, civil society organisations and other interest groups to suspend the strike and called on workers to return to work while the committee gets down to its assignment.�
MAN President, Mr. Charles Ugwu, in a telephone interview with our correspondents in Lagos, said that the organised private sector had suffered huge financial losses as a result of the strike.
Ugwu said that the projected revenue accruable to the federation account over a period of 262 working days was $55 billion.
�If you divide the projected revenue of $55billion for 2004 with 262 days, you will find out that about $210million was lost per day. This means that about $840 million had been lost in the last four days,� he said.
The MAN boss added that the strike also impacted negatively on the business community and the citizenry.
He said that the shipping sector was another area where the economy also suffered a major setback.
Ugwu said that importers of finished goods, raw materials and machinery might be compelled to pay additional charges at the ports as rent and demurrage.
The strike, according to him, also created a breach of contractual agreements, which had induced uncertainty in the economy.
�There was also losses worth millions of naira arising from the postponement of business appointments,� he said.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange, however, had a slightly different view of the strike.
While it agreed that the economy might have lost billions of naira to the strike, it nevertheless, said that the operations of the stock market were not significantly affected.
According to the Corporate Affairs Manager, Mr. Sola Oni, �The stock market being a part of a global organ is not, and cannot be affected by the strike called by the NLC.�
In this regard, he said, the Exchange had been carrying on its normal trading activities, undisrupted.
Although he agreed that the market witnessed a sharp reduction in activities on the first day of the strike, Oni explained that this could have been as a result of the disruptions caused to human and vehicular movements.
The downstream oil sector was believed to have suffered the greatest impact of the strike with most of the filling-stations in the country closed during the strike.
The Assistant Director, Public Affairs, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Belema Osibodu, told our correspondents in a telephone interview, that the sector was practically paralysed as �tanker drivers did not operate during the strike.�
Sources estimated that the aviation industry might have lost up to N1billion to the strike. The Media Coordinator of Chanchangi, Alhaji Muhammed Tukur, said that the airline cut its flights from 22 to five daily. The Media Consultant to Aerocontractors, Mr. Deba Uwadia, said the airline did not operate any flights for the first three days.
In the insurance industry, operators said the strike would cost them their projected targets in the year, especially as it occurred during the last quarter of the year, when efforts were being geared to meet projections.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive of Niger Insurance Plc, Alhaji Bala Zakariya�u, described the impact as �very bad.�
Fast food operators, under the aegis of the Association of Fast Food Operators and Confectioners of Nigeria, put the loss in the industry at about N14.48 billion.
The Corporate Affairs Manager of Taste Fried Chicken, Mr. Rasheed Bolarinwa, said the daily average turnover of each of the 62 operators, in the industry could be put at about N600,000.
He added that the strike also affected operators in the allied industries that support the fast food industry.
Artisans and petty traders also counted their losses from the strike.
A cross section of those who spoke with our correspondents in Lagos agreed that the strike left them poorer but differed on the monetary value of their losses.
In Ibadan our correspondents gathered that the remains of the 10 patients that died at UCH were taken by their relatives because there was no more room at the hospital�s mortuary.
When contacted, the hospital�s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Akin Atinwore, could not confirm the number of deaths during the strike.
He, however, told our correspondents that the strike had adverse effect on the hospital.
The hospital�s Medical Director in a statement signed by Mrs. O.M. Adepoju, said that the number of abandoned corpses had overwhelmed the mortuary.
Early on Thursday, the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, Mr. Moses Anegbode, confirmed the arrest of 10 UI students.
Anegbode, in a telephone interview with our correspondents, said that the students were arrested when they clashed with policemen at Oke Padre and Galaxy Television station.
Students numbering over 300 had, after writing their examinations, took to the streets in support of the NLC strike.
The leader of the students, Mr. Dennis Jamiu, claimed that some policemen led by the Divisional Police Officer, Sango Police Station, prevented them from going out of the campus, but they managed to �sneak out.�
He said that the policemen trailed them to Iwo Road where, according to him, there was a mild clash between them and the policemen.
