PROTEST OVER HIGH FOOD COSTS AND INFLATION SPREAD THROUGHOUT NIGERIA

Wed 27 February 2024:

On Tuesday, thousands of Nigerian workers, traders, rights activists, and students protested the high prices of food, medicine, cooking gas, and other necessities by marching through the streets of the country’s largest cities.

The Nigeria Workers’ Union called for two days of statewide protests to begin on February 27 in order to pressure the government to alleviate the financial strain brought on by the elimination of the gasoline subsidy.

The Nigeria Labour Congress president, Joe Ajaero, stated that although the government made an effort to put an end to the statewide rallies, the union continued.

Speaking with journalists at the protest venue in the capital Abuja, he said the government is not showing commitment to easing the economic hardship facing the citizens.

Prices of foods, transport, medicine, cooking gas, and other commodities skyrocketed since June last year after President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of subsidies on oil.

Inflation in the country rose to about 30% in January, the highest in 25 years, according to the monthly report by the Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics.

In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub and Africa’s largest city, protests were held at open spaces after the police sealed off the Labor Office and Abuja as well.

Dozens of anti-riot policemen also prevented protesters from marching on the streets in northeast Borno State.

“The police commissioner said they have a mandate to seal off our secretariat,” Yusuf Inuwa, head of the labor union in Borno, told media.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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