Yemisi Izuora with additional report
Nigerian unions has ended a day-old strike against the revamp of the beleaguered NNPC after the minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu promised there would be no job cuts.
The strike, launched on Wednesday, came amid spiralling oil prices due to a domestic shortage and was called by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers.
This is coming as Eko Distribution Company lamented the sharp drop in electricity supply.
The company’s spokesman Godwin Idemudia in a short statement informed customers that Power generation has gone down due to the strike action by NNPC staff resulting in massive load shedding across our entire network.
“Presently, Ajah-Lekki axis, Ikoyi, VI, Yaba, Apapa, Surulere, Mushin, up to Festac, Agbara and Badagry are affected.
We are very sorry for the inconveniences” Idemudia said.
The unions said they had not been informed of the plan to streamline the inefficient and corrupt Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation but called it off after Kachikwu said that the restructuring would not entail any lay-offs.
The strike worsened a fuel shortage in Africa’s biggest oil producing country, where long queues of cars in the roads waiting for gas at petrol stations has caused the commercial hub of Lagos to gridlock for over a week.
“The strike was called off around 5:00am this morning (Thursday) at the end of an all-night meeting with union officials,” Ohi Alegbe, a spokesman for the NNPC, said.
“The minister clarified the government’s position on the ongoing reorganisation in NNPC. At the end of the day, the unions were satisfied,” he said.
Alegbe said normal operations had resumed “fully at the various petrol depots and the current long queues will soon disappear.”
But a senior official from the NUPENG union, Tokunbo Korodo, told AFP that the petrol shortages would continue as a shortage of foreign exchange in Nigeria was exacerbating the problem.
“There had been fuel scarcity before the strike … It is important for the government to address the exchange rate problem,” Korodo said.
Nigeria’s naira currency is trading at more than 300 to the dollar in the black market, far above the official rate of 197-199.
Despite being Africa’s biggest crude producer, Nigeria has to import petroleum products because of a lack of capacity at its four functioning domestic refineries.
The government keeps prices at the pump low and pays the difference to fuel importers, who frequently hold the country ransom by refusing to distribute fuel over tardy subsidy payments.
The oil sector accounts for 70 percent of government revenue but has been hit by the global fall in crude prices since mid-2014, weakening the naira currency and forcing up the cost of living.