Military

DATE=7/2/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=NIGERIA STRIKE (L-O)

NUMBER=2-304966

BYLINE=NICO COLOMBANT

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: Negotiations are under way in Nigeria to end a three-day strike over a massive fuel price increase. As V-O-A's Nico Colombant reports from our west Africa bureau in Abidjan, union leaders have also complained of police brutality against protesters.

TEXT: Talks have been taking place in the capital, Abuja, between union leaders, the government, and oil executives.

Union leaders say they want the government to reverse a more than 50-percent fuel price rise that took effect last month, after government slashed subsidies to Nigerians.

The secretary general of the Nigerian Labor Congress, John Odah, says union leaders are also holding talks with police to get them to curb what he views as excessive use of force during the protests.

/// ODAH ACT ///

We have reports coming in to indicate that police are becoming very violent and we are getting in touch with the hierarchy of the police establishment.

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Union officials say police shot and killed four protesters while dispersing a demonstration on Monday. A police spokesman said Tuesday that four people were killed, but he later denied there had been any fatalities in connection with the strike.

Police have been using mainly tear gas to disperse rowdy demonstrations in Abuja and Lagos. Union activists and several journalists have also complained of being beaten with whips and riffle butts.

The strike action has been most effective in Lagos and other major cities where many drivers have heeded the call to protest higher fuel prices.

World oil prices, which rose Monday, started falling back Tuesday after analysts noted the strike was not affecting production in Nigeria's southeast oil-producing region.

In a speech broadcast on television Tuesday, President Olusegun Obasanjo said it was time for Nigeria to make its oil sector more competitive and one way to do this is by ending the oil subsidies.

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Nigeria has lagged behind since 1960 because we do not have the courage to move as we should move and putting behind us the easy way out. Not fighting the issue of fuel subsidies is the easy way out and nobody succeeds by following the easy way out. We must struggle. We must make sacrifices.

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The government says the price rise is also needed to end internal shortages and curb smuggling of cheaper Nigerian oil to neighboring countries. The government also wants to spend savings on infrastructure and education.

Union leaders say ordinary Nigerians should not bear the brunt of reform. They say officials should crack down on corruption and fuel smuggling more effectively.

Since Nigeria became Africa's largest oil exporter, poverty has increased in the continent's most populous nation. (SIGNED)

NEB/NC/KL/RAE