Nigerian Labor Federation Calls Strike in Support of Democracy

The military government faced more pressure Saturday after the country’s biggest labor federation called a general strike to back a pro-democracy campaign.

Workers in the oil industry, Nigeria’s economic lifeblood, launched the campaign four weeks ago with a crippling strike to demand the release of detained politician Moshood K. O. Abiola and a return to democratic rule.

A general strike called by the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) to begin Wednesday could bring Nigeria to a halt if it receives significant backing from the 3.5 million members of its 41 affiliate unions.

The NLC said Friday night that its efforts to persuade the military government to free Abiola and other political detainees had failed.

“Consequently, in view of our conviction that an industrial action has become inevitable, Congress calls on all its affiliates, state councils of congress and Nigerian workers to, as from Wednesday, August 3, 1994, embark on a sit-at-home protest action and await further directives,” it said in a communique.

The strike by the oil workers’ unions to try to force the release of Abiola, undeclared winner of army-organized presidential elections in 1993, has disrupted domestic fuel supplies, transportation and normal business.

It has also begun to threaten vital exports.

Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria said last week that it was losing 38% of normal production.

Shell produces roughly half of Nigeria’s 2 million barrels a day of oil, 1.6 million of which is exported to provide Nigeria with its main source of income.

Nigeria’s worst crisis for decades deepened after Abiola, a wealthy southern businessman, was arrested last month and charged with treason for declaring himself president.

There is rising concern that the crisis could degenerate into ethnic chaos as southern resentment grows at what political leaders there see as the determination of the northern ruling elite to retain power.

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