Two of Nigeria’s largest trade unions called an indefinite strike starting on Monday, with the walkout already crippling the national electricity grid and air travel.
Talks with the government on a new minimum wage, meant to cushion the impact of inflation of more than 30%, recently broke down.
The ongoing protest is the fourth large strike staged by the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) since President Bola Tinubu took office last year and launched a far-reaching set of economic reforms.
Electricity and aviation unions had directed their workers to withdraw their services and comply with the strike call, union representatives said in a statement on Monday.
The national electricity provider, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, said that union members drove away operators at the country’s power control rooms and shut down at least six substations overnight.
This led to a shutdown of the national grid as of 2:19 a.m. local time (0019 GMT/UTC), it said.
Nigerian airline Ibom Air said it was suspending flights until further notice, while another, United Nigeria, said airports across the country had been shut down and that striking workers were preventing it from operating.
Source DW News
