Power blackouts, airports closed as unions strike brings Nigeria to halt

Africa's most populous country ground to a halt, with electricity cut and major airports closed, as Nigeria's largest labour unions began striking to demand a salary increase amid the worst cost of living crisis in decades.

President Bola Tinubu's economic reforms — including ending fuel subsidies — have resulted in surging inflation that is at a 28-year record high.

In this latest strike on Monday, the fourth since Tinubu came to power a year ago, workers shut down the national electricity grid and drove away operators at a key transmission station, the Transmission Company of Nigeria said, adding that other workers sent to restore power were blocked.

Elsewhere, government workers either failed to show up or shut down entrances to offices, including at airports in the capital of Abuja and the economic hub of Lagos. Hundreds of passengers were stranded after local airlines suspended flight operations.

All aviation workers should stay away "until further notice,” their association said.

"We demand a living wage," the Nigerian Labour Congress said on X, describing what they currently earn as "starvation wage." It and the Trade Union Congress represent hundreds of thousands of government workers across key sectors.

The unions want the current minimum monthly wage of $20 to be increased to nearly $336. The government offers $40.

The unions' demand would increase the government wage bill by $6.3 billion, which is capable of "destabilising the economy," information minister Mohammed Idris has said.

Transport and commodities

Analysts have warned that a minimum monthly wage of nearly $336 is not sustainable for Nigeria's states, most of which struggle to pay salaries.

"It is one thing to sign it (the new wage bill) but it is another thing for you to be able to sustain it," said Muda Yusuf, head of the Nigeria Center for Promotion of Private Enterprise.

The labour unions defend their demands by pointing to the expensive lifestyle of Nigeria’s public officials.

After Nigeria's president ended the decades-long but costly fuel subsidies on his first day in office, the price of gas more than doubled in one of Africa's biggest oil producers. Prices for public transport and commodities soared.

Tinubu's government also devalued the Naira currency to encourage foreign investment, which further increased the prices of basic commodities in the import-dependent country of more than 210 million people.