AIR travellers seized the window of opportunity given by organised Labour for people to restock for the continuation of strike to quickly make their journeys out of Lagos to different parts of the country.
Many travellers were trapped in various locations, following the commencement of strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) over government’s policy of fuel subsidy removal.
Many had thought it would not be long before government and Labour would reach an amicable settlement over the matter.
At the domestic wing of the Lagos airport, turn out of passengers was huge, as airlines had difficulty to cope with the upsurge.
The demand for domestic air travel equally forced airfares to rise by more than 20 per cent.
A one-hour flight, which, hitherto, cost between N23, 000 and N24,000, went up as high as N28,000 and N35,000. Only IRS Airlines maintained its old fares.
Mike Ochor, a business traveler from Port Harcourt, said he had been stranded in Lagos since last week.
Assistant Secretary of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur, said the turn out of passengers was unprecedented on a weekend when air travel is at its lowest.
Tukur stated that the past one week had been very tough for operation, just as he urged the government to quickly resolve the crisis with the Nigerian people.
Economic activities were crippled in Lagos by the strike action and protests.
With the exception of the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota that was kept busy by protesters, businesses had remained closed, even as roads and major streets of Lagos were deserted throughout the duration of last week action.
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) ran out of cash for the better part of the week, as bank staffers who were to reload them were not available. Even so, miscreants manned the sites in wait for unsuspecting customers who would want to withdraw money from the machines.
But contrary to the expectation that most banks would open its doors for business in line with the ceasefire yesterday, only few of them provided skeletal ATM services. Still, the ones that managed to refill their Automated Teller Machines, after days of being out of cash, were almost overwhelmed with long queues.
But some businesses had, Friday night, in response to the breathing space offered by NLC/TUC’s suspension of the strike action, issued bulk text messages informing potential customers that they would be open for transactions for the greater part of Saturday and Sunday. Subscribers kept the Victoria Island head office of the Swift Networks, a broadband service provider, busy as they struggle to reconnect their Internet modems.
But when The Guardian visited some areas in Ikeja as early as 7 am yesterday, it was discovered that, although some of them were willing to open their doors to customers, they were still circumspect.
Security operatives in some of the outfits were seen appealing to desperate customers to wait for a while when the designated staff would have resumed. However, as at 9 am, a handful of them were yet to begin the business of the day as promised.
In Ikoyi, a few banks offered back-door skeletal cash deposit and withdrawal services as their ATMs were stretched out.
Chief executives, who spoke on grounds of anonymity, said it would be difficult for most private firms to pay salaries in January as the strike had taken a toll on their businesses.
A manager in an Ikoyi-based branch of a telecommunications outfit was seen threatening her staff with “no-work-no-pay” as, according to her, the workers should not expect salaries when they “sat at home in January.”
As at 11 am, the Ikoyi and Victoria Island areas of Lagos was gradually becoming crowded with pockets of traffic jam in some pars of Ikoyi. The two Oando fuel stations were also crowded as cars queue along the popular Awolowo Road to buy fuel.
A car owner said the long queue could have been triggered by the experience of the previous week and the fear that a possible resumption of the strike action and protests on Monday could be “more violent and devastating.”
“There is the fear that Labour and Government may fail to agree this evening (yesterday) and this explains this rush,” a car owner said.
The organised Labour had, on Friday, suspended protests till Monday even as it was billed to meet with government once again yesterday with a view to finding lasting solution to the crisis. Labour was to endorse a new price at the meeting.
Already speculations were rife that Labour’s suspension of the action was to allow its members move into Abuja for the NLC and TUC meetings.
According to a statement issued on Friday, Labour said it had suggested that an expanded committee be set up to discuss the fuel subsidy issue and pricing for petrol. “The government side presented a counterproposal asking Labour to negotiate new fuel prices. Since we have no such mandate, Labour declined and decided to return to its National Executive Council meetings, which will be held on Saturday, 14th January, 2012 for a possible expanded mandate.”
There were speculations that the Federal Government had indicated its intention to settle for N120 and later N100 per litre at the meeting. NLC President Abdulwaheed Omar, gave the assurance that the Labour movement and the civil society groups that were part of the negotiation had not backed down on outright reversal of pump rice of petrol to N65.
Culled from The Guardian
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