Gadafi's Lounge

Nigeria's government has made a series of last-minute concessions to trade unions, aimed at averting a general strike due to start on Wednesday.
Sources say the government has offered to reduce a fuel price rise, suspend a value-added tax hike and raise civil service salaries by 15%.

These were the main demands of the Nigeria Labour Congress. They will respond during talks beginning shortly.

The government has reached a separate deal with oil and transport unions.

They went on strike last Friday, leading to biting fuel shortages.

Bus fares doubled

The BBC's Mannir Dan Ali says the streets of the capital, Abuja, and the biggest city, Lagos, are virtually empty of cars because of the lack of petrol.
The unions were angry at a series of measures pushed though in the last days of the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, who stepped down last month.

Our reporter says the strike threat provides the first major test for new President Umaru Yar'Adua.

The price of petrol was increased from 65 naira (51 US cents) a litre to 75.

The government has now reportedly offered to reduce this to 70 naira (55 cents).

Transport fares have doubled in some areas following the fuel price hike.

The NLC says it will urge all of Nigeria's workers to start an indefinite strike unless the government meets its demands.

"Those who are in power don't really know how the people feel," Lagos resident Taiwo Ogunloye told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said he would join in the strike and stay at home and watch TV "as long as there is light", he said.

The government has also said it will consult with unions on the privatisation of two of the country's biggest oil refineries to allies of Mr Obasanjo.

Tough choice

Dino Mahthani, West Africa correspondent of the UK's Financial Times, told the BBC that the government was stuck between a rock and a hard place on the refineries.

He says that despite being a major oil producer, it has hardly any refining capacity because the equipment is in such a poor state.

To give the owners an incentive to put money into the refineries, the government should stop subsidising the price of fuel, he says.

But this would lead to a lot of angry people in the cities, who would accuse the government of making their lives harder, he says.

A further complication is that the new owners are among the richest people in the country, with strong links to the ruling party.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer but had to import most of its petrol because of the poor state of its refineries.