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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Irrigating the famished fields: the impact of labour-led struggle on policy and action in Nigeria (1999-2007)
Author:Okafor, ObioraISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Volume:27
Issue:2
Pages:159-175
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:trade unions
protest
price policy
2000-2009
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589000902903637
Abstract:Between 1999 and 2007, a broad-based labour-led movement, under the leadership of Adams Oshiomhole, the then president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), was able to exert considerable, though limited, influence on an Obasanjo-led executive arm of government that was at best quasidemocratic in its orientation. The movement focused most of its energies on its struggle against unpopular fuel price hikes in Nigeria. This article argues that, despite the very important roles played by other factors (notably the presence of more democratic space in Nigeria post-1999), it was especially the movement's adoption of a mass social movement approach that facilitated its ability to exert such influence. Other, less influential, facilitating factors included the prevailing social context of mass poverty and resentment, a committed leadership, the strong resonance of the movement's message, labour's long experience of action for social change, and a generally accountable and therefore responsive structure. Factors that inhibited the impact of the struggle included government control and repression, the inheritance of a weakened NLC, labour/government collaboration and compromise, internal tensions within the movement, and external economic pressures. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]
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