AFP, Lagos :
Onele Vincent and his colleagues are fed up with the rising cost of living. So they decided to do something about it and led a noisy protest at a top Lagos hotel where they work.
“Things are more expensive, rent is high, food is high,” Vincent told AFP last week in the lobby of the Southern Sun hotel, a favourite of the monied elite, politicians and expatriates.
“Everything has increased and yet the staff salary has remained the same.”
Vincent and the other hotel workers are far from lone voices in Nigeria, where many are feeling the pain as Africa’s biggest oil producer struggles to adapt to the record lows of global oil prices and its naira currency is under devaluation pressure.
Daily newspaper headlines warn of “Hard times ahead”, while many billboards in the commercial hub of Lagos stand stark white, just blank signs, an indication that companies are trimming costs.
Even high fliers are taking a hit. Importers of French wine complain that demand has dried up. Luxury car dealers and real estate agents say business has dwindled.
Onele Vincent and his colleagues are fed up with the rising cost of living. So they decided to do something about it and led a noisy protest at a top Lagos hotel where they work.
“Things are more expensive, rent is high, food is high,” Vincent told AFP last week in the lobby of the Southern Sun hotel, a favourite of the monied elite, politicians and expatriates.
“Everything has increased and yet the staff salary has remained the same.”
Vincent and the other hotel workers are far from lone voices in Nigeria, where many are feeling the pain as Africa’s biggest oil producer struggles to adapt to the record lows of global oil prices and its naira currency is under devaluation pressure.
Daily newspaper headlines warn of “Hard times ahead”, while many billboards in the commercial hub of Lagos stand stark white, just blank signs, an indication that companies are trimming costs.
Even high fliers are taking a hit. Importers of French wine complain that demand has dried up. Luxury car dealers and real estate agents say business has dwindled.
