ASUU: NLC threatens full strike on solidarity

By Pamela Eboh Awka

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) threatens to embark on full strike any moment soon in solidarity to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Tertiary institutions in Nigeria have been on strike since February 14 over industrial dispute with the Federal Government.

Anambra State Chairman of NLC, Mrs Chinwe Orizu, disclosed this during nation-wide ASUU solidarity protest in Awka, the Anambra State capital on Tuesday.

The Chairman who addrssed the protesters at Ekwueme Square junction by Enugu-Onitsha expressway after the solidarity march, said thst the peaceful protest was in compliance with the resolution of the congress to compel the Federal Government to listen to ASUU so that millions of Nigerian students who had been at home since six months would go back to school.

She warned that  the NLC would be left with no option than to join ASUU in the strike if the government fails to resolve the lingering industrial dispute soonest.

Orizu She urged the state governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to use his good offices to intercede for the university teachers in the circumstances.

In his speech, the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Unizik), Chairman of ASUU, Comrade Stephen Oforoah, explained that the essence of the protest was not for ASUU alone but for Nigerians irrespective of tribe, religion, etc.

He said, “The education sector should be funded and workers at the Universities should be paid of their salaries and their entittlements.

“The federal government should honour the agreement it entered with ASUU since 2009, and, to make sure there is no disparity in the implementation of the salaries of all workers in the federal university system.”

He further hailed the organised labour for the solidarity.

Speaking, the chairperson, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, UNIZIK, Awka, chapter, Dr.Uchenna Nwangwu, raised an alarm that many students of the Nigerian universities have been forced into prostitution and other criminalities as a result of the protracted strike action of the ASUU.

While condemning the federal government show of lack of concern over the manner the university lecturers strike action had kept the students at home for the six past six months, he noted that the country was truly under a bad leadership