ASUU strike: NLC threatens indefinite strike, begins two-day protest nationwide

 

. Warning strike commences Thursday

. Congress mobilises in Lagos, says it’s set for action

 

AKOR SYLVESTER, Abuja

 

Leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), have reiterated their readiness to mobilize its members across the 36 States of the Federation and Abuja for a two- day protesting beginning Tuesday for the federal government to resolve all the lingering issues that have kept public tertiary institutions especially universities closed for over five months and have them re-open for academic activities.

 

The congress also threatened to commence three days warning strike immediately after the protest and may have to go on indefinite strike if government failed to resolve the issues that caused the strike and have the schools open for Nigerian students.

 

NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who stated these when he fielded questions from journalists at the sideline of the ongoing 18th NLC Rain School, 2022, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, tagged: “Labour, Politics for National Development and Social Justice in Nigeria”, insisted that :“The protest happening tomorrow is not a solidarity protest but a protest of NLC against government actions that lead to our universities being shutdown and our kids staying at home instead of going to school. All the unions directly involved in the strike are NLC affiliates and their members are part of NLC.

 

“We have taken three levels of decision. First is the protest which is going to be national tomorrow. After the protest, a three days national warning strike will start, and if they fail to resolve the issues and bring back our kids to school, we go on indefinite strike. That is the decision of our National Executive Council. And what will be helpful for them is to check the timeline we have given for them to resolve the issues. We are optimistic that they will be willing this time because we are also willing to get our children back to school.”

 

Speaking further on how the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC government has failed to better the living condition of Nigerians but have rather left even the education sector in shambles Wabba said: “I never knew that the exchange rate has move between a week from N630 to N670. This is very frightening and it erodes the purchasing power of workers. There is no way we can continue in this direction and expect that there will be shared prosperity within workers, and within the large portion of Nigerians that are in the lower echelon at the economic ladder.

 

“Importantly is the issue of our children that are out of school for five months. Basically it also requires a political decision for the issue to be sorted out. What is even more worrisome is the fact that they keep posting the graduation of their children in universities out of the country on  social media and then the universities where the children of the worker in class studying are closed down.

 

“I was told today that we have 3 sets of students that ought to be in the university but unfortunately they have not even sorted out their admission challenges. So it really really a very frightening future for Nigerians, particularly the youths.

 

‘“The irony of it is that most of the political elites today benefited from free public education. Why is it impossible for them to fix our public education. Is it about the class divid, it honestly beats somebody’ s imagination. That is why all of these issues resonates that we need to engage politically. We have also realize the fact that they have used different approaches to divide Nigerians.

 

“Unfortunately for them, NLC is a pan-Nigerian organisation that cannot be divided. And workers should not allow themselves to be divided along ethnic or religious line. This is just diversion of interest. Their division tool is happening now, workers should be wiser, citizens should be wiser. We should work assiduously to unit Nigeria and not to  divide Nigeria”

 

Meanwhile, the NLC, on Monday called on members and civil society groups in Lagos State to come out en-masse on Tuesday morning to begin the two-day protest in solidarity with striking lecturers.

 

Mrs Funmi Sessi, state chairman of NLC gave the directive at a stakeholders’ meeting at the union’s secretariat in Yaba, Lagos State.

 

Sessi said that the exercise was ready to hold on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the nationwide action.

 

This is despite an appeal by the federal government that the NLC should shelve the planned nationwide protest.

 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has been at loggerheads with the federal government since February 14 over failure to honour some past agreements, among others.

 

The disagreement has kept students of most public universities at home for the past five months. Some other unions in the university system are also on strike due to disagreements with the Federal Government for different reasons.

 

Sessi directed all sectors including the health, electricity and aviation to shut down operations and join the solidarity protest in support of the striking workers.

 

“We will be converging as early as 6:30 a.m. at Ikeja and take off by 7.00 a.m. to deliver a letter to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Alausa.

 

“The protest is to support ASUU in the ongoing strike, so we call on all affiliate members to come out en masse,’’ she said.

Sessi called on Lagos State-owned tertiary institutions to also join in the protests.

 

“We are going to mobilise our members and be fully on the street,” she said.

Sessi said that electricity workers would be part of the protest, but advised nurses to attend to only emergency cases.

She assured that the union had adopted measures to ensure that the protest was not hijacked.

She said law enforcement agencies should not brutalise its members.

 

ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Lagos State, Dr Adelaja Odukoya, said the protest was for liberation of the nation’s tertiary education.

 

He said lecturers were being paid slave salaries and government was not concerned about quality of education in the country.

Odukoya said the union did not like strike but wanted to press home demand to make the nation’s universities competitive with global standard.

 

“The struggle is in the interest of our children. Enough is enough, government must fund education system. If Nigeria must develop, attention must be paid to our university education,” he said.

 

He said the strike had lingered for five months and the lecturers would not back down if government did not meet the demands of ASUU. Odukoya appealed to all Nigerians to join in the solidarity protest in the interest of the Nigeria youths.

 

Other union members took turns to lament ill-treatment and injustice being meted on the lecturers and the nation’s education sector.

The federal government had urged the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to shelve the nationwide planned protest in solidarity with the trade unions.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, made the appeal at a meeting with the leadership of NLC in his office on Thursday in Abuja.

 

Ngige said this in a statement signed by My Olajide Oshundun, Head, Press and Public Relations, in the ministry.The decision to embark on a National Day of Protest was taken at the  NLC National Executive Council, NEC, in June.

 

According the minister, the federal government had made a lot of efforts to resolve the impasse in the university system, saying that efforts were still ongoing.

 

He also reminded the NLC leadership that he incorporated them into the tripartite conciliation going on in his ministry. Ngige added that they were very much aware of the efforts of the government to resolve the impasse, so they could not embark on any rally or protest.

 

He further said that the Federal Executive Council, FEC, mandated him to notify them of the serious security implications of the planned protest.

 

Responding, both the Deputy President of NLC, Mr  Najeem Usman, and General Secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Ugboajah, assured the government of a peaceful protest by the congress.

 

They also said that infiltrators would not be allowed to participate in the protest. Ugboajah said NLC appreciated all the efforts of the minister towards the resolution of the industrial actions in the university system and pleaded with him not to hands off the conciliation.