We’ll end ASUU strike -Reps

 

.As NLC vows to reset the country .

 

By AKOR SYLVESTER-Abuja

 

 

The House of Representatives yesterday vowed to end the prolonged strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) to press home their demands.

 

The House of Representatives said the time has come for the legislators to wade in to the matter and get the students back to school.

 

The Chairman house committee on labour, in the House of Representative,  Muhammad Wudil, dropped the hint when he led other members of the house to receive the Nigerian labour Congress and it’s affiliate unions who were in the National Assembly to protest the prolonged ASUU strike.

 

He stated that since the beginning of the strike action, the house has been consulting relevant stakeholders with a view to ending the crises.

 

The lawmaker assured the protesting unions that the National Assembly would invite all the stakeholders to sit down and see how the crises could be resolved.

 

He noted that even the lawmakers who have undergraduate children also feel the pain of seeing their children at home.

 

Earlier, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Waba, stated that the country needed to be reset for things to work well.

 

He said the Congress would ensure that the leaders of the country take responsibilities and put the plight of the people at the front line.

 

The congress president said they were in the National Assembly to register their protest on the lingering ASUU strike and the urgent need to end it.

 

Wabba, who expressed the union’s support to ASUU, lamented that workers in Nigerian universities are the least paid in Africa.

 

The NLC President warned that if nothing is done after the protest, their next line of action would be a three day national protest and a strike action Nationwide.

 

“We will reset this country. We will make sure that our leaders hear our voice.

 

“The reason we are here today Comrades is something that is known to every Nigerian the children of the working class.

 

“The children of less privilege, have been at home for the past five months, and nobody cares.

 

“No reason is good enough for the children of the working class and the poor to be at home for one day.

 

“Whereas their children are graduating for from Nigeria universities, private ones, and abroad and they have the audacity to post them on social media so that we can see.

 

“we are divided into class, the class of ruling elites and the class of we the masses. Comrades this is a very serious matter.

 

“Once you deny citizen education, you are denied and everything because the difference between life and death is the education that we have.

 

“These shoes have been worthy and unvetted and therefore there is no justification anywhere to justify this situation.

 

“That is why we are here. This is just the beginning of the struggle, and therefore we must be ready.

 

“If they are able to hear the reason of wisdom and are ready to respond effectively and promptly to resolve this issue that will be good for them..

 

“But if they are not ready, are we going to be tired to be tired because our children have been alimented completely.

 

“I was told over 10 million children in Nigeria and public institutions including three sets that I even hung in the balance because the admission have not been sorted out the results.

 

“They are they are live and integrity is hanging in the balance because there was no admission for three sets the situation because this is not what we bargained for. We bargained for leadership.

 

“We budget for good government that will listen to us because democracy is one of the people it is first in democracy and you cannot talk about people without quality education.

 

“So that is why we are here. We will continue from here. But our leadership will also speak to us along the line.

 

“Because we want to make sure that we’re able to reach the National Assembly in good time so that we can deliver your message but the point was we made very clear this is just the beginning. And all of you must be ready to salvage the country and salvage the education sector at all levels.

 

“Because all the unions, including the Academic Staff union of polytechnics, colleges of education of universities of non academic because all of them have issues.

 

“And those issues are straightforward. Some of them are not even monetary policy issues. But yet our leaders cannot listen to fix those issues.

 

” It has been promised and promises and those promises have not been kept we are tired. Are you tired?

 

“They are not tired. We cannot also be tired, but we are tired of the antics.

 

“That Antics cannot fly again. We will take our destinies in our own hands. We must take our destinies and that of our children is very important and fundamental. And that is why we are cautious. I’m happy.

 

“They will say that we are threats to security. threat to security. Security tonight. We are an asset to the country. It is your action that is actually executed.

 

Continuing, he said “We have faces everywhere that the protests are taking place. It has been peaceful and therefore we are not attacks.

 

“But there is a threat to democracy and we must recognize we are leaders are afraid threat of people coming together especially organizations like labor to use and give perspective.

 

“It means the government is actually for the people because as we are underwater, even in the midst of public emergency like COVID people are still protesting. Nobody’s liked the protests have been alienated.

 

“Nobody’s right to protest I’ve been challenged

 

“And comrades we must realize that such threats, no intimidation. In fact, I will say yesterday there are some of them. In this current dispensation, political elites also protested.

 

“They are on the slicks with us. Some of them join us very soon. The documentary of NLC at 40 will be launched and we had pictures of some of them they are joined in a seminar to say that we are a very credible organization and that we need to reset the country.

 

“So we are resetting the country to make sure that our leaders do what is right. I want to salute you for being on strike for five months, some three months their salary have been stopped.

 

” It is criminal to stop the salary of a worker whose only fault is to demand that a collective bargaining agreement validly signed should be respected in other climes, it is even the workers that will actually deploy No work, no pay but shamelessly deploy No work , no pay

 

“No, we are in the law that I know under the ILO conventions, that guides in the circulation globally you have such entity which can govern us because some of them spoke yesterday.

 

“To say that they will not stop the salary of their state university workers. We commend them.

 

“And we commend those governors that came out openly to support what is happening because they realize leadership is about taking responsibility. Not about complaining. Leadership is about finding solution, not about giving us tools. We are tired of his cues.

 

“We are tired of lamentation. We want solution. We want the issues to be six that is why we are here comrades, and therefore we must be ready. We must be ready. This is the first phase the second phase, which is a three day national strike.

 

“I hope they will be reasonable. I hope they will listen because we have sent the message very clear and loud, that we will not allow political elites to destroy the future of millions of Nigerian youths.

 

“Most of them that are holding office today benefited from free public university education. Some of them they are from poor families.

 

 

“Yet they’re benefited from scholarships. benefited from quality public education. Today, they are destroying the very ladder they use In arriving where they are today.

 

 

” I havecheck this morning, the records around the world of how intellectuals are actually treated, how university systems are run and it will amaze you.

 

“In fact, what is the average salary of a professor? Even within the context of Africa, nowhere have I seen less than $2,000.

 

“But today, the highest paid professor in Nigeria is less than even $600 because of the fact that our currency had been on a freefall the economy is about to collapse.

 

“That is the fact. In fact in order climbs, if you see the university system, in fact, it will amaze you because teaching and learning facilities are there and they have been improved.

 

“Laboratories have standards and everybody takes his responsibility fully but workers cannot even see their family.

 

“There is hardship and everybody knows, it’s only the political elites that are insulated from the hardship that Nigerians are passing through.

 

“So comrades, it is a wakeup call, it is a clarion call, is a very patriotic call. We don’t want the country to collapse on us.

 

“And therefore that is why we are waging pillars that can actually sustain this country because it’s quality education that will sustain this country”.

 

Speaking further, the NLC president said, “If we denied our children quality education, they will become menace to the society and all of us will be sleeping with our eyes opened, that is a reality.

 

“And that is what is happening around the world. So it’s a wake up call.

 

“So once again comrades I thank all our leadership. I thank all of you, our foot soldiers, that anytime we call, you will always respond we don’t pay is only important that they have to hire people”.