Mohammed Oluwatimileyin Taoheed reports,
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has cautioned the Federal Government of Nigeria that it (the latter) would face another three-day nationwide strike over all sectors in the country if the hullabaloo in the nation’s tertiary institutions is not attended to.
Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President, issued this warning today gave while having an interactive session with the Channels Television amid the protest by members of the union across the country.
“The protest first is to show our concern and to also call for urgent action to resolve the issues. We took two levels of decision,” he said while highlighting the importance of the protest.
“First is the national protest to call for attention and for the issues to be resolved promptly, and the next level is three days national warning strike if nothing has happened after the protest to show our grievances.”
Track News Nigeria gathered that NLC members in Benue State partake in the protest in solidarity with university unions on July 26, 2022.
According to reports reaching us by our Correspondents, members of the union all over the federation marched to the main streets of the state capital of their respective branches in protest against the unceasing strike by university workers.
The national leadership of the union is expected to join the demonstration in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Wednesday, a day after it began in all 36 states of the Federation.
University workers, including members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), had gone on strike for similar rationales.
However, the Federal Government commented that the choice of the NLC to embark on a nationwide protest was illegal, the leadership of the union persisted in its response that its action was within the umbrella of the Nigerian legal system.
NLC members in Ogun State prepare for the protest in solidarity with university unions on July 26, 2022.
“These are democratic norms everywhere around the law,” Wabba stated. “It is within the provisions of our law; it is backed by UN Charter for Human and People’s Rights, African Charter for Human and People’s Rights.
“It is there in our constitution – Section 39/40, and even the courts have pronounced that you don’t require any permission; so it is legal, it is within your fundamental rights to protest.”
Lecturers in government-owned universities – affiliated with ASUU – embarked on a nationwide strike on February 14 over the adoption of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) of the government as the payment system in the university sector, as well as poor funding of universities, and non-payment of salaries and allowances of some of their colleagues, among other issues.
Since the industrial action began, several negotiations between the union and the government have ended in deadlock.
While the government is still struggling to resolve the issues raised by the striking lecturers, the crisis in the public universities may not end soon as other university unions have also voiced their concerns.
Our Correspondent, Mr. Mohammed Oluwatimileyin Taoheed, says a number of unions in different critical sectors such as electricity, petroleum and aviation just to mention a few, are all affiliated with the labour union.
