By KEMI KASUMU
The planned nationwide protest by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has begun.
This was coming as the labour union also expressed its preparedness to commence a three-day warning strike from Thursday, that is immediately after their two-day nationwide protest started this Tuesday will have ended.
At the Lagos end Tuesday morning, the protesters, made up of several unions including Trade Union Congress (TUC), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) among others, who converged under the Ikeja Bridge on Awolowo Way, were addressed by union leaders before matching to the Governor’s Office in Alausa.
South West Chairman of ASUU, Dr. Adelaja Odukoya, in his address, said the Federal Government was not sincere as, according to him, it allowed the strike to linger because “people in government are illiterates” who depend on Oluwole certificates and so do not value education.
He expressed disappointment that the same Federal Government that failed to provide infrastructure and has been insensitive to adequate remuneration of university workers came up with the IIPPIS that meant no more than means of corruption adding that on every staff, the people in charge of the IIPPIS earn N16.
The ASUU leader said the system was idea of Idris Ahmed, the suspended Accountant General of the Federation (AGoF), who has now been remanded in LmKuje Prison over N170 billion alleged fraud.
The NLC has also warned that it might make the proposed three-day warning strike indefinite if Federal Government fails to resolve its protracted industrial dispute with public university workers, who have been on strike for over five months now.
Adelaja said that was happening under a government that cannot improve the universities in a way to enable them compete favourably with others globally.
He wondered that a foreign Ph.D. that he supervises, who attended the protest rally, “what he gets in a month as stipend, no Nigerian university professor earn salary as much as that”.
He added that “a classroom that contain students of no more than 50 now has 500 students”, wondering how quality teaching-learning delivery can be endured under such condition.
The preparedness to go on strike on Thursday was communicated by President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba, while addressing journalists at the ongoing 18th NLC Rain School in Uyo, Akwa Ibom.
According to him, the labour movement has mobilised workers for a nationwide protest in all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, which had already commenced.
The protest is to compel the Federal Government to resolve all lingering issues to re-open public universities for academic activities.
“The protest happening tomorrow is not a solidarity protest but a protest of NLC against government actions that lead to our universities being shut down 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,” he said.
Speaking on the harsh living condition of Nigerians, Wabba said that it was not only the education sector that is presently in shambles, but the economy as well.
Wabba said; “I never knew that the exchange rate has moved within a week from N630 to N670. This is very frightening and it erodes 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 outside the country on social media and then the universities where the children of the working class study are closed down.
“I was told today that we have three sets of students that ought to be in the university but unfortunately they have not even sorted out their admission challenges. So, it really a very frightening future for Nigerians, particularly the youths”.
He said the irony of it was that most of the political elites today benefited from free public education, wondering why it had been impossible for them to fix our public education.
“Is it about the class divide? It honestly beats some body’ s imagination. That is why all of these issues resonates that we need to engage politically. We have also realised the fact that they have used different approaches to divide Nigerians.
“Unfortunately for them, the 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 unite Nigeria and not to divide Nigerian.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Lagos Chapter of the NLC, Funmi Sessi, said Tuesday that the congress in Lagos had fully mobilised all its affiliates both in the private and public sectors for a total shut down of all sectors in the state as it holds a two-day solidarity protest to push the government to resolve public university workers’ strike.
Addressing affiliates in preparation for the two-day nationwide protest against what it called government insensitivity to the plight of workers in universities, Sessi said workers in Lagos would start converging under the bridge in Ikeja from 6a.m-6.30a.m and move en masse to the Alausa Secretariat from 7a.m to 7.30a.m to deliver a letter from the NLC President to the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
She noted that all the affiliates have shown their readiness to gather at Ikeja under the bridge today.
According to her, the essence of the meeting was to mobilise all affiliates to protest against the poor handling of the education sector in Nigeria.
She lamented that students in higher institutions from poor homes have been at home for over five months, adding that government further exacerbate the crisis with the introduction of ‘No work, no pay policy.
“Stoppage of the salary is draconian. We are supporting the struggle of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
“Despite efforts to broker peace, government has failed. We are already fully mobilised, we will be on the streets using the protest to drum support for the parents of the students who have been home for this long period,” she said.
According to her, the NLC has charged all the private institutions owned by the state government to abstain from going to work, adding that it is the directive from the national body of the NLC that Lagos State University(LASU) and other state owned institutions should join the protest as workers.
“If the government like, let them bring all their armored tanker and security agencies, we will face them. We are using this opportunity to tell all institutions in Lagos State to come out in solidarity with us because the reward will be for all. An injury to one is an injury to all,”she added.
Sessi also threatened that the national grid would be shut down, adding that health workers would only be allowed for emergency services.
In his contribution, the Chairman South West of ASUU, Dr. Adelaja Odukoya, stressed that the protest would be for Nigerians.
He maintained that the strike that caused unions in the universities to down tools was a deep-rooted crisis.
He said, “the struggle is in the interest of our children, enough is enough, government must fund education system. If we allow government to continue they will destroy our universities as they’ve done to our secondary schools.”
Report reaching us from other parts of the country said members of ASUU, Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK) branch, have rejected a call by Governor Abdullahi Sule for them to pull out of the ongoing national strike embarked upon by the union.
ASUU Chairman, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Dr. Samuel Alu, said this at a press conference in Keffi, the campus of the state university,
He disclosed that the Nasarawa State governor had solicited for the NSUK ASUU to pull out of the national strike of the union when he invited the union alongside the university management for a tripartite meeting.
The NSUK academic staff chairman said: “Recently, the visitor invited the union alongside the university management for a tripartite meeting where he (visitor) solicited for the branch’s understanding to pull out of the national strike in order to enjoy the full payment of our salaries.”
The ASUU Chairman maintained that the government of Nasarawa State was precipitating yet another round of industrial crisis in the state university by non-release of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) to the academic staff as it was the case with other sister unions on campus.
Alu, therefore, noted that it was negligence, bias and not acceptable anymore by the academic staff of the state-owned university.
“The ongoing attitude of government to the Memorandum of Agreements and Memorandum of Understandings has necessitated it on ASUU NSUK to no longer guarantee industrial harmony if the situation does not improve, especially when the ongoing national agitation and action are suspended.
“Therefore, the general public especially, parents with children in NSUK, should hold the Nasarawa State government, governing council and university administration responsible for the consequences that may arise because of the serial non-implementation of the MoAs,” Alu threatened.
