Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Ondo, Osun and Kwara States on Tuesday staged protests in solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over its strike action.
The protesting labour movement, who joined the affiliated unions include, ASUU, NAAT, SSANU, COEASU and NASU. The marching workers carried placards with different inscriptions such as, “Enough Is Enough, “End ASUU strike now, “Don’t turn our children to criminals, “Our right must be respected,” among others.
The nationwide protest was organised by the NLC in solidarity with ASUU over the strike that clocked five months on July 14, 2022. The Congress directed workers in state capitals and Abuja to join the protest last week.
In Ondo State, Sunday Adeleye, the NLC Chairman, alongside other labour leaders, who led the protest lamented the lingering ASUU strike which they noted, had crippled tertiary education in Nigeria, asking the Federal Government to yield to the demands of the university lecturers so that students could return to their classrooms.
While addressing the protesters, Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, said that their agitations would be taking to President Muhammadu Buhari, saying “nobody is happy with how the country is being run at the moment.”
Workers in Kwara State under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) joined the National body of the Union to stage a protest to ask Federal Government grant some level of autonomy for Nigerian Universities in order to embark on the revitalization of tertiary education and fix other critical challenges in the system.
Read also: Workers turn up en masse for NLC-backed varsity protest in Edo
Speaking with the media in Ilorin at the NLC Secretariat, Aliyu Isa-Ore, the Kwara State Chairman of the Union, said the rally was organised in solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members to press home their demands on the need for the Federal Government to honour the agreement entered into in the year 2009.
Moyosore Saliu Ajao, Professor and the Chair, University of Ilorin Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), noted that University workers demands are legitimate.
She said, “Let the government tell us which of our demands which are not legitimate. We have right to ask for what we deserve.
“Is it our salary that has not increased since the last 13years or our demand for government to make infrastructure available? We are not robots. Treat us like humans and safe our children from idleness at home,” he said.
Similarly, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Osun State joined the two-day protest declared by its leadership to compel the Federal Government to resolve all the lingering crises between the Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The workers who were joined by youths converged at Ogo-Oluwa area in Osogbo, the state capital where they all moved to the State House of Assembly and the Government Secretariat, Abere.
Jacob Adekomi, NLC Chairman, Osun State noted that the future of Nigeria children is being toyed with as the strike action is being prolonged, explaining that those who benefited from the free education of Obafemi Awolowo are the ones using it in an opposite direction.
Responding, Timothy Owoeye, the Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, said the incessant strike in the nation’s economy had contributed to the present situation in the country, but assured the workers that President Muhammadu Buhari had given two-week ultimatum to the Minister of Education to put a definite end to the strike action.
“I want to tell you that we are into it together as your representatives. It is not possible for us to join you in protest but within us we are with you.
“We are not happy for keeping our children at home for almost 157 days. I have never seen a developing country playing with the education system as that of Nigeria.”
