Friday, March 29, 2024

ASUU STRIKE Darkness looms as NLC begins nationwide protest today

Electricity, Health, Aviation unions to shut down operations

There may be darkness across Nigeria beginning from today as the Nigeria Labour Congress directed electricity workers to join its two-day protest in solidarity with striking university lecturers.

Activities may also be grounded in the health and aviation sectors as the NLC directed them to shut down operations and join the solidarity protest in support of the striking workers.

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

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

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.

Sessi said law enforcement agencies should not brutalise its members.

ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Lagos State, Adelaja Odukoya, said the protest was for the 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 does not like strikes but wanted to press home demand to make the nation’s universities competitive with global standards.

“The struggle is in the interest of our children.

“Enough is enough, the government must fund the 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 the 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 electricity workers had insisted on Sunday that they would join the solidarity protest of the Nigeria Labour Congress/Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Power sector workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees made their position known in a letter issued by the General Secretary, NUEE, Joe Ajaero, to the vice presidents of states and administrative councils chapter secretaries of the union.

The letter with reference, NUEE/NS/2022/008, titled, “Nigeria Labour Congress/ASUU Solidarity Protest,” and dated July 22, 2022, stated that electricity workers would join in the protest to kick against the prolonged closure of tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

It read in part, “In line with the NLC’s directive and our position which was made known at the Central Working Committee and National Executive Council meeting of Congress.

“All members of the union are enjoined to massively mobilise and actively participate in the NLC/ASUU solidarity protest against the continued closure of the nation’s tertiary institutions, scheduled for July 26/27, 2022.

“You are encouraged to work with the leadership of State Executive Councils of the congress in your various states with a view of having a successful outing. Aluta Continua!”

Power industry stakeholders believe that the participation of electricity workers in the two-day protest might cause some instability to the recuperating power sector.

Nigeria’s power sector recently witnessed a grid collapse that led to the crash of power generation from over 3,900 megawatts to 3MW, a development that caused blackouts across the country.

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.

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