ASUU/FG impasse: NLC to begin nationwide warning strike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it would embark on an industrial action in solidarity with affiliate unions in the universities and students.

It said the industrial action which will be a nationwide three-day warning strike is aimed at pressing home the demands of its members and affiliate unions — chief of which is the Academic staff union of university (ASUU) and government imbroglio.

The NLC’s threat is contained in communique issued on Thursday at the end of the union’s Central Working Committee meeting.

In the communique jointly signed by its president, Ayuba Wabba, and general secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, the NLC also bemoaned the deepening security crisis that plagued the nation.

The NLC had on April 13, given President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime 21 days to set up a panel to resolve the issues causing incessant strikes by the ASUU and others.

According to the CWC, the NLC threatened to hold protests against the lingering ASUU strike within the subsisting 21-day ultimatum.

“This is also occasioned by the government’s failure to honour agreements reached with trade unions in our universities. If at the end of the national protest and the 21 days ultimatum, the federal government fails to resolve the industrial crises in Nigeria’s universities, the congress would be left with no other option than to embark on three days nationwide warning strike,” the statement read.

“This is in solidarity with our affiliates in the universities and with Nigerian students, whose future and wellbeing are being jeopardised.”

The NLC added that the protest was to draw the attention of the government to the “inherent catastrophe in the emerging culture of social apartheid in the society, by prolonged lockout from academics of students from poor homes.”

It also said affiliates of the NLC were to issue public statements condemning the intermittent strikes in Nigeria’s universities.

According to the union, the current ASUU strike is worrisome. It also described the current insecurity as “totally unacceptable,” and called on the government to rein in the “monstrous cancer before it consumed the entire country.”