To pressure the Federal Government to accede to the requests of university-based unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress announced on Thursday that it would stage a one-day national demonstration.
The congress took note of reports from a meeting of its Central Working Committee indicating that negotiations with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, and National Association of Academic Technologists had not progressed.
At the beginning of the National Executive Council meeting of the Congress in Abuja, Ayuba Wabba, the president of the NLC, spoke.
Wabba instructed all of the NLC’s affiliate unions to provide instructions regarding the upcoming one-day national protest starting the following week.
“I think there is reluctance in addressing this issue (of strike) and therefore, CWC has decided that there will be a one-day national protest to call the attention of the government to resolve the issue immediately. After that, the next decision of the CWC will take place,” he said
But he did not say when the nationwide demonstration will take place.
Wabba also bemoaned the nation’s current fuel shortage and said that the congress was looking into the dismissal of teachers by the Kaduna State Government.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret. ), was encouraged on Thursday by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities to hasten the process of resolving continuing conflicts between the government and the unions.
The decision was announced by the committee’s chairman, Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo, at the Abuja introduction of the document on intellectual property policy for universities.
“We plead that drastic action is taken to stem the hemorrhage that the system is currently witnessing. For the sake of our children and our society, we need the decision,” he said
