Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has hatched plans to stage a three-day national protest against the ongoing strike by university workers. The protest could, however, snowball into a nationwide industrial action, if government’s inaction persists. The union revealed the above on Thursday, in a communiqué jointly signed by its President Mr. Ayuba Wabba, and its General Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Ugboaja, at the end of the Congress’ Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Abuja. Vigil360 news had earlier reported that NLC called on the Federal Government to immediately set up a high-powered panel comprising members with requisite mandates to resolve within 21 days the issues affecting industrial harmony in the nation’s tertiary institutions including Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
NLC said: “Within the span of the subsisting 21-day ultimatum given by Congress, NLC will hold national protests against the current strike action affecting students of Nigeria’s public universities, and occasioned by government’s failure to honour agreement reached with trade unions in our universities.”
“The protest is to draw the attention of government to the inherent catastrophe in the emerging culture of social apartheid in our society, especially as marked by prolonged lockout of students from working class and poor homes, while children of the rich continue their academic pursuits uninterrupted.”
“If at the end of the national protest and the 21-day ultimatum, the Federal Government still fails to resolve the industrial crises in Nigeria’s universities, the Congress would be left with no other option but to embark on a three-day nationwide warning strike action, in solidarity with our affiliates in the universities and with Nigerian students whose future and wellbeing are being robbed.”
The meeting also called on the governments of Taraba, Cross River and Zamfara States to as a matter of urgency commence payment of the arrears of national minimum wage owed their workers. It also called on the Abia State government to immediately clear the backlog of pension arrears owed its retirees.
The union however declined to revealed or specify when the protest would commence.