NLC Mobilise In Lagos For Two-day Nationwide Protest Over Lingering University Lecturers, ASUU’s Strike
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) on Monday called on members and civil society groups in Lagos State to come out massively on Tuesday morning to begin the two-day protest in solidarity with striking universities’ lecturers.
Mrs Funmi Sessi, state chairman of NLC, gave the directive at a stakeholders’ meeting at the union’s secretariat in Yaba, Lagos state.
She added that the exercise was ready to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the nationwide action.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been at loggerheads with the Federal Government since February 14 over the latter’s failure to honour some past agreements, among others.
The disagreement has kept students of 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.
The NLC therefore 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 6:30am at Ikeja and take off by 7am to deliver a letter to Gov. 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.
ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Lagos State, Dr Adelaja Odukoya, said the protest was for 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