The NLC rally is expected to take place in all 36 states of the Federation.
By Emma Ogbuehi
Protesting members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Nigerians sympathetic to their cause have literally taken over the capitals and major cities of some states in the country in solidarity with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The two-day solidarity strike which commenced on Tuesday, July 26, saw unionists storming the office of Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Alausa, early in the morning.
The protesters marched through the major road leading to the governor’s office, with vehicular movements around Ikeja metropolis disrupted leading to heavy gridlock.
In her speech, the Chairperson of the Lagos Council of the NLC, Mrs Funmi Agnes Sessy, advised the Federal Government not to toy with another people’s uprising as witnessed during the #EndSARS protest in 2020 by quickly taking steps to resolve the ongoing industrial actions by staff unions in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
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In Oyo, the State Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams has directed Area Commanders, Divisional Police Officers, DPOs and all tactical commanders to personally lead confidence building patrols around the length and breadth of the state.
Elsewhere, solidarity marches are taking place by the aggrieved workers. The demonstration is expected to take place in all 36 states of the Federation, with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) joining on Wednesday.
They had also decried the poor funding of universities, non-payment of salaries and allowances of some of their colleagues, as well as the inability of the government to pay earned academic allowance to lecturers, among other issues.
Since the industrial action began, several negotiations between the union and the government have ended in deadlock.
Recall that Lecturers in government-owned universities – affiliated with ASUU began a four-week warning strike on February 14, 2022 to press for its demands on the revitalization of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, and inconsistencies in Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS), payments.
The strike has entered the fifth month.
The on-going rally, according to NLC, is to compel the Federal Government to resolve all the lingering issues to re-open public universities for academic activities.
