The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday
said that it would intervene in the face-off between the striking
Academic Staff Unions of Universities and the Federal Government.
The NLC’s move was coming amidst appeals
and condemnation by other similar bodies, including the Petroleum and
Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and religious leaders,
to the Federal Government and ASUU. While some Lagos clerics urged the
government to end the strike, PENGASSAN condemned the Federal Government
for not honouring an agreement it had earlier signed with ASUU.
But the President of the NLC, Mr.
Abdulwahed Omar, who spoke shortly after a meeting of the National
Executive Committee of the NLC in Abuja on Thursday, said the congress
would persuade the striking university lecturers to resume talks with
the government, with a view to resolving the lingering issue.
Omar said the NLC had to take the
decision to prevail on ASUU, an affiliate union of the congress, to
resume negotiation with the government because of its concern about the
suspension of academic activities in the nation’s universities for close
to two months.
The NLC president said the congress would also ensure that deliberations between ASUU and the government were fruitful.
He said, “It is a very serious issue we
are having on our hands to allow lecturers to be out of the classrooms
for close to two months. We are currently embarking on consultation with
a view to convincing members of the union to resume negotiation with
the federal government.”
However, PENGASSAN, on its part, said it
viewed “with deep concern and discontent the ongoing and indeed a
recurring strike in our nation’s ivory towers by the Academic Staff
Unions of Universities.”
The body said it was condemnable that
the ongoing strike had entered its ninth week, without any sign of its
being resolved soon “as parties in the crisis continue to trade blame
and spoil for more actions on the matter.”
A statement by the Public Relations
Officer, PENGASSAN, Seyi Gambo, on Thursday, said, “We have watched with
keen interest as the Dr. Nasir Issa Faggie-led ASUU declared a
three-day warning strike before it finally embarked on an indefinite
strike action on July 1, 2013, towards ensuring that the Federal
Government honoured the cardinal agreements reached with the
universities lecturers since 2009.”
Similarly, some clerics in Lagos have
urged the Federal Government and ASUU to go back to the drawing table
and arrive at a final agreement so that universities can reopen.
Vice President, Pentecostal Fellowship
of Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter, Pastor Femi Asiwaju, urged the Federal
Government to address the demands of ASUU so that students could go back
to school.
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FG/ASUU please consider the plight of the students and their parents. Remember the Labour market requirements. Do not make these students over-aged for employment when finally graduated.
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