The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it will embark on a one-day nationwide protest to compel the federal government to find immediate resolutions to contending issues with education sector unions.
NLC President Ayuba Wabba said this during the opening of the Congress’ Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Thursday in Abuja.
Mr Wabba expressed sadness over the continued closure of the country’s tertiary institutions due to unresolved labour disputes between the federal government and unions in education.
Academic activities across all public universities, polytechnics, colleges of Education have been suspended for months as the federal government continue to foot-drag in meeting demands of the affected labour unions.
The unions are demanding funding of the revitalisation fund, earned allowances, implementation of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) scheme, as well as promotion arrears.
Other demands are; the renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement, and the resolution of inconsistency in the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), among others.
Mr Wabba recalled that labour had given the federal government a 21-day ultimatum to convoke a high-powered committee to resolve issues with ASUU and other unions in the education sector.
“The timeline of three weeks that was given to the committees for all reports to be turned in, and for government to be able to take a concrete decision, has not been met,” Mr Wanna noted.
The NLC president, however, alleged that there was reluctance by the federal government in addressing the issues.
“Therefore, the Central Working Committee has decided that there will be a one-day national protest.
“This is to call the attention of government to resolve the issues immediately.
“We have also asked all our affiliates by the next one week to issue statements,” he said.
He said the decision to embark on the one-day national protest was imperative as children of the poor had continued to remain at home.
He also said that CWC had observed that there was increase in social vices, that could be traced to the fact that youths had been at home for months.
NAN
