ASUU Strike: NLC Demands Favourable Response From National Assembly

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba has charged the National Assembly to provide the demands of the Unions, stating the need to resolve the ASUU strike.

Wabba, while addressing newsmen during the protest said the union will continue to speak against the continuous closure of public institutions in the nation after the Association of Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on strike action.

"The demands made by the lecturers are reasonable as they put in more activities compared to what they are being paid. Asking for their due is not wrong and this should be accorded.

"We never want it to get to this point but after no favourable response for so long, we are here to demand it from the lawmakers face to face," he said. 

ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, lamented the situation of the Nigerian universities is pitiable due to poor financing, adding that after trying to negotiate and it ended in a deadlock, this is the next option.

He further stated that the government needed to understand their plights.

"By the National Universities Commission (NUC’s) regulations, the ratio for lecturer to students is expected to be a ratio of 1:9 in medical and sciences and 1:15 in the humanities and social sciences, but that the reality is unimaginable.

"In the university today, there is one teacher to over 1,000 students. That’s what brought the earned academic allowance that they did not pay.

“So we need to let them know that they don’t have dominance over us. Universities are universal. Our universities used to have foreign students. You are a child of a governor, you sit and learn with the child of a driver. Eat in the cafeteria together. Stay in the same hostel. Today, it is not like that," he stated.

The demands by the public universities include an increase in academic earned allowance and the adoption of the Universities Transparency and Accountability System (UTAS) instead of the Federal government's  Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) among others.

However, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, speaking to the crowd announced that the Senate had to go into a closed-door session a few minutes after the protesters stormed the National Assembly complex.

Ahmad assured the Union that the country’s progress lies on the Nigerian leader and will ensure that the ASUU strike is resolved.

Meanwhile, the Spokesperson for the Nigeria Police FCT Command, Josephine Adeh, a Deputy Superintendent of Police speaking on the heavy presence of the security operatives noted that it was mainly for safety to avoid the hijacking of the protest by miscreants.

"The NPF is at the National Assembly to protect the protesters from attack, and also to curb whatever violence that may erupt during the ongoing protest," Adeh said.

Also, one of the protesters, Rosemary Agbo, a graduate of Agricultural Science from the University of Abuja, said she needed to add her voice to the protest no matter how little it may be as the continuous strike action affects her too.

"I came all the way from Gwagwalada. An organisation offered me a job but I do not have my result to tender yet, Due to the strike, I am yet to do my clearance. They gave me two weeks' grace else I forfeit the job. 

"In this country where some have graduated for years and are still roaming the streets without a job, the government want me to lose this opportunity I got on a platter of gold because of this strike. This is unfair," she lamented.