The NLC on Wednesday received some assurances from the House of Representative as the Nigerian workers continued their 2 days nationwide solidarity protest in support of ASUU.
The apex labour body led by her president Comrade Ayuba Wabba led other affiliate unions in Abuja in solidarity with the university lecturers who has been striking for over 5 months now.
Also at the protest was Omoyele Sowore the Presidential aspirant of the African Action Congress, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the immediate past president of ASUU Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi and other university dons.
Recall that on the first day of the protest, a notable Nigerian lawyer and a senior advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, SAN was also part of the protest on the street of Lagos.
The NLC wondered why ASUU would still be on strike and public universities owned by the federal government shut down when the money the two major parties APC and PDP raked in and spent during their last primaries in preparation to the 2023 general election is enough to resolve the ASUU crisis.
Clariform reminds our readers that the university lecturers shut down the universities earlier this year following many failed attempts to get the FG to implement the renegotiated 2009 agreement entered with the government.
The lecturers are also aggrieved with the federal government insistency on pulling ASUU into the IPPIS as against the lecturers own designed UTAS for payment of their salaries.
The protest witnessed a heavy presence of security personnel especially the DSS, Police, NSCDC etc. The presence of the security personnel did not however deter the determined workers from the protest.
The earlier warning by the federal government against the strike was ignored by the labour bodies and CSOs who trooped out in their numbers for the protest.
The protesters later marched to the National Assembly where the leadership of Labour delivered a message to the lawmakers for transmission to the executive arm of government.
While responding to the protesters on Wednesday, Muhammad Wudil, a lawmaker from Kano state, said the concerns of ASUU will be addressed.
He said, “We assured them that the national assembly, most especially the house of reps is the last bus stop of the common man and also the national assembly is the symbol of democracy,”
“I promised them that the house of reps will bring all these concerns to the table.”
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Reps, Idris Wase, who presided over the plenary, also responded to the protesters promising a prompt intervention by the house.
“We assure that by the grace of God the leadership will wade into it and act promptly and we are going to do justice to all their demands,” the Deputy Speaker said.
