NLC to commence 3-day warning strike after protest

THE leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said yesterday it has mobilised its members across Nigeria for the planned nationwide protest in all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.

The NLC said its participation in the protest, which begins today, was to press the Federal Government to resolve all the lingering issues that had kept the tertiary education closed, and to get the schools reopened for academic activities.

This is even as the Labour Centre has vowed to commence a three-day warning strike immediately after the protest and might consider the option of going on indefinite strike, if government failed to resolve the issues that caused the strike.

NLC President,  Ayuba Wabba, who stated this in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, yesterday, while responding to questions from journalists on the sideline of the ongoing 18th NLC Rain School, 2022, tagged “Labour, Politics for National Development and Social Justice in Nigeria,” said:   “The protest happening tomorrow (today) is not a solidarity protest but a protest of NLC against government’s actions that lead to our universities being shutdown and our kids staying at home instead of going to school.

“All the unions directly involved in the strike are NLC affiliates and their members are part of NLC.

“We have taken three levels of decision. First is the protest which is going to be national tomorrow. After the protest, a three-day national warning strike will start, and if they fail to resolve the issues and bring back our kids to school, we go on indefinite strike. That is the decision of our National Executive Council. 

‘’What will be helpful for them is to check the timeline we have given for them to resolve the issues. We are optimistic that they will be willing this time because we are also willing to get our children back to school.”

Speaking on the alleged failure of the APC-led government to improve the living condition of Nigerians and its decision to leave the education sector in shambles, Wabba said:  “I never knew that the exchange rate has moved within a week from N630 to N670. This is very frightening and it erodes the purchasing power of workers.

“There is no way we can continue in this direction and expect that there will be shared prosperity among workers, and within the large portion of Nigerians that are in the lower echelon at the economic ladder.

“Importantly, is the issue of our children that are out of school for five months. Basically, it also requires a political decision for the issue to be sorted out. What is even more worrisome is the fact that they keep posting the graduation of their children in universities outside the country on social media and then the universities where the children of the workers study are closed down.

“I was told today (yesterday) that we have three sets of students that ought to be in the university but unfortunately, they have not even sorted out their admission challenges. So, it’s really a very frightening future for Nigerians, particularly the youths.

‘“The irony of it is that most of the political elite today benefited from free public education. Why is it impossible for them to fix our public school system?  Is it about the class divide?  It honestly beats some body’s imagination.

“That is why all of these issues resonate that we need to engage politically. We have also realised the fact that they have used different approaches to divide Nigerians.

“Unfortunately for them, NLC is a pan-Nigerian organisation that cannot be divided. And workers should not allow themselves to be divided along ethnic or religious lines. This is just diversion of interest.

“Their division tool is happening now, workers should be wiser, citizens should be wiser. We should work assiduously to unite Nigeria and not to divide.”

Culled from Vanguard