The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, staged a protest in solidarity with university unions over the lingering shutdown of federal universities across the country.
According to reports that university unions including Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and National Association of Technologists (NAAT), had embarked on industrial action over federal government’s total neglect of university education and failure to meet union’s demands.
The protest, which took place in Awka, the Anambra state capital, attracted hundreds of members from the university-based unions, other unions under the umbrella of NLC such as the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), National Association of Nigerian Students, among others.
The protesters were seen with various inscriptions such as ‘FG should do the needful to end the strike now’, ‘Our children must go back to school’, ‘Stop the brain-drain now’, ‘NASU demands for re-negotiation of 2009 Agreement’, ‘
Speaking during the protest, the Anambra state NLC chairman, Comrade Chinwe Orizu, called on the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo to intervene in the dispute between the federal government and unions in the tertiary education sector. According to her, the dispute had manifested in strike action for over 5-months, with a huge cost to the students, the university staff, parents, government, and other stakeholders.
