NLC threatens nationwide shutdown over ASUU strike

The Nigerian Labour Congress on Wednesday threatened to embark on a nationwide strike unless the Federal Government intervened to resolve the protracted strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

At the end of its National Executive Committee meeting in Kaduna yesterday, the NLC, in a communiqué, said that it was dismayed by the inability of the government to put an end to the strike that had crippled academic activities in public universities.

The President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar and the Acting General Secretary of the Congress, Mr. Chris Uyot, accused the Federal Government of sponsoring protests against ASUU instead of resolving the lingering crisis.

They warned that the NLC would not hesitate to call out Nigerian workers to protest across the country if the present situation was not changed by the Federal Government.

Omar and Uyot also stated that the NLC had taken a decision to intervene in the crisis rocking the university system in order to save Nigerian students from needless pains.

'NEC-In-Session expresses its deep concern for the near total collapse of the education sector. It is a sad commentary that government has allowed the strike by ASUU  to drag on for so long with incalculable consequences.

'Rather than resolve these issues, government is busy sponsoring protest groups against ASUU.

'NEC cautions that if government persists with this line of action, it will mobilize its members to stage counter protests across the country. It has the will and the capacity and it advises that government should not test that will.'

Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor, The Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Prof. Adebayo Adeyemi, has described the lingering ASUU strike as a national problem, and not a blessing to the private universities.

Adeyemi while briefing the press on Wednesday on its 5th forthcoming convocation, said both the Federal Government and ASUU should meet and reach an implementable agreement, so that the strike could be called off.