“We’ll embark on total strike if issues with ASUU lingers” – NLC

Comrade Ben Ukpepi, Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Cross River Council on Tuesday divulged that the union will embark on a total strike if the Federal Government fails to resolve the lingering issue with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Ukpepi said this during the NLC National Mega Rally in support of the University’s unions in the nation’s tertiary institutions, in Calabar.

The chairman said the strike will be necessary to compel the Federal Government in ensuring that the Nigerian students return to the classrooms.

“If the Federal Government refuses to resolve this issue as soon as possible, we will not hesitate to call all the workers and embark on a total strike to ensure that we compel the government to do the needful.

“What ASUU is doing is the right thing, I thank them for their resilience because if other unions can do what they have done so far, the Federal Government will sit up,” he said.

Similarly, Dr John Edoh, Chairman of ASUU, University of Calabar chapter, said it is inexplicable that the entire tertiary education system is shut down from Feb. 14 till today July 26 and the government has done nothing.

Edoh said the last industrial action they held was in 2020 when a memorandum was signed in Dec. that year and a timeline for specific actions was agreed but the Federal Government rather observed the agreements in breach and default.

According to him, they have several agreements and memoranda that have not been implemented, so, this time is a time of implementation, that the Federal Government must implement first before we return to the classrooms.

On the issue of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the don maintained that IPPIS was not congenial with university modus-operandi

“ASUU developed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution UTAS which was tested and passed for the Federal Government to pay the emoluments of University staff but the government has refused to use it.

“We are not imposing on the government how to be paid, it is a collective bargaining process, we are saying that IPPIS cannot capture the peculiarity of the university system.

“If we suspend this strike based on promises by the government and come back again in a couple of months to strike again because of the same issues as we have done in the past, it means we are not serious, it is implementation or nothing,” he said.

On his part, Anthony Afufu, a representative of the National Association of Nigerian Students, (NANS) said what they need now from the government was implementation.

Afufu said if the Federal Government refuses to implement its agreements with ASUU, they would move to the next phase which is to barricade the airports to prevent movements by air.

Responding at the Cross River House of Assembly, Mr Eteng Williams, Speaker of the house said NLC was doing the right thing as it had the right to speak to power.

He said, “When your child is crying you should be involved, we all passed through the tertiary institutions we cannot let them die”

“Our children have been at home for five months now and we are busy setting up committees without action; we cannot sit on the fence on this issue.

“I will be presenting your grievances at the speaker’s conference because we need action and that action should be now,” he said.

Also speaking, the representative of the state governor, Dr Alfred Mboto, who also received NLC’s aggrieved letter to the governor, Ben Ayade, stressing that, “No nation can survive without education, therefore, I assured you all that er will carry the message as it is and present it to the governor. All you have said would be taken straight and given to him. I can assure you that as our governor is passionate about education he will surely do something” I am also very much aware that there is a saying that says, “If you want to destroy a society there is no need to use a gun, rather you can simply destroy it by altering education” Therefore I strongly believe that the governor work on your grievances” Dr Alfred assured.

Thousands of NLC members and its affiliates took part in the mega protest, carrying Placards with the following inscriptions: “Your Kids School Abroad While You Kill Education In Nigeria” “Ngige Is Heartless” “Save Our Institutions Now” “Stop The Brain Drain” and “Buhari Saves Our Dying Educational System” “IPPIS Is A Scam, Give Us UTAS”