NLC, PENGASSAN, Others Move To End ASUU Strike

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday said that it would intervene in
the face-off between the striking Academic Staff Unions of Universities
and the Federal Government.
The NLC’s move was coming amidst appeals and condemnation by other
similar bodies, including the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria and religious leaders, to the Federal Government
and ASUU. While some Lagos clerics urged the government to end the
strike, PENGASSAN condemned the Federal Government for not honouring
an agreement it had earlier signed with ASUU.
But the President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, who spoke shortly
after a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the NLC in Abuja
on Thursday, said the congress would persuade the striking university
lecturers to resume talks with the government, with a view to resolving
the lingering issue.
Omar said the NLC had to take the decision to prevail on ASUU, an
affiliate union of the congress, to resume negotiation with the
government because of its concern about the suspension of academic
activities in the nation’s universities for close to two months.
The NLC president said the congress would also ensure that deliberations
between ASUU and the government were fruitful.
He said, “It is a very serious issue we are having on our hands to allow
lecturers to be out of the classrooms for close to two months. We are
currently embarking on consultation with a view to convincing members of
the union to resume negotiation with the federal government.”
However, PENGASSAN, on its part, said it viewed “with deep concern and
discontent the ongoing and indeed a recurring strike in our nation’s ivory
towers by the Academic Staff Unions of Universities.”
The body said it was condemnable that the ongoing strike had entered its
ninth week, without any sign of its being resolved soon “as parties in the
crisis continue to trade blame and spoil for more actions on the matter.”
A statement by the Public Relations Officer, PENGASSAN, Seyi Gambo, on
Thursday, said, “We have watched with keen interest as the Dr. Nasir
Issa Faggie-led ASUU declared a three-day warning strike before it
finally embarked on an indefinite strike action on July 1, 2013, towards
ensuring that the Federal Government honoured the cardinal agreements
reached with the universities lecturers since 2009.”
Similarly, some clerics in Lagos have urged the Federal Government and
ASUU to go back to the drawing table and arrive at a final agreement so
that universities can reopen.
Vice President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter,
Pastor Femi Asiwaju, urged the Federal Government to address the
demands of ASUU so that students could go back to school.
Also, Imam Luckmon Abdulraheem, Senior Lecturer, Centre for
Entrepreneurship Development, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, urged
the Federal Government to meet the demands of the union so that the
country’s higher institutions could be more equipped and conducive for
learning.