A two-day nationwide protest in support of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has been on strike for the past five months over salary issues with the government, was launched by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Tuesday.
The demonstrations took place in Abuja on Wednesday. Nigeria’s umbrella union NLC tweeted, “Today is the mother of the protest rally to get our children back to school.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities’ ongoing strike began on February 14. A second eight-week strike was called after the initial one-month warning strike, and then it became an indefinite strike, which prompted the federal government to impose No-Work, No-Pay.
The conclusion of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement Renegotiation, which unions claim was not executed, as well as demands including the cancellation of the IPPIS program, the deployment of the UTAS, and the payment of promotion arrears, are at the center of the walkout.
Negotiations with the authorities did not result in a compromise. Nigerians should ask them when they will ask us to come and sign the report/agreement of the renegotiation meeting, said Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of ASUU. Local media outlets claim that Nigerian President Buhari ordered the Education Minister to propose a compromise to the ASUU strike before the beginning of August.
