The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, yesterday threatened to join the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, if the federal government failed to address issues raised by the union and put an end to their action.
Quadri Olaleye, President of TUC, who made the vow on behalf of the National Administrative Council, NAC, said: “TUC and its affiliates are unanimous on the return of our children back to school, and government has no excuse whatsoever to further keep these innocent students and their lecturers at home.
”The Congress is worried that a government that could raise money to feed children who were at home during the heat of COVID-19 cannot do same for the education sector now.
“We condemn the continued disruption of academic calendar in public institutions and the apathetic attitude of political office holders, who are busy buying nomination forms at N100, 000,000 while the economy is gasping for breath.
”They make politics expensive to disenfranchise Nigerians of conscience from the political space. The peak of the absurdity is that even serving politicians with no visible projects to their credit are also buying forms to be president.
“We wish to stress that the reason politicians care less about the plight of Nigerians is the fact that their children school and live abroad, what happens in Nigerian public universities is none of their business. ”The time has come for organized labour and all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Federal Government to honour the collective agreement reached with the university teachers.
”The danger of keeping the students at home at a time the country is facing a serious security challenge is quite grave and unacceptable to us.
“Congress finds it ridiculous that public officers, rather than listen to the voice of reason, avoid and walk out of negotiations. We are convinced that an injury to one is an injury to all.
”Therefore, TUC is strongly in solidarity with the university lecturers and the students in this struggle and we advise that everything must be done to dispense with the impasse to avoid a situation where Congress might be compelled to embark on a solidarity strike.
