THE Vice President of the Nigerian Labour Congress ( NLC), Issa Aremu, has said that the casualties recorded by the students, some of whom had died during the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike and the breaking of the ranks of the union, resulting in the non-participation of some of its branches, in the strike, are enough evidence that the current action of the university lecturers had failed.
He therefore, advised that ASUU should consider a change of strategy in its current face-off with the Federal Government as the union had overused the strike option.
He said this while delivering a public lecture with the theme “Labour strikes and the Nigerian economy,” organised by the Department of Economics and the Nigerian Economics Students Association of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria. He said that ASUU should change its strategy because in its over two-month-old unresolved industrial dispute with the government, ASUU had continued to record serious casualties.
“These factors therefore, necessitated the suspension of the ongoing industrial action by ASUU to enable the union give room for a renewed negotiation with the Federal Government,” he said.
He appealed to the government to review its new strategy of “not talking to ASUU” and warned that collective bargaining and the education of Nigerian children should not be politicised.
“The two parties should consider the fact that the current crises in the nation’s education sector were beyond selfish personal issues. ASUU should also revisit its own strategy. It is bad enough that ASUU has overused the strike option.
“With a two-week warning strike and indefinite strikes of eight weeks, ASUU is recording serious casualties. The first casualties are the students. Some have died through road accidents. Some are now engaged in criminal activities.”
“On the part of the government, the strategy of not talking to ASUU is unhelpful. Collective bargaining is a problem-solving technique, not a problem-compounding device. We should not politicise collective bargaining or education of our children.”
Meanwhile, students of the University of Ibadan (U.I), on Tuesday, protested the continued strike action embarked upon by the university workers in the country.
The students, under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), as early as 8 a.m., barricaded the main entrance of the institution and declared that they were tired staying at home doing nothing.
The aggrieved students led by the chairman, Students’ Union Transition Committee, Mr. Raimi Oluwadamilare, said the protest was to tell the whole world that they were tired of staying at home.
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