Nigeria’s electricity workers on Sunday placed the Nigerian government on notice of its planned solidarity protest with the Nigeria Labour Congress/Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
ASUU has been on strike for more than five months over unpaid salaries and emolument. The strike by the universities teachers has grounded academic activities in the nation’s ivory towers to a halt.
President Muhammadu Buhari, had last week directed the ministers of Education and Labour/ Employment, Adamu Adamu and Chris Ngige to meet with ASUU with the aim of ending the strike.
Not a few think that the president’s intervention should have come long time ago, when the labour dispute was still at the teething stage.
Keen watchers of the dispute say there are more complications now that other unions have decided to join their counterparts in the university in their protest against the government.
Recall that the NLC, the umbrella body has warned that its members will join the strike this week if ASUU’s issue is not resolved by the Buhari’s administration.
The power sector workers in a letter issued by the General Secretary, NUEE, Joe Ajaero, to the vice presidents of states and administrative councils chapter secretaries of the union, said they are prepared to join the strike.
The letter with reference, NUEE/NS/2022/008, titled, “Nigeria Labour Congress/ASUU Solidarity Protest,” is dated July 22, 2022.
“In line with the NLC’s directive and our position which was made known at the Central Working Committee and National Executive Council meeting of Congress,” the letter read in part.
“All members of the union are enjoined to massively mobilise and actively participate in the NLC/ASUU solidarity protest against the continued closure of the nation’s tertiary institutions, schedule for July 26/27, 2022.
“You are encouraged to work with the leadership of State Executi Councils of the congress in your various states with a view having a successful outing. Aluta Continua!”
If the electricity workers make good their threat, Nigerians may yet witness another round of blackouts beginning from Tuesday.
The development may further worsen the electricity situation in the country which has been recently hampered by recurrent national grid collapse.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN has just restored power after many days of national blackout due to the recent collapse of the national grid. The grid had collapsed for a record six times this year, with businesses being seriously hit.
Meanwhile, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), has warned the federal government that salary adjustment for only university lecturers is a recipe for crisis in the nation’s higher institution
NASU and SSANU vowed to reject any salary increment in the university system that would further widen the gulf between teaching and non-teaching staff.
“Let it be stated clearly, that SSANU and NASU reject any salary recommendation that would cause a further disparity in the university system.
“There is an already existing disparity in the system, which we had always closed our eyes to. To further expand that disparity would be an invitation to the greatest level of anarchy and industrial unrest ever witnessed in the university system,” Peters Adeyemi who spoke on behalf of the unions said in Abuja.
