The Kwara State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress has joined the national body of the union to stage a rally to press home the demand of the Academic Staff Union of Universities on university revitalisation.
The protesting union members included NLC, ASUU, Non-Academic Staff Union, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, and other allied unions.
The protesters marched went around areas like Post Office, Challenge, A-Division Round About, and Government House on Ahmadu Bello Way, Ilorin to submit their letter to the state government.
Speaking with journalists at the NLC Secretariat in Ilorin, the Kwara State Chairman of the Union, Comrade Aliyu Isa-Ore, said the rally was organised in solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities members to press home their demand on the need for the federal government to honour their agreement.
He said the federal government had signed an agreement with ASUU some year back on University revitalisation and other sundry issues.
Comrade Isa-Ore explained that if the federal government refused to heed to their demand after the rally,the Union will go on a three-day warning strike.
The NLC chairman said, “We are here on the directive of the Nigeria Labour Congress at the headquarters to go on protest in solidarity with ASSU and other institutions in the country. The problem is that there has been an agreement between ASSU and the Federal government for over one and half years. Up till now, the Federal government are yet to implement what has been signed.
“If nothing is done after this protest, the next thing is that we are going for three working days of industrial action, and if nothing was done, we are going to do another NEC meeting to know the next line of action.
“Almost all of our students in the University are at home. Our appeal to the Federal government is to implement what they signed some years back so that our students will resume back to the University.”
In their separate remarks, the Chairman of ASUU, University of Ilorin, Professor Moyosore Ajao, and the Chairman of the National Association of Academic Technologists Union, Comrade Awolola Femi, commended the NLC for supporting their course.
Awolola said, “We are also affiliate members under NLC. They happen to become our parent bodies. Therefore, we are in full support of all these because the government has shown so much insensitivity to the happenings in the University system.”
