ASUU Strike: Gridlock As NLC Protests In Ekiti

The Ekiti State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, launched a protest on Tuesday that resulted in gridlock in many parts of the state capital, Ado-Ekiti, in response to a directive from the NLC’s leadership to organize nationwide mass protests in support of the demands being advanced by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

The state capital of Ado-Ekiti was blocked off by NLC members with signs bearing varied statements.

As they all denounced the “nonchallant attitude and insensitivity of Federal Government to the situation of the professors,” the Student’s Union also joined in the protest.

Due to the paralysis of economic activity caused by the demonstration, commuters and drivers were stranded for hours.

The road was blocked and there was no representative of government that showed up at the House of Assembly to receive or address the protesters.

The workers described the action of the government as “disrespectful”.

In his remark, the NLC Chairman, Comrade Kolapo Olatunde, who declared the protest as the tip of the iceberg, said:

“We solicit the support and intervention of the state government in the matter of the dispute between the Federal Government and the unions in the tertiary education subsector.

“This dispute has manifested in a strike action for the past five months and has come at a huge cost to the students, the university staff, parents, the government, other stakeholders and the entire country.

“The strike is over the non-observance by government of the agreement it voluntarily entered into with the unions.It has also been about imposition of IPPIS on the university unions to which they have taken objection with credible reasons.

“We are dismayed by the federal government paralysis and reluctance to take the necessary step that could lead to the peaceful resolution of the issue in dispute and by extension ,end the strike.”