The solidarity rally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday next week would hold as planned, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Joint Action Committee, comprising the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Allied Institutions and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, have said.
The planned protest is in solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which has been on strike since February 22, 2022.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reports that some of the demands of ASUU include: revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution for payment of university lecturers.
On Thursday, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, cautioned against the labour unions demonstration, saying he received a security report from the Department of State Service (DSS) that the rally might be hijacked by hoodlums
However, the labour unions said they were not aware of any security report by the DSS that advised against the rally, insisting that their protest in solidarity with ASUU over its six months old strike would hold on July 26 and 27.
NLC’s Head of Information and Public Affairs, Mr Benson Upah, said that the congress was not aware of any security report by the DSS.
Mr Upah said, “First and foremost, none of our rallies have ever been associated with violence; Nigerians can attest to that. We have always been peaceful; we will ensure we are not implicated. We will carry out our duty as usual.
“I’m not aware of any directive sent to us but I heard the Minister of Labour and Employment saying an advisory came to him, but this will not be the first time such an advisory will be issued.
“Left for the DSS, we will not hold any peaceful rally in this country. At the peak of Boko Haram attacks in Abuja we had our rally. All the rallies were peaceful. I think that is a testimony to our patriotic intention, our organisational capability, our vigilance and the voice of appreciation from Nigerians and we appreciate all of that. We have been able to conduct ourselves reasonably well.”
Mr Upah said the organised labour was not going on strike action but a rally where labour leaders would speak on the issues at stake.
“Let us also take note of the fact that this is not a strike action but a peaceful rally. It’s a symbolic gesture so people should understand and know the difference. The police are welcomed. When we are holding rallies like this, we invite the police, not to seek their permission, because the law says we don’t need their permission and that we have been automatically granted the permission,” he said.
At press conference in Abuja on Friday, the NASU General Secretary and spokesperson, SSANU/NASU JAC, Mr Peters Adeyemi, and the SSANU President, Mr Mohammed Ibrahim, said their members would participate in the rally dressed in their uniform.
Mr Ibrahim said, “For your information, the four unions are affiliated to NLC. We pay our dues, it is not free. So we enjoy all the rights and privileges of NLC membership and therefore when the issue became intractable, we took this matter to NLC and being our umbrella body, NLC took certain steps, one of which is if the previous meetings did not yield any fruit, then there will be a protest rally.
This rally is organised by the NLC and we will be there and our members will appear in our uniforms.
“Since the law enforcement agencies have been informed, we expect that they will give us protection. We expect that they will make sure that certain groups will not have access to where we are. So, it is not our duty to say this is how we will prevent others from coming. We will not allow ourselves to be used by any politician.”
