The Kwara State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Tuesday staged a rally to press home the demand of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on university revatalisation in support of its national body.
This is just as some of the unions advocated for enactment of laws to ban Nigerians from studying abroad, noting that children of wealthy people school in foreign countries while Nigeria’s schools are in a shambles.
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Members of the union, which comprised the NLC, ASUU, NASU, SANU and other allied unions, matched across major areas like Post Office, Challenge, A-Division roundabout and Government House to submit their letter of protest to the state government.
They also displayed placards with inscriptions such as “My child my pride.”
Speaking to 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 ASUU members to press home their demand on the need for the federal government to honour the agreement it reached with ASUU.
Isa-Ore explained that if the federal government failed to heed to their demand after the rally, the Union would commence a three-day warning strike.
In their separate remarks, the ASUU chairman, University of Ilorin, Prof Moyosore Ajao, and the chairman of National Association of Academic Technologists Union, Comrade Awolola Femi, thanked the NLC for supporting their course.
According to Ajao, the university workers demands are legitimate and long overdue to deserve government attention.
“Let the government tell us which of our demands is illegitimate. Is it our salary that has not increased in the last 13 years or our demand for government to make infrastructure available?
“We are not robots. Treat us like humans and safe our children from idleness and crime. This struggle belongs to the entire nation and not ASUU alone,” he added.
Ajao also called for the enactment of law to ban Nigerians schooling abroad in order to allow growth in Nigeria educational system.
- On his part, Comrade Awolola Femi Paul said the struggle is for the lecturers and students because of the decay in the university today.
“Non of the wealthy and influencial people allow their children to attend public universities anymore,” he added.
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