The organized labour in Ekiti state on Tuesday joined their counterparts across the country to demand a speedy resolution of the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities impasse which has grounded university education in the country in the last five months.
The workers under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) trooped out in large numbers in the streets of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital demanding that the federal government resolved the issues with the lecturers and other university workers in the interest of the students who are missing out in their educational career.
The protest took off from the popular Fajuyi park through bank road to the house of Assembly where they made a detour to Okeiyinmi and terminated it at the governor’s office where they submitted a letter.
The NLC chairman in the state, Kolapo Olatunde who led the protesters lamented what he termed as the lackadaisical attitude of the federal government in meeting the demands of the striking lecturers, explaining that the failure of the government to fulfil its own part of the 2009 agreement with ASUU, the union would deploy other measures which could affect the nation’s economy.
According to him, ” We are protesting today(Tuesday) to demand the right of our members in the university system -ASUU, SSANU, NAAT and NASU. Workers in these sectors have been home for the past five months and the federal government is not doing something about it.
“We want Mr President to know what is wrong with our university system in the country and probably if he is not aware, but with our coordinated action across the country today, he should know and do the needful.
“Let me say it here today that if protest didn’t work in resolving these issues, I can tell you other things will work but I won’t reveal it yet. But let me say if after the protest and nothing works, the other measures will bite harder. It could be a strike, it could be a stoppage of fuel distribution, or it could grounding the airports and the rest. But we hope they listen to us.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
ASUU strike: NLC protests in Ekiti, threaten to ground nation’s economy
and then