ASUU: Nigeria may experience two day blackout as NUEE joins solidarity protest.
It is no longer news that the Nigerian Tertiary Institutions have been shut down for about five months now and still counting. This is due to the civil action taken by the Academic Staff union of universities which began on 15th February 2022. Since then, various talks have been held between the federal government and the union with all of them yielding no fruitful output.
Many other unions existing in the country have expressed dissatisfaction with the lackadaisical approach of the federal government in putting an end to the ever lingering strike which has kept occuring for decades. It is to that effect that the Nigeria Labour congress (NLC) and the National union of electricity employees (NUEE) have decided to join ASUU on a two day solidarity rally with the hope of passing a clear message to those in power that all is not well.
The Nigeria Labour congress has since announced it’s plans to partner with ASUU for a two day rally which is scheduled to hold on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th July 2022. The federal government tried it’s possible best to discourage this action with claims that it was illegal.This claim was made by the minister of information and culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed while briefing journalists on the decisions of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), at it’s meeting in Abuja last Wednesday. Nevertheless, the rally already scheduled will not be cancelled.
The National Electricity Employees as on the 22nd July, 2022 issued a statement to all of their branches nation wide, urging them to comply with the leadership of the State Executive Council. (SEC) of the congress to ensure a successful outing. This translates to a possible blackout across the federation on these two days.
ASUU and Federal Government tussle has been on for a while now. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the Academic union has used over 1404 days (close to four years) to go on strike. The first strike of the union in 1999 lasted for 90days followed by another 90days strike in 2001 which made it a cummulative 180days between 2 years.
In 2003, the union embarked on another strike action. This time 180 days straight and so it continued up till this day.
Frequent shut down of tertiary institutions across the nation has also contributed enormously to the retarded development of the educational sector. Ranging from poor infrastructure, to poor equipment which results to poor education in the end.
ASUU: Nigeria may experience two day blackout as NUEE joins solidarity protest.
