Varsity Lecturers’ Strike: Why Nigeria Labour Congress May Not Go Ahead With Planned Nationwide Protest– Buhari’s Minister, Ngige

The Nigerian Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that the nationwide protest scheduled for July 26 and 27 by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the lingering strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is against labour practice.
 
Ngige, who noted this on Wednesday while speaking with newsmen on the matter, added that he would be surprised should the NLC carry out its threat of organising a nationwide protest.

SaharaReporters reported that the NLC had informed its members across the country of its resolve to go on a two-day protest in solidarity with ASUU which went on strike on February 14, 2022 over unresolved issues bordering on funding of universities, as well as salaries and allowances of lecturers.
 
But the labour and employment minister, who had been leading negotiations with the striking university lecturers for President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, said that NLC had been part of the negotiations the government had been having with ASUU, the university lecturers’ union.
According to Ngige, “NLC is on the table of the discussion,” adding that he invited their officials.  
“I invited them. And so, they are on the table as their senior partner. That’s one. Two, we have a National Labour Advisory Council inaugurated in January 2021. It is an ILO instrument, an ILO architecture for labour unions, governments, and the private sector to come together at any given time.
 
“So, we’ve just finished our meeting in March, and this issue was tabled before them. And the NLC is in NLAC, the National Labour Advisory Council. And much more importantly, the head of NLC, Nigeria has an affiliate of the workers’ federation world over called the International Trade Union Congress.
 
“So, I will be surprised if he’s going ahead with his NEC to do a demonstration, knowing fully well that that is not permissible in international labour parlance,” the minister said.