NLC Declares Full Support for ASUU’s Two-Week Warning Strike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared its full support for the two-week warning strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which began on October 13.

The lecturers’ industrial action follows unresolved disputes with the Federal Government over poor working conditions, the implementation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, payment of withheld salaries, and sustainable funding for the revitalisation of public universities.

In a statement issued on Sunday, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, described the ASUU strike as a “direct consequence” of the government’s failure to honour collectively bargained agreements.

“Rather than engaging in good faith to resolve the crisis, the government has resorted to the unproductive threat of ‘No Work, No Pay’. This misrepresents the situation. The breach of contract lies with the state, not the scholars,” Ajaero stated.

He said the government’s persistent refusal to implement agreements voluntarily reached with lecturers was undermining the public tertiary education system.

According to Ajaero, the NLC is deeply concerned about the chronic underfunding of public universities and the widening educational inequality in the country.

“This struggle extends beyond an isolated industrial dispute. It reflects a broader societal issue. While the children of the elite attend private institutions or study abroad, the children of the working class and the poor are left in a public education system being systematically weakened,” he said.

He added that the situation was creating an educational divide that limits social mobility and entrenches inequality.

Ajaero called on the Federal Government to use the two-week window to address the core issues in the agreements with ASUU and avert a nationwide shutdown of the education sector.

He further revealed that the NLC would soon convene an emergency meeting with its affiliates in the tertiary education sector to formulate a coordinated response if the government remains unresponsive.

“We serve notice that if, after this two-week warning strike, the government remains unresponsive, the NLC will not stand idly by. The choice is clear: honour the agreements and salvage public education or face the resolute and unified force of the entire Nigerian workforce,” the statement concluded.