Following the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Monday, August 14, the Nigeria Labour Congress has declared its support for the union’s action. The General Secretary of the labour union, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson urged the government to honour the agreement it had with the union in 2009.
Ozo-Eson who said he was part of the team that negotiated the FGN/ASUU agreement in 2009 blamed the politicians for refusing to implement the agreement they had with the academic union because their children do not attend Nigerian universities.
He said, “I negotiated that agreement on the ASUU side and it took a long time for a decision to be reached. Initially, government backed away, then it reconstituted and gave authority to the Onosode committee and at the end, the agreement was signed, but government has failed to fully implement it.
“In 2013, when there was a problem, the NLC had to broker the condition that led to the signing of the MoU. Government again has reneged on its own side of the bargain. So when we say ASUU has gone on strike so many times, we need to put it in perspective to say government has consistently failed to honour its own side of the bargain.
“They (government) do this so brazenly and so easily because most of their children do not attend universities here. They are abroad. And that is where the citizens come in. Citizens must be able to hold these people accountable by insisting that their own children have a right to uninterrupted education too and therefore force government to do what is correct so that education can be without interruption.”
