The Federal Government and Nigeria labour Congress on Wednesday disagreed over the Congress refusal to shelf its planned two-day nationwide protests scheduled for July 26 and 27(Next week)
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday after the FEC meeting said the protest was illegal since the Nigeria Labour Congress had no pending disputes with the government but the congress reacted that it would go on with the protest, saying the freedom to protest is guaranteed by the constitution.
About 40 unions, including the aviation workers have shown interest to participate in the protest called in solidarity with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which has shut down public universities since February 14 over the failure of the government to meet its demands.
Recall, President Buhari last week Tuesday, directed the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to resolve the five-month strike within two weeks and report back to him.
In solidarity with ASUU, the NLC on July 17 announced that it would kick off a nationwide protest to pressure the federal government to resolve the crisis in the tertiary education sector.
While addressing State House correspondents after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, the minister of culture and information, Lai Mohammed, accused the congress of being motivated by partisan interests, saying it supposed to have remained neutral on issues that have political colouration.
He said, “The NLC is not a political party. The NLC can go on strike or protest if the rights of the NLC members are involved. What the NLC is planning in the next few days is about interest. There’s no dispute whatsoever between NLC as a body with the Federal Government.
“So, calling out people on street protest; you begin to wonder, what is the motive of the NLC in this matter? But you see here, we do not interrogate what the NLC is doing. The NLC by its own laws cannot even give out pamphlets. And the NLC is supposed to be completely insulated from politics.”
It would be recalled that the lingering crisis between the ASUU and federal government centered on the 2009 agreement which minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and other stakeholders have been trying to resolve but to no avail.
Just yesterday, the NANS President, Comrade Sunday Asefon directed all the students union body in the 36 States of the Federation to join the 2 days protest organised by Nigeria Labour Congress .