Group backs NLC on planned protest over ASUU strike

Group backs NLC on planned protest over ASUU strike

The Movement for A Socialist Alternative (MSA) has thrown its weight behind the proposed protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) and other education workers.

NLC had announced a nationwide protest scheduled for July 26 and 27, should the government fail to reach an agreement with the striking workers unions.

In a statement issued by its General Secretary, A. J. Dagga Tolar, on Sunday, the MSA noted that the ongoing strike by all the tertiary education workers demonstrates the utter neglect of the sector by the ruling elites.

“The reasons for the strike actions by these unions are majorly underfunding of the education sector, poor enumeration of workers, decay infrastructures in the institutions, non-payment of allowances, and non-implementation of the agreement by the government among others,” the statement read in part.

“With the huge mineral and natural resources that Nigeria is blessed, ordinarily funding should not be a problem. However the neoliberal capitalist bent of the Buhari regime and governments before it, has handed over the commanding sector of the economy to a few individuals and their cronies to milk the resources and make millions from it while leaving the vast majority of Nigerians to wallop in hunger and penury, at the same time leaving vital key sectors of the economy like education in need in dire need of funds.”

The group called on the trade unions — NLC and TUC — to mobilise Nigerians for a rescue mission by building a Working People Party with a Socialist Programme to nationalise the commanding sector of the economy and place it under workers’ democratic management.

MSA also said it condemned the “outright hand over” of the Labour Party (LP) to candidates cross carpeting from the major political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

It said, “A reclaimed LP for the working people must in all character openly come out against privatization and deregulation and canvass electorally for the working masses themselves to elect their representative, on an average skill workers wage, and also subject to immediate recall, if they derail from standing for a programme that would win it overall power with which to then employ the resources and wealth of the country to meet the needs and aspirations of the working masses, as oppose to feeding the greed for profit of the few at the expense of the wellbeing of the citizens.”

While charging Nigerian students to join the planned protest, the group urged labour leaders to mobilise for a 48-hour general warning strike if the government refuses to address their demands.

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