ASUU STRIKE: THE TRUE NLC POSITION
Our attention has been drawn to a widespread report of a public lecture by comrade Isa Aremu, to which he was alleged to have berated ASUU on the on-going strike in the tertiary institutions in the country. We wish to state that the view expressed in the said public lecture given to students of the Department of Economics of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaira, were the personal views of Comrade Issa Aremu and not that of Nigeria Labour Congress. The Nigeria Labour Congress, as a responsible Central Labour Organisation with its 37 affiliates, has a refined process of relating with its affiliates. Where the need arises for Congress to have conversation with one of its affiliates, it is certainly not done through public lectures.
NLC is involved in an ongoing consultation with all parties involved to try and find a resolution to the crisis of the strikes of the 3 unions in the sector, and it cannot therefore carry out such a disparaging position against one of its affiliates.
For the record, NLC is in touch with government at the highest level to get them to return to the negotiation table with ASUU, NASU and SSANU as we believe that even in war; ultimate resolutions are found on the negotiation table.
The NLC has refrained from making public statements on the strike because we felt that will not serve the course of trying to mediate in the dispute so that we can resolve it and have our children return to their schools.
It was in pursuit of this that the NLC President held meetings with the Leadership of the 3 unions on Wednesday 26th August, 2009 at Congress Headquarters in Abuja, in which the Presidents of all three unions were in attendance. At the meeting we charted a path in trying to resolve this issue and the Congress Leadership was mandated to reach government at the highest level to try to break the impasse. The Congress Leadership has also at this period pleaded with a number of its affiliates that have been so dissatisfied and were requesting for an organ meeting to authorize solidarity action with the sector, to give it more time to try to achieve a peaceful resolution of the action which has crippled the tertiary education sector in the country.
We do hope that our efforts to resolve this crisis will achieve the desired result. But where it fails, the NLC will not hesitate to call a meeting of CWC and NEC to deliberate on the best way to give solidarity support to the unions engaged in this action.
The NLC enjoys a robust relationship with the media; we therefore feel the headlines that gave the impression that Comrade Isa Aremu’s personal comments at a public lecture where he was neither representing nor speaking for the NLC could be portrayed as NLC’s official position on such a sensitive issue, were rather unfair to our cherished and robust relationship with the media.
John E. Odah,General Secretary of the NLC