Members of the Lagos Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and affiliate unions on Tuesday converged on the Ikeja roundabout for the solidarity protest rally in support of the striking university lecturers and other unions.
The members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other unions in the public universities have been at loggerheads with the Federal Government.
Students in the affected public universities have been out of school since Feb. 14 when the ASUU strike started, and the NLC wants a quick resolution of the problems, among other issues.
The protest in Lagos, which is part of the nationwide action called by the national body, saw the unionists march in major streets of Ikeja, carrying placards with different inscriptions on the need for better conditions in the country, and singing solidarity songs.
Policemen were seen in some vehicles around, to avoid a crisis.
Speaking during the rally, the Chairperson, Lagos State NLC, Agness Sessi, called on the government to make things better in the country, noting that the economy was not in good shape.
The Southwest Coordinator of ASUU, Dr Adelaja Ogunkoya, said that the government’s stance on the lingering lecturers’ strike that had kept students at home for more than five months was not good enough.
“Before foreign students do come to Nigeria universities for studies but today the reverse is the case,” he said, adding that there was a need to do something about it.
He also decried the poor welfare of university lecturers, resulting in low morale to research, among other things.
Mr Wale Seteolu, another unionist and a university don, said it was only through revamping of education that the nation could get back to reckoning.
An associate of the union and Lagos lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), said the people reserve the right to call a government to order.
The NLC in Lagos had said on Monday that they would march to the state secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja to deliver a letter to the state governor.
The Federal Government had earlier urged the NLC to shelve the nationwide protest.
