The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as well as the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have sent a serious warning to the federal government noting that there would be no election in 2023 if it fails to reopen and equip public universities.
The NLC and CSOs in Rivers State have during yesterday’s protest declared that the time was ripe to save the future of Nigerians from a collapsed country.
The message of the NLC with its affiliate members and CSOs during a protest in Port Harcourt, the state capital, was ‘enough is enough’ to bad governance.
State Chairperson of NLC Beatrice Itubo made this known when she addressed workers in Port Harcourt in solidarity with the ongoing strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Itubo lamented the states of education and security, noting the high rate of inflation in the country which has threatened the future of Nigerians.
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‘Everything has gone wrong in the country. There is nothing in security; education is gone. So, we are saying enough is enough. And Nigerian workers have come out today, to protest though peacefully,’ she declared.
Itubo lamented that those leaders who, during their time benefited and enjoyed free education and public school facilities, were those ‘killing’ the education sector.
‘It is unfortunate, it is an aberration that those people that enjoyed free education, they enjoyed public schools and their facilities are the same people who have come and decided to kill the same system that brought them to the apex.’
She urged their members to be peaceful throughout the period of the demonstration, warning that, if at the end of the protest nothing was done, Labour would embark on strike.
‘We are calling on all of us to be peaceful. Let us not go and destroy property. Yes, we are all angry at what is happening in the country. Inflation is at its highest level,’ Itubo stated.
‘We are going to obey them (NLC national leadership) to the latter because the future of this country is in our hands. The future of our children is in our hands. We have to stand because the time is now.’
Enefaa Georgewill of the Civil Society Organisations (CLOs) berated the authorities saddled with the responsibility for the education sector.
‘If the universities are well funded, if the equipment are there, why send your children to Europe?,’ he asked.
‘Our point is simple; if the schools are shut down, if the equipment are not there, automatically, there would be no election. They (government) should forget about the (2023) election.’
Speaking on behalf of the state government, the Permanent Secretary in charge of Special Services in the office of the Secretary to the State Government, George Nweke, said his representation of the governor was not a disrespect to Nigerian workers.
