ASUU: NUPENG threatens solidarity strike

The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural
Gas Workers (NUPENG) has said it will go on a
solidarity strike with the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU), if the Federal
Government does not comply with the
agreement it signed with the lecturers’ union.
NUPENG accused the government of being
insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
It noted that the way the government has been
acting on the ASUU strike portrayed it as
unconcerned about the nation’s suffering.
NUPENG’s National President Igwe Achese
spoke at the weekend in Lagos when he
announced the union’s delegates’ conference
which will hold on October 17 in Port
Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Achese noted that the “nation’s foundation is
shaking because our future leaders and their
children are not attending our local
universities”.
According to him, the Federal Government
owes it as a duty to end the strike.
The union leader urged the government to
respect the agreement it signed with ASUU in
2009, adding that the government should see
itself as an employer of labour.
He said: “It is particularly shocking that the
government has carried on as if everything is
normal, without bothering about the fate of
the students who have been marooned at
home since the strike started. Perhaps this is
because the children and wards of those at the
helm of affairs are luxuriating in schools
abroad, or because they are too comfortable
to worry about their less-fortunate
compatriots.”
Achese attributed the incessant strikes in the
country to the fact that the Ministry of Labour
had not been performing its duties.