The gale of strike actions in Nigeria widened on Tuesday as two workers’ unions commenced indefinite, nationwide suspension of work.
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics on Tuesday began an indefinite strike, after the expiration of an ultimatum they issued in March.
The teachers said they are protesting against the government’s failure to address the poor state of polytechnics and monotechnics in the country.
The teachers’ strike coincided with that of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, which also commended on Tuesday.
JUSUN said the indefinite, nationwide strike is to press for its demand for financial autonomy for the judiciary. This comes nearly one year after President Muhammadu Buhari signed an Executive Order granting financial autonomy to the nation’s judiciary.
Members of the union have locked courts in Lagos, Oyo, Kano, and other parts of Nigeria, as they enforced the strike. The members sealed some of the offices in the courts and pasted strike notices at their entrances.
These strike actions are coming just five days after the Resident Doctors embarked on a nationwide strike, in protest over non-payment of allowances and other conditions of service.
Anderson Ezeibe, President of ASUP, told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday that academic activities had been halted in all polytechnics and similar institutions across the nation, starting from 12 a.m.
He stressed that ASUP’s demands had been communicated to the ministries of education, labor, and others, including the state governors, but regretted that despite that, nothing had been done about them.
The lecturers’ grievances to include non-implementation of 2014 NEEDS Report and non-release of revitalization fund to the sector despite assurances given by the government in 2017.
“Our grievances also include the non-reconstitution of governing councils in federal polytechnics and many state-owned institutions leading to the disruption of governance and administrative processes in the institutions since May 2020,” he said.
On its part, the judicial workers’ union at its national executive meeting in Abuja on March 13, 2021, handed a three-week ultimatum to the government.
It followed this up with a circular dated April 1, 2021, in which it mobilized its members to shut down courts in the country with effect from today, Tuesday, April 6.
“Therefore, as a result of the public holiday on April 5, 2021, the strike action has been postponed to Tuesday, April 6, 2021. You are directed to shut down courts/departments in your states until further notice from the National Secretariat of JUSUN in Abuja,” Isaiah Adetola, General Secretary of JUSUN, said in the circular.
Buhari on May 22, 2020, signed into law an Executive Order granting financial autonomy to the legislature and the judiciary in the 36 states of the federation.
