Railway workers threaten strike, urge prompt resolution of ASUU impasse

Citing protracted talks for improved welfare with no result in sight, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has threatened to embark on an indefinite strike.

The union regretted that eight months after its three-day nationwide warning strike, no ‘significant achievement’ had been recorded.

NUR also deplored government’s handling of the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, observing that the current administration’s ‘no work, no pay’ policy was disingenuous.

It appealed to the Federal Government to, swiftly, resolve the impasse in the overall interest of the nation. In a statement, yesterday, by its president and secretary, Innocent Luka Ajiji and Segun Esan, NUR challenged government to rescue millions of Nigerian youths that are suffering from this unnecessary test of might, noting: “An idle hand is the devil’s workshop.”

The railway workers charged the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to embrace the lecturers’ University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform.

THIS is even as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) urged the National Assembly to urgently legislate on rejuvenating polytechnics to enable them contribute meaningful to Nigeria’s technological revolution.

It stated that a situation, where the polytechnic sector is deprived of funding and discriminated against, would keep the most populous nation under-developed.

Erstwhile chairman of ASUP in Kaduna Polytechnic, Malam Mustapha Yahaya Bida, made the submission, yesterday, while delivering a paper as guest speaker at the institution’s ASUP Week.

He said: “We need an attitudinal change that shows that we have realised that it is only technical education that can give us a new direction in Nigeria. There is need for the legislative arm of government to rejuvenate the polytechnic education system so that we can really have a new technological revolution we have been clamouring for. The one that would lead to technological development of Nigeria. Only the polytechnic that can provide that.

“Polytechnic education is the basis for technological development. The sector is very creative and the government has forgotten that it is most costly to run.”

Also speaking, the institution’s Deputy Rector, Academic, Dr. Rosemary Kato, implored government to increase funding of technical education for Nigeria’s advancement.

Earlier, ASUP chapter chairman, Comrade Mohammed Mohammed, said the week-long event, with the theme, “broadening the frontiers of our bond,” was to promote brotherhood for a shared destiny.