Labour leader to unions: stop shutting down varsities

Tamarauemi Ebimini

Director-General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, Kwara State, Comrade Issa Aremu, has cautioned labour unions against shutting down tertiary institutions during strikes.

According to Aremu, the unions should understand that industrial disputes are not wars. He spoke in Akure, Ondo State, at a colloquium organised by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA).

Aremu reminded the unions that former National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, didn’t get any agreement from employers by shutting down factories in their days as textile union leaders. He urged them to return to the good old days that would not lead to total closure of schools during strikes.

He said: “You should imbibe the culture of social dialogue. Be prepared for compromise. You must not get what you always ask for. We never got agreement through shutting down the factory. What is good in the private sector must be applied in the public sector. There must be industrial relations committee; we need to build capacity for all industrial relation actors. We need to have the skill to negotiate.

“ASUU do not operate as an industrial union; it was never transformed to one. We must know how to dialogue, how to relate to get results. ASUU thinks they want to have it the way they want to have it.”

Vice Chancellor of FUTA Prof. Adenike Oladiji, who said her administration is committed to peace and a stabilised academic calendar, urged the unions to embrace peace to attract development and growth to the institution and nation.

Pro-Chancellor Godknows Igali called on the unions to work with the management for the progress of Nigeria universities. According to him, the collateral damage due to total shut of universities during strike actions was unimaginable.