ASUU: The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Threatens Solidarity Strike

* 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. The Union accused the
government of being insensitive to the plight of
Nigerians.
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”.
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.”