Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress to shelve its proposed strike in order to prevent a possible clash between Labour Party supporters and their opponents.
Ngige, at a meeting on Thursday with NLC leadership in Abuja, stated a security report also sent to his office by the Department of State Services, strongly warned against holding the protest.
The NLC had announced that it would stage a nationwide solidarity protest on July 26 and 27 to pressure the Federal Government to resolve the five-month-long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other university-based unions.
ASUU had embarked on the industrial action on February 14 over what the union described as the failure of the government to address some of its demands.
Ngige had urged the NLC to reconsider the planned protest as hoodlums might take advantage of it to cause a breach of security.
The minister said, “The masses might wrongly interpret the rally as a ploy by the NLC to enhance the chances of the Labour Party presidential candidate, a situation which could spur the supporters of the other political parties into violence.
“Section 40 of the constitution is clear on Freedom of Association. One of the provisions is that people of like minds can organise themselves and form a political party. There is also a provision that people in work or employment can organise themselves into unions. They are two parallels. Parallels don’t meet.
“I heard when you said you are mobilising for Labour Party. But, a trade union is not a political party. Look at the Trade Union Act. It does not allow trade unions to use their contributions to support any political party.”
