Education
Nigeria Labour Plans One-Day National Protest Over Varsity Strike
The organised labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared its intention to organise a one-day nationwide protest within the next two weeks to compel the federal government to resolve issues with the university workers.
The Labour movement also condemned the persisting fuel supply crisis across the country, saying the ugly situation was having serious impact on the economy and lives of Nigerians.
While addressing a meeting of the National Executive Council at Abuja, Thursday, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba expressed sadness over the continued closure of the country’s tertiary institutions due to unresolved labour dispute between the federal government and workers’ union.
He said that the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the NLC met on Wednesday and recommended that, “there will be a one-day national protest to call the attention of government to resolve the issue immediately.”
Rising from its NEC meeting yesterday, the NLC, resolved to embark on industrial action over the alleged reluctance of the government to resolve its face-off with the university unions.
THISDAY gathered from a source at the NEC meeting that the Congress had resolved that after the protest, if the government fails to resolve the crisis, it would embark on a three-day warning strike that would also culminate in a total strike.
Wabba said after the expiration of the earlier 21-day deadline issued to the government to take steps to resolve the dispute with the university teachers, nothing concrete had been achieved.
THISDAY also gathered that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was yet to submit its report on the outcome of the integrity tests conducted on the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), which is the payment platform proposed by ASUU and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System, U3PS, proposed by SSANU and NASU. As a result, the high-powered inter-ministerial committee set up by the federal government to fast-track resolution of the dispute could not submit its report to the president as expected.
Wabba said: “I think there is reluctance in addressing this issue and therefore CWC has decided that there will be a one-day national protest to call the attention of government to resolve the issue immediately after that the next decision of the CWC will take place.
“We have also asked all our affiliates in the next one week to issue statements,” he said.
On the lingering scarcity of fuel and the long queues across the country, NLC said it was pathetic that Nigeria has not availed itself of the rich endowment of oil resource by continuing to depend on imported petroleum products for local consumption.
Wabba said the situation had brought about dire consequences on productivity, economy and wellbeing of the citizens.
For instance, he said that diesel now sells at more than N800 per liter.
“It is on unfortunate that Nigeria despite being a major oil producing country has continued to fail to refine her own crude oil.
“The result of this, is the net total of 100 per cent importation of refine petroleum product into Nigeria,” he said.
“And the consequence is the heavy hemorrhage of our national coffers especially given our most important challenge which has also brought about the long queues in almost all the filling stations,” he added.
The NLC president also lamented that the situation had affected the purchasing power of many Nigerians and brought hardship with many businesses brought to a halt because they run on generator.
“Many people are closing their business and many workers are losing their jobs.
“There is no way this situation can be allowed to continue. The position of the NLC and the organised labour is that the only way out of this issue and even to end subsidy or not is for us to refine product for domestic use,” he said.
The NEC meeting of the NLC which held behind closed doors was expected to endorse the decisions of the CWC and further give specific date for the nationwide protest on the university strike.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has commenced the disbursement of upkeep payments to students who successfully updated their bank account details from digital wallets to commercial bank accounts.
This was announced in a statement released on Friday in Abuja by the Director of Strategic Communications of the Fund, Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.
Oluwatuyi described the development as a significant breakthrough in addressing earlier disbursement delays.
“Over 3,600 students, who previously registered with digital-only banking platforms, have now successfully received their backlog of upkeep payments after updating their details to conventional commercial bank accounts on the NELFUND portal,” she stated.
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of all affected students during this period. Your resilience and cooperation have made this progress possible,” she added.
The NELFUND spokesperson advised students who have yet to update their bank details to raise a support ticket via the official NELFUND portal to request access for the update.
She further urged affected students to report through the IT office of their respective institutions, which would compile and forward all related cases to NELFUND for prompt resolution.
“NELFUND remains committed to ensuring that no eligible student is left behind. This resolution process is part of our broader effort to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and student-centered delivery of our support services,” she said.
Oluwatuyi encouraged students to continue engaging only through official NELFUND channels and to assist their peers who may need help navigating the update process.
She also provided contact options for inquiries, stating that the fund can be reached via email at info@nelf.gov.ng or through its official social media handles: X (formerly Twitter) @nelfund; Instagram @nelfund; and Facebook & LinkedIn: Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has issued a directive to all accredited tertiary institutions to verify and upload their students’ data on the newly digitised Student Loan Application System (SLAS).
This was disclosed in a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday by the Director of Strategic Communications at NELFUND, Mrs Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.
According to Oluwatuyi, the SLAS platform has been fully digitised to streamline and accelerate the student loan processing experience for both institutions and applicants.
“With this upgrade, all accredited institutions are now required to request access to SLAS to verify and upload student data related to loan applications,” she said.
She described the move as “a critical step that ensures the timely processing and disbursement of approved student loans.”
Institutions that have not yet been onboarded onto the system, she said, are advised to send an access request to registration@nelf.gov.ng without delay.
“Once granted access, institutions will be able to view a real-time dashboard of their students’ loan applications, verify submitted data, and track the status of each application,” Oluwatuyi explained.
She called on all institutions to take immediate action in the interest of their students, stressing that verification and data upload by institutions are mandatory steps before final approval and disbursement of loans can be completed.
On the students’ side, Oluwatuyi noted that if an application status currently shows “Verified,” it means the application has passed initial checks. However, final approval and disbursement depend on the institutions’ confirmation and data upload.
“Once this process is completed, your status will be updated to ‘Disbursed’ when the payment of your fees has been processed,” she added.
She also encouraged students to reach out to the fund for assistance via email at info@nelf.gov.ng.
Other official communication channels include:
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X (formerly Twitter): @nelfund
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Instagram: @nelfund
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Facebook & LinkedIn: Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND
The National Universities Commission, (NUC), has given full accreditation to the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), for her Law programme.
According to the Public Relations Officer of ESUT, Mr Ikechukwu Ani, this is contained in a letter addressed to the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aloysius Okolie, on Wednesday in Enugu by the NUC.
Ani said that in the letter, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu said the report was contained in the result of the October/November 2024 accreditation of academic programmes in Nigerian universities.
Ani disclosed that other programmes in the institution accredited by the NUC include Master of Science in Business Management; Education Computer Science; Education Physics and Agricultural Engineering.
Other accredited programmes he said were Quantity Surveying; Urban and Regional Planning; and Applied Microbiology.
He said that the letter quoted Section 10 (1) of the Education National Minimum Standard and Establishment of Institutions, Act CAP E3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 as empowering the NUC to lay down minimum academic standards for all academic programmes taught in Nigerian universities.
He said the session also empowers the NUC to accredit such programmes.
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