Mr Esele, a former President of the Commerce Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria, gave the warning whereas commenting on the solidarity protest embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

He was talking in an interview with the Information Company of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Benin.

The NLC known as up the protest on July 26 to indicate solidarity with the Tutorial Employees Union of Universities (ASUU), which has been on strike for over 5 months.

The tutorial physique has been at loggerheads with the Federal Authorities over time for the obvious lack of ability of the federal government to satisfy the phrases of its agreements with the union.

In response to Esele, the NLC must have staged the protest a very long time in the past to indicate its displeasure however “higher late than by no means.’’

He identified that the present strike may harm the upcoming common elections, advising the federal government to take steps to resolve the problems with ASUU, to avoid wasting the way forward for democracy within the nation.

The previous TUC chief famous that the most recent ASUU strike may have been averted if the Federal Authorities had saved religion and revered the phrases of agreements reached with ASUU.

“In case you ask why ASUU is on strike proper now, it’s as a result of that they had negotiations with the Federal Authorities in 2009 and there was an settlement.

“That settlement was purported to have been carried out by the federal government however they didn’t implement it.

“In 2014, the federal government paid N200 billion out of the N1.2 trillion ASUU demanded and in 2019, the federal government paid solely N20 billion.

“So when the federal government has gone forward to not fulfil the phrases of agreements reached, what you may have naturally is for ASUU to go on strike to press its calls for,” he mentioned.

Esele mentioned that the solidarity protest by the NLC nationwide was to make all people know that the continual closure of public universities within the nation was harmful for the nation and the schooling sector particularly.

He identified that from 1999 until date, the nation’s universities had been shut cumulatively for about six years.

“But, we specific shock over the present insecurity. You’ve got thousands and thousands of Nigerian youths sitting at dwelling and doing nothing.

“Extra so, infrastructure within the universities are decaying as a result of no person is there to handle them. You’ve got an economic system round universities, proper now that economic system is nil.

“Staff in that setting, actual property and even mother and father within the universities’ setting are all at dwelling, so why are you stunned about insecurity.

“An idle thoughts, they are saying, is the satan’s workshop,” he warned.

Esele careworn that if the federal government had been dedicated to honouring agreements reached with ASUU and paid N200 billion yearly for the reason that settlement was reached, it will have lengthy accomplished the fee and forestalled the strike by ASUU.