From Benjamin Babine, Abuja
Despite government meeting some of her demands, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) says it will continue to sustain its current strike till the Federal Government meets all the remaining demands.
Addressing newsmen on Friday in Abuja, the National President of ASUP, Comrade Anderson Ezeibe, acknowledged that government had offered N15bn revitalization fund for the sector amongst other offers, but said the strike will be sustained “until the unresolved details in the offer are sorted out in the meetings expected in the coming days.”
The union had commenced an indefinite strike on April 6, demanding the implementation of a new salary scheme for polytechnic lecturers, revitalization of the dilapidated state of polytechnics, implementation of new national minimum wage, amongst others.
ASUP explained that its decision to down tool was to draw the attention of the government to the nine basic needs of the union, adding that the need to release the 10 months arrears of the new minimum wage owed its members in Federal Polytechnics and the implementation of same in the several States yet to implement the new minimum wage.
The ASUP president said: “Our union received offers from the government during the meetings for the release of an infrastructural revitalisation fund of ₦15billion for the sector and this is in lieu of the NEEDS Assessment report of 2014.”
“Following the considerations of the offers as presented, the National Executive Council of our union yesterday resolved to sustain the strike action until the unresolved details in the offer as presented are sorted out in the meetings expected in the coming days.”
Ezeibe further noted that two out of three scheduled meetings with the Federal Government have held and some of the demands met, including the release of ten months’ salaries arrears for members among others. The demands met include the reconstitution and inauguration of the governing council of all federal polytechnics which were dissolved in 2020.
ASUP’s president stressed that the strike will only be suspended after seeing the actual implementation of some of those offers by the FG.
Speaking about the recent appointment of Rectors and Principal officers in six newly established polytechnics, the president faulted the appointments saying that the five out of six of the appointments do not qualify according to the 2019 amendment of the Federal Polytechnics Act.
“We are not convinced about five out of the six appointments, because the law guiding the appointment of principal officers prescribes that a Rector must be a Chief Lecturer of not less than five years in a polytechnic in Nigeria. What we are just saying is that those persons should meet with this requirement, if they don’t meet with it, then they are not qualified.
“The Federal Ministry of Education is insisting that it is not in the place of our union to say so but that is not correct because we are also watch dogs. If we continue to allow our laws to be violated, then there will not be any end to the violation of laws in the sector. We are going to challenge this to the full extent of the law.”