Setback for Nigerian Students as Polytechnic Lecturers Announce Strike
- Polytechnics in Nigeria may soon be shut by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP)
- The workers said the federal and state governments have failed to uphold their obligations
- The Nigerian government has not responded to the accusations made by ASUP
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Polytechnic lecturers in Nigeria have announced that they are embarking on a strike on April 6, 2021.
According to The Guardian, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), said unresolved issues with the federal government and some states prompted their planned strike.
Source: Twitter
ASUP in a communiqué signed by its president, Anderson Ezeibe, accused the government of failing to pay 10 months arrears of the new minimum wage owed its members.
The association also demanded that some state governments should pay up arrears of the new minimum wage owed state polytechnic lecturers, Vanguard reported.
Ezeibe said:
‘’There is the need to implement the contents of the NEEDS Assessment report of 2014 in public polytechnics and similar institutions.
“’ Another issue also is the reconstitution of Governing Councils in all federal polytechnics and some state-owned polytechnics where such is yet to be constituted.
“Others are the full implementation of the provisions of the Federal Polytechnics Act, as well as its domestication in Adamawa, Kano, Sokoto, Abia, Niger and other affected states.’’
The association said its members are prepared for a full-scale showdown until their demands are met.
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Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that lecturers in public universities may embark on another industrial action.
The chairman of ASUU in the University of Ibadan, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, said victimization of members and non-payment of salaries may prompt a fresh industrial action, The Nation reported.
He alleged that since the union suspended the strike on December 24, 2020, many lecturers were still being owed salaries of between two and 10 months.
In another report, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has revealed the implication of the union going on with their industrial action for too long.
Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim, the SSANU president on Friday, February 26, explained that if the strike had gone on for too long it would have been counterproductive.
Ibrahim made the disclosure during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
Kess Ewubare is a senior political/current affairs correspondent at Legit.ng. He has both a BSc and a Master’s degree in mass communication. He has over 10 years of experience in working in several fields of mass communication including radio, TV, newspaper, and online. For Kess, journalism is more than a career, it is a beautiful way of life.
Source: Legit.ng
