Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics commences indefinite strike

Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has commenced an indefinite industrial action in protest against what it described as consistent failure on the part of the Federal Government to implement agreements it willingly signed with the union since 2010 and constant efforts to derail the Polytechnic sector. Addressing a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, National President of the union, Usman Dutse, said since 2010 when the agreement was signed between the union and Federal Government, they have been in consistent engagement with the government leading to the signing of several memoranda which the government has constantly failed to implement. Dutse listed the issues in contention to include conditions of members of the union; review of obsolete legal regimes and other policy documents which serve as governing instruments in the sector; non-existence/deplorable state of the existing facilities including classrooms, libraries, students’ hostels, laboratories, workshops, studios and office accommodation, etc; discriminatory policies against the sector and its products, victimisation of union leaders and non-payment of members’ salaries in several states. He said: “For each of these outlined above, the government has always agreed to implement agreements aimed at the requisite interventions and a turnaround of the sector. Regrettably, it’s been a consistent story of woes and disappointments. “The issues in contention are well rehearsed, taking roots in the provisions of the originating document (2010 ASUP/FGN Agreement). To make matters worse, government has been making fresh inroads in its penchant for undermining the sector by pursuing the implementation of policies with the ultimate aim of treating symptoms of an ailment and at the same time allowing same ailment to devour the diseased sector”. He further listed other grievances of the union to include the non-implementation of the NEEDS assessment report, non-payment of salaries of state owned Polytechnics, non-payment of allowances and shortfall in personnel releases to Polytechnics, the non-release of the reviewed scheme of service and condition of service as well as the delay in assenting to the reviewed Polytechnics Act among others. He said that the union has been left with no other option than the painful path of embarking on an indefinite strike in its bid to save the sector from collapse and asked Nigerians to address the issues, asking members to remain steadfast. The Daily Times recalls that the union had on October 2 issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government before it extended it to November. Dutse disclosed on Wednesday that the strike has commenced and there is total compliance by all chapters. “We have zonal coordinators and a monitoring team, zone by zone, all over the country. Already from the report we are getting, we are satisfied with the level of compliance from all our zones but we are reviewing the day’s activity in a meeting now”, he said. Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja