Poly lecturers begin strike Wednesday

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has announced that it would commence a nationwide strike on Wednesday if the government failed to meet its demands before then. National President of ASUP, Comrade Chibuzor Asomugha, announced this in Abuja, when he addressed newsmen on the demands of the union, which have not been attended by the federal government since 2009. Asomugha recalled that in 2012, ASUP placed a 13-point demand before government for negotiation and subsequent implementation. Till date, he said, the demands had not been met till date, even when government's failure to attend to the demands led to a series of strikes between 2013 and 2014. He said that the polytechnic sector is still undergoing a frenzied recovery from the scars of that engagement. He listed the 12 demands, which were carried over from the 2009 agreement between the Federal Government and the union. Some of the demands by ASUP include: continued discrimination against polytechnic graduates in the public service and private sector in Nigeria; non-release of the White Paper on the Visitation to Federal polytechnics; non-implementation of CONTISS 15 migration for the lower cadres and its arrears as from 2009 when the salary structure was approved; non-establishment of the National Polytechnics Commission (NPC) and the wrongful continued recognition of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as the regulatory body for polytechnics; non-constitution of Governing Councils for some Federal polytechnics by the government. Others are the snail-pace of the review of the Federal Polytechnics Act by the National Assembly; the gross under-funding of the polytechnic subsector and continued lopsidedness in the disbursement of TETfund grants and other interventions clearly designed to the disadvantage of the polytechnic sector; non-commencement of the re-negotiation of the FGN/ASUP agreement as contained in the signed agreement. Other demands listed by the union included: the worrisome state of most state-owned polytechnics and the failure of some state governments to implement policies that would ensure standardization of programmes and welfare of workers in the sector; appointment of inappropriate persons as rector and provost of polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of Technology by governments; the refusal of most state governments to implement the approved salary package (CONPCASS) and 65-year retirement age for their polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of technology; and the refusal of government to carry out a comprehensive needs assessment of Nigeria's public polytechnics and funding.