ASUP Strike: 129-day Strike: ASUP, FG Remain Adamant
The latest news update on the ongoing ASUP Strike is that the strike continues as the UNION and FG refuse to shift grounds.
Students in 20 federal polytechnics and tens of state polytechnics across the country have remained at home for a total of 129 days due to the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics. In spite of this, the union and the Federal Government have refused to shift grounds and bring an end to the situation.
Here is the full details of the latest news update on ASUP Strike:
In an interview with Vanguard Learning,the ASUP President said: “We have called a meeting for all our members, which will hold very soon. But in the meantime, we have directed our different chapters to start mass protests in their different locations.
It is such a pity that since we got back to the Federal Government on February 6thwith the decision of our National Executive Council made on Feb 5thto continue the strike, there has been absolutely no response. This is despite the fact that there are 20 federal polytechnics and even more state polytechnics that have been closed down for nearly seven months.
“The only reason I believe this is so is because there is a general disregard for polytechnics. When the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, was on strike, the Federal Government made moves to resolve the issue, but now that it is the polytechnics, government is not interested. When we met with the Supervising Minister of Education before we held our NEC meeting, he refused to discuss any other issue in the 13-point agreement apart from the payment of outstanding arrears.
He simply promised that the government would pay in two installments. But even that statement did not hold water because it was obvious that he hadn’t consulted the Minister of Finance or any other top government official before making that proposal.”
It would be recalled that ASUP embarked on a strike in April 2013, barely three months before the six-month strike by the ASUU which was called off in December. ASUP suspended the strike in July 2013 as a result of Government’s promise to fulfill four of the 13 issues in the contentious 2009 agreement between both parties.
These four issues include release of the White paper on Visitation to Federal Polytechnics, the completion of the constitution of the governing councils for federal polytechnics, the migration of the lower cadre on CONTISS 15 salary scale, and the commencement of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Polytechnics.
The union suspended the strike, and gave Government a one month time frame to resolve these issues. But it was not until ASUP resumed its strike in January that the Federal Government commenced Needs Assessment and completed the constitution of the governing councils for federal polytechnics.
ASUP is now insisting that all 13 issues must be attended to before the polytechnic lecturers will go back to school. Source: Vanguard Newspaper
