The Lingering ASUP Strike

Fri, Jan 24, 2014

By publisher

6 MIN READ

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Students of polytechnic schools in the country are suffering as the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics trade insults and fail to reach agreement at their meeting

|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Feb. 3, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT

THE hope of ending the ongoing industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, in the nearest future is fast diminishing. The union has vowed to continue its three months old strike after its meeting with the federal government ended in a deadlock on Tuesday, January 21. Clement Chirman, ASUP, national publicity secretary, said the industrial action would continue despite that the federal government accepted pay N20.4 billion salary arrears it owed the lecturers. He said the federal government said it would pay the arrears in two instalments, in March and September this year, but the union would not accept the proposal.

But Nyesom Wike, minister of education, said after the meeting with ASUP that the issues of arrears have been resolved and the only outstanding issue to be resolved was the release of the white papers on the report of visitation panel to the polytechnics. He said delay in the release of the white papers was not peculiar to the polytechnics sector, adding that government was working on it. He noted that as soon as modalities for the payment are agreed upon between both parties, the payment would be effected. Wike said the CONTISS salary structure being agitated for by the union had been approved and also included in the 2014 budget and that the CONTISS issue had brought the resolution of three out of four of the demands being made by the lecturers.

The meeting which was attended by the leadership of the National Association of Polytechnic Students, NAPS, turned rowdy when Sunday Obonnaya, NAPS, president, accused the federal government of neglecting students. He also accused the polytechnic lecturers of using students to pursue their selfish interests. “The union told us that both the federal government and the ASUP had met in 2009 and reached agreement which the government had not kept. We were also told that the union and the government had met several times and that 13 demands were made. Out of the 13 demands, only four were picked by the government to attend to, which up until now is not yet attended to,” he said.

Obonnaya accused the federal government of ignoring one of the demands which is the removal of the dichotomy between those with university degrees and HND graduates, which is central to students’ interest. He also accused the lecturers of only using the student angle to pursue their selfish demands. “Please stop using the students as your bait for your own selfish interest because we are at the receiving end. I keep getting calls, when will the strike be over and even when it is over will this discrimination be over. Please find a solution to it.”

Chibuzo Asomugha, ASUP, president, accused the minister of insulting the union. He said he wondered whether Wike called the meeting to embarrass the union before the media or to be insulted by the students. “The agenda presented to us is altered. Because in the agenda given to us, we did not see the entry for remark by the NAPS president and we want to point out that we were invited to this meeting officially. I think we were invited for the media to see us dramatise and to be insulted by the students we teach because it was all over the press that the minster was meeting with ASUP and we came here out of the deep respect we have for the federal government. But if we are here for the student to insult us then I will say there is no meeting,” Chibuzo said.

However, Wike said the agenda was not altered, saying the NAPS president’s remark was an insult not only to lecturers but also the government. “You only picked out the part you were insulted because you teach them, did you not hear the part that also insulted the government. But it’s the government who is paying the salary and yet the students will heap all sort of accusations on us,” said.

The minister defended the invitation to the media, saying, “To me, if the meeting with the members of ASUP and NAPS and the government will hold, there is nothing there if we inform the media. We have never disclosed to the media any content of any meeting we are having; all we tell them is that there will be a briefing, so there is nothing wrong in what we have done.”

Wike also accused ASUP of making unfair remarks about the government to the media. “In most cases in the television I have watched, you (ASUP) insult the government, how the government is insincere and how the government doesn’t want the polytechnics to grow, have you ever seen us on the pages of newspaper abusing the union? When the students insisted on seeing the minster, I was not on sit and I told the permanent secretary to listen to them. And part of what the student requested was to be part of the meeting to know what is really going on. Those at the receiving end should know were government stands, maybe the government is telling lies or truth because at the end of every meeting you go and present the story the way you want it and we do the same to and the students are at a loss. So this meeting is called for us to see how we can move forward, that’s why I called the media,” he said.

Wike also apologised on behalf of the students and asked the ASUP president not to go back to school to punish the student leader for the remarks he made. He said the selection of the four out of the 13 demands of ASUP was collectively done by both the government and the lecturers, and not the government alone. He said the federal government has addressed the issue of salary structure for the lecturers as it is included in the 2014 budget; and what is left is how the government will pay the N20.4 billion salary arrears to the lecturers.

The ASUP embarked on strike since October 1, 2013. The union accused the federal government of refusal to implement the release of the white paper on the report of the visitation panel to federal polytechnics, non-implementation the Needs Assessment of public polytechnics and welfare of members and removal of dichotomy between HND graduates and those with university degrees in placement and career progression.