STRIKE LOOM: Hold govt responsible if we embark on strike, ASUP tells Nigeria

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The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics has told Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible should it embark on another strike.

National president of ASUP, Mr Anderson Ezeibe, in an interview with our correspondent said the government had failed to implement the agreement they had with them three months ago.

He explained that ASUP met with the FG last week Thursday on the revitalisation fund which had been approved but yet to be released.

Ezeibe said, “The three month deadline they gave us is supposed to end on the 10th of September. That is why I said we need to finish all these processes with the government before we issue an official statement.

“We met with the government last week Thursday. The key issue is the revitalisation fund of N15bn, there is an approval for it but the fund is still yet to be released. The multi-stakeholder committee that is expected to be setup to work out the utility of the fund has not been setup. As a union we want to make sure that the money serves the purpose for which it has been released and we want to have a broad based monitoring and evaluation mechanism in place to allocate the funds among public polytechnics and colleges of technology and identify projects that the fund would serve, that multi-stakeholder committee has not be set up.”

He also complained that the union was not happy over the decision of the government to release the minimum wage arrears in October, 2021.

“The communication we have regarding the minimum wage arrears points to the direction that the fund will be released towards the end of October, 2021. As a union we are not excited about this because we felt that the money is supposed to have been released within these three months. As a union, we have been at the forefront of this particular agitation. What they are saying is that we have to do some sort of verifications, we felt that we would have collected our own pay rather than taking us back to October where there is a verification process.

“Also, they have not set-up a committee to re-negotiate our agreement. The Governing Councils are in place but the re-negotiation committee is yet to be set up,” he said.

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics has told Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible should it embark on another strike.

National president of ASUP, Mr Anderson Ezeibe, in an interview with our correspondent said the government had failed to implement the agreement they had with them three months ago.

He explained that ASUP met with the FG last week Thursday on the revitalisation fund which had been approved but yet to be released.

Ezeibe said, “The three month deadline they gave us is supposed to end on the 10th of September. That is why I said we need to finish all these processes with the government before we issue an official statement.

“We met with the government last week Thursday. The key issue is the revitalisation fund of N15bn, there is an approval for it but the fund is still yet to be released. The multi-stakeholder committee that is expected to be setup to work out the utility of the fund has not been setup. As a union we want to make sure that the money serves the purpose for which it has been released and we want to have a broad based monitoring and evaluation mechanism in place to allocate the funds among public polytechnics and colleges of technology and identify projects that the fund would serve, that multi-stakeholder committee has not be set up.”

He also complained that the union was not happy over the decision of the government to release the minimum wage arrears in October, 2021.

“The communication we have regarding the minimum wage arrears points to the direction that the fund will be released towards the end of October, 2021. As a union we are not excited about this because we felt that the money is supposed to have been released within these three months. As a union, we have been at the forefront of this particular agitation. What they are saying is that we have to do some sort of verifications, we felt that we would have collected our own pay rather than taking us back to October where there is a verification process.

“Also, they have not set-up a committee to re-negotiate our agreement. The Governing Councils are in place but the re-negotiation committee is yet to be set up,” he said.