As the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities
near its end following a National Executive Council meeting held
yesterday, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) has said it
has no plan to call off its own strike which is now over two months
ASUP embarked on strike on October 4, after expressing disappointment
at the federal government’s cold attitude towards polytechnic education
in Nigeria.
National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Clement Chirman, who disclosed this
in Jos, Plateau State, yesterday said the National Executive Council
(NEC) of the union met at the Labour House in Abuja on December 12, to
review the progress made so far on the negotiation with the government,
and concluded that government had no iota of seriousness towards
resolving issues with the union.
Chirman observed that “the seeming preference for university
education over polytechnic education in Nigeria by government is
disappointing considering that polytechnic graduates have competed
favourably well with their university counterparts at workplaces.”
He said the polytechnics were demanding for only N20 billion as
against the universities whose demands ran into trillions of naira, “yet
the government has maintained a cold attitude towards our relatively
small demand.
“Government has deliberately refused to sign and release the White
Paper of the visitation panel to the federal polytechnics about one year
after the visitation.
“Government has also refused to discuss where it will get the funding
for the implementation of the approved CONTISS-15 Migration, which
amounts to about N20 billion.” chirman added that “government only
approved but did not give the financial backing.”
He said ASUP had therefore resolved that until these issues were
fully resolved, the polytechnics would remain shut across the country.
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