ASUP Strike Latest: Union Praise New Education Minister, Major Breakthrough Made During Meeting The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has praised the new Minister for Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, describing him as “matured” and somebody who has the interest of the lecturers at heart. The National Publicity Secretary of ASUP, Clement Chirman, made this disclosure after the meeting between the new minister and the union where a major breakthrough was made towards the resolution of the strike action. He said the minister is fully committed in ensuring the polytechnic crisis will be a thing of the past and expressed the union’s confidence in his abilities following a positive outcome of the meeting. Mallam Shekarau had at the meeting, expressed his disappointment that the union is receiving him from home saying he will do everything within his power to make sure polytechnic students return to class. “Let me begin by expressing my sincere thanks to the leadership of ASUP. As you rightly said I would have loved to be welcomed on a very happy note with a lot of celebrations eating and dancing. Nevertheless, it’s a very important issue that has been lingering. I have always referred to our polytechnics as an engine room of our technological growth and development. We cannot afford to ignore the polytechnics,” he said. He however pleaded with the lecturers to suspend the strike as he assesses the situation with a view of finding a lasting solution. In his reaction, the ASUP president, Chibuzor Asomugha, congratulated the new minister and restated the demands of the lecturers which includes the constitution of the Governing Councils of Federal Polytechnics, the migration of the lower cadres on the CONTISS 15 salary scale, the release of the White Paper on the Visitations to Federal Polytechnics, and the need for the commencement of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Polytechnics amongst others. He expressed his delight at the way the meeting went and promised that the NEC members of the union will meet to reveal the outcome of the minister’s discussion with a promise that the situation will be remedied soon. Polytechnic lectures has been on strike since October 4th, 2013 over disagreements with the federal government. Students have lost one academic session as a result of that
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 10:51:22 +0000
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