#strike update from the sun newspaper# The Federal Government’s poor response to industrial relations issues with staff unions in the nation’s tertiary institutions has reared its ugly head again as academic and administrative activities have been grounded at both federal and state polytechnics. This is as a result of an indefinite strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP), two months ago. Reports from the various polytechnics in Kaduna, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Rivers, Adamawa, Osun, Sokoto, Kebbi, Borno States and several others revealed that the campuses look like a ghost town as the lecture halls and offices are empty. As a result, the students have deserted the campuses not knowing when they would return. Investigations by Education Review revealed that the agitation to get the government to address ASUP and SSANIP demands dates back to 2009. The staff unions made several efforts to ensure the implementation of the issues at stake as well as guarantee industrial harmony in the polytechnic system without success. As the industrial action enters the second month, the strike has begun to take its toll on students and parents, giving credence to the adagewhich says “when two elephants fight, the grass suffers”. The students are worried that if the strike prolongs, it would affect their academic session while parents are looking at the cost of keeping them at home doing nothing while waiting for the government and the unions to resolve the dispute. Both leaders of ASUP and SSANIP told our correspondent that the strike would continue until the Jonathan administration meets the unions’ demands, vowing that its members were prepared for a long battle with the government. As the industrial action enters its second month, some affected polytechnics have appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayyatu Rufa’i to look into the demands of the staff unions, saying that if the strike is prolonged, it would affect their academic calendar and create additional financial burden on their parents as well as delay those for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Among the polytechnic students who were disenchanted with the strike were Nnamdi Igwe, an HND 1, Ayomide Olusola, an ND 11 and Lekan Afolabi, an HND 11. The trio told Education Review that due to the industrial action, they were forced to return home. The worried students appealed to the government to dialogue with the unions to revolve the issues. Afolabi, who had calculated when he would graduate, go for NYSC and get a job to support his parents and siblings, described the on-going industrial action as a setback for him and thousand of others, noting, “I don’t understand why the government waited for the unions to embark on a strike before inviting them for negotiation. The people in government do not care about us, they want us to spend extra semester or another session and for many students like me, it will create a financial burden on my parents. This is the second month now and both parties are yet to resolve their differences, I am becoming frustrated with the whole system”. ASUP’s long road to strike Like other unions in the polytechnic system, ASUP signed an agreement with the Federal Government in 2010 and was due for re- negotiation in 2012 which is part of the reason for the on-going industrial action. The National President of ASUP, Mr. Asomugha Chibuzor, told Education Review that since 2012, the union on numerous occasions reminded the minister that the agreement was due for another negotiation and nothing was done. According to him, after sending series of letters to the minister without response, he recalled that on March 25, 2013 the federal government was served a 21-day ultimatum and notice of industrial action and on April 4, following government’s failure to address the issues in dispute, the union went on a seven-day warning strike which ran from April 22 to 28. The Secretary-Gener al of ASUP, Usman Mamaki Peni, in a letter dated April 17, 2013 and addressed to the minister, informed her that at a meeting with the union on April 4, it was resolved that “government would pursue the amelioration of these grievances with utmost diligence and commitment to ensure concrete results before the expiration of the ultimatum”. “Ma, at her emergency meeting held at the Jeparo Hotel, Abuja on April 18, 2013, the NEC of our union painstakingly, and most responsibly appraised government’s response and concluded that government has failed to show due diligence and commitment in pursuing the resolution of the grievances.” Peni said that following the inability of government to address the union’s demands, NEC directed him to convey its resolutions that ASUP nationwide would proceed on a seven-day warning strike effective April 22, noting that if at the end of the warning strike, sufficient progress was not made on the resolution of the grievances, ASUP would commence an indefinite strike. His words: “While we appreciate the minister’s avowal and interest in fruitfully addressing the issues in dispute, the union is convinced that government has the capacity to fully resolve these issues to avert a debilitating breakdown of the system”. Issues in contention The scribe listed ASUP’s demands to include the failure of government to kick-start the re-negotiation of the FG/ASUP agreement which fell due in July 2012, failure to reconstitute the governing councils of federal polytechnics which were dissolved 16 months ago, refusal of government to implement the CONTISS 15 migration for the lower cadres in the polytechnic sector, non-release of White Paper on the visitations to federal polytechnics more than one year after the exercise was concluded and the reluctance of government to address the lingering dichotomy against polytechnic graduates. Other issues that led to the on-going strike are: the failure of government to commence a Needs Assessment of polytechnics, the dismal condition of state- owned polytechnics, failure of most state governments to implement the approved salary packages (CONPCASS) for the academic staff of their polytechnics, non- implementat ion of the statutory 65-year retirement age for academic staff in their polytechnics by some state governments, dichotomous isolation of the polytechnic subsector for inclusion in the IPPIS scheme while the other subsectors in tertiary education are left out of the scheme and the refusal of government to establish a National Polytechnics Commission. In another letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) dated April 4, ASUP noted that after more than 16 months of constructively engaging the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and the Head of Service of the Federation, through dialogue and collective bargaining, the union was forced to get to the last page of her demands. Thus on April 29, ASUP members began a nationwide industrial action leading to the disruption of academic activities. The National President of ASUP told Education Review that since the strike started, the union has met the Ministers of Education and Labour and Productivity twice and with the SGF as well as the Accountant-Gene ral of the Federation once, noting in all our meetings nothing concrete came out of it. “In fact, our last meeting was on Friday, June 14 and it ended same way like others”. he said SSANIP strike After being on strike for over two months without attracting government’s attention, the leadership of SSANIP stormed Lagos (YABATECH) and staged a peaceful protest. The National Secretary of the association, Mr. Monday Jegede, disclosed that in December 2012, the association, after a meeting issued the government a 21- day ultimatum and another seven-day notice within the month noting, “government did not do anything about the notices nor was the union invited for dialogue”. The South-West zone of SSANIP staged a protest and addressed newsmen in Lagos over their plight which they blamed on the federal government. The institutions that stormed YABATECH for the event include Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igboora, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, College of Health Sciences and Technology, Ijero-Ekiti and Osun State Polytechnic, Iree. The angry scribe explained that between March 19 and 22, the union met in Ozoro, Delta State to review the state of things as it affects polytechnic education in the country. Hoping to give government another opportunity to embrace dialogue, SSANIP again issued a 21-day ultimatum to government which expired on April 16, pointing “all these while, there were no serious attempts made by the government in resolving the issues”. Dissatisfied with the way the Jonathan administration has treated the numerous ultimatum issues, the South- West Zonal Coordinator of SSANIP, Mr. Ogunsipe, told Education Review that on April 17, its members began an indefinite strike which has crippled all administrative activities in the various campuses. The host of the protest and YABATECH SSANIP Chairman, Mr. A.A. Okoh, said that since two months its members began the industrial action, government has not made contact with its national officials for dialogue on their demands. Okoh said, “we cannot back out from the strike now. Since April 17, there have been no words from the Minister of Education and the Executive Secretary of NBTE about the on-going strike. We have gone far, we must sustain the strike”. Chief among the demands of SSANIP include, full implementation of CONTISS 15, approval for the new scheme of service, establishment of National Commission for Polytechnics, Monotechnics and Colleges of Technology, rejection of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), re-negotiation of 2009 agreement between FG/ SSANIP, discrimination against HND diploma and graduates of the polytechnic system. On the contentious issue of salary, Jegede said that before 2009, the terminal salary in the polytechnics was CONTISS 14, noting that that same year, President Goodluck Jonathan approved the elongation of the salary to CONTISS 15 to be implemented down the line but was wrongly implemented by Rectors based on a circular from the supervisory agency of the polytechnics. “In 2010, the supervisory agency, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) came up with a modality and implemented it for those on CONTISS 12 and above, leaving out those on CONTISS 11 below, in disregard to the Presidential approval. The unions (including ASUP and NASU) in the system have been clamouring for the full implementation to no avail”, Jegede added. Another contentious issue Jegede raised is on funding, stressing, “the current funding by the federal government has not been adequate for the smooth running of the polytechnic system, there is the need for government to increase the rate of funding in the polytechnics as it is capital intensive. The overhead being provided by government to the various federal polytechnics is grossly inadequate as most of them are sited in the rural areas where the provision of electricity to run the laboratories and workshop are inadequate”. The scribe appealed to stakeholders, including parents to impress it on government not to allow technical education to crumble in the country saying, “we can only achieve the much- needed technological development if adequate attention is given to polytechnic education”. The two-month-old strike got a boost from the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) which backed the on-going industrial action by SSANIP. The group called on SSANIP, other staff unions and students’ unions in the education sector to collaborate to build a united movement that can organize joint strikes, protests and mass demonstrations to force the government to use Nigeria’s resources to fund education adequately. In a statement signed by ERC Niger State Coordinator, Dimeji Macaulay, stressed that CONTISS 15 is a right due to SSANIP members and “we demand its immediate implementation across board. We also call for the adequate funding of education by both the federal and the state governments. We wish to note that members of SANNIP have taken this option of strike due to the federal and state governments’ refusal to implement the agreements reached with the union since 2009”. The group urged SSANIP members not to relent in the struggle as well as not to limit it to a sit-at-home strike but to commence mobilization of its members on mass protest on their respective campuses across the country. This to us is the best way to give publicity to the cause the union is fighting for and also to win the support of students and parents whose right to quality education this strike is meant to defend. Read interview on page 39.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 07:43:53 +0000
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