Latest breaking news reaching our news desk today is that the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), has officially announced that they will be commencing a 2-week warning strike, from Monday, May 16th.
The decision that ASUP, which represents all Most Federal and state Polytechnics, was taken at an emergency meeting of its National Executive Council on Wednesday, May 11th, 2022.
Recalled that last year, 2021, ASUP suspended its industrial strike, formally announced on April 16th 2021, on the 10th of June, 2021 following the signing of a Memorandum of Action (MoA) with the current ruling government. However, when asked the reason for embarking on this two (2) weeks warning strike, the ASUP board disclosed that the strike became necessary over the refusal of the Nigerian federal government to meet their demand previously agreed.
Speaking on this two weeks ASUP warning strike, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Anderson Ezeibe listed some of the demands given to the federal government, including:
- Release of the approved revitalization fund for the sector,
- Approved N15bn, yet to be released 11 months after approval by the President.
An official statement released by ASUP reads;
“Non-release of arrears of the new minimum wage: The owed 10 months arrears for the Polytechnics is yet to be released by this government. The composite amount covering all Federal Tertiary Institutions to the approximate figure of ninteeen (19) Billion Naira currently exists as an AIE in the Accountant Generals Office.
“We are also using this medium to ask members of the general public to prevail on the federal government to do the needful within the two weeks period so as to avoid an indefinite shutdown of this sector.”
More details coming soon. From the statement released above, if the federal government fails to comply with ASUP demands, there are other millions of Nigerian Polytechnic students who will be left doing nothing at home.
We hope this issues within all Academic sector of Nigeria is resolved soon. God bless the federal republic of Nigeria.
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