Education
Strike eminent in Nasarawa over workers welfare, infrastructure
By David Odama
The academic Staff Union of Polytechnics ASUP, Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic in Nasarawa State Wednesday announced it’s plan to embark on an indefinite strike if urgent action was not taken to address the welfare needs of its members and infrastructural deficit confronting the institution by the state government.
Chairman, ASUP of the Polytechnic Dr.
Speaking further on the state of the Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic, the ASUP Chairman called on the state government to take urgent steps and set up an intervention programme including staff welfare to save the school from total collapse.
“Lecturers of Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic Lafia have not been promoted over three times. These promotions involve money. We need to write journals, present papers and attend conferences, after spending as much as over three hundred thousand Naira to work for the promotion at this difficult time yet the government failed to implement the promotion. This can lead to corruption in the system. They are simply telling you to recover your money from the students, and that is exactly what is happening. “
Dr Obadia Ilah emphasized that lecturers had endured enough and could not guarantee industrial harmony any time soon if the state government fails to address their long overdue demands.
“Lecturers sit under trees to perform their duties due to lack of office accommodations, most of the lecture halls are dilapidated, and students stay off campus. We call on the state government to intervene to improve the situation. ” Ilah added.
Recalled that lecturers of the Polytechnic defied the early morning downpour and trooped out to the institution premises for an emergency congress chanting solidarity song.
According to Dr Obadia Ilah, the meeting was also to enable them take a position on the recently released new Scheme of Service for Polytechnics by the Federal Government.
He explained that the new Scheme of Service if implemented will not only be counterproductive but tantamount to plunging the Polytechnic education into jeopardy.
“The outright denigration of HND holders against degree holders at entry points into lecturing cadre in the education sector is quite surprising. A company that discriminates against her products in the manner NBTE has done is a company yet to be known anywhere in the world.
Much more, the requirements for the appointment of Registrars and Bursars, Chief Librarians and the underrepresentation of technologists as non-teaching staff contained in the document are gravely contentious. We as a union will not accept this”, Ilah declared.
The ASUP Chairman called on the federal and State Governments to focus more on exploring new ways of raising the standard of technology-driven institutions across the country including funding, staff welfare and infrastructural development.