THE ‘secret recruitment of 144 staff’, shortfalls in salaries and unpaid allowances of lecturers have been listed as reasons why lecturers of the Federal Polytechnic Bida, Niger State went on strike.
Academic Staff Association of Polytechnic (ASUP) went on strike in November 2019 after filing a petition to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
According to the National President of ASUP, Anderson Ezeibe, he said the open petition sent to the Accountant General of the Federation by the ASUP Bida Chapter prompted the management of the institution to suspend the executives from the institution.
“They were suspended because of the open petition sent to the Accountant General of the federation concerning unpaid allowances and half payment of salary”, he said.
He added that the ASUP’s decision to go on strike is justified because it is wrong for the school’s management to pay half of their salaries and not full without explanation.
“How do you pay half salaries to workers that do full work without any explanation and you still went ahead to employ more people?” he questioned.
He told The ICIR that the National leadership of the Union had visited the school management and the Governing Council of Bida Poly over the suspension of the executives of the ASUP chapter.
“The leadership of ASUP has intervened, we visited the school management and governing council and we agreed that the suspension of the executives be revoked” Anderson added.
However, he said that until now there has not been any visible action taken by the school management and governing council to ensure the resumption of activities in the school.
“We are still in contact with the management and governing council and we are hoping they do what they promised so that activities can commence in the school as soon as possible”
Meanwhile, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) in solidarity with ASUP has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the management which is set to lapse on 16th of January.
Chairman of SSANIP, Ruth Bawa, in the strike notice, said the decision came after the union’s congress and consultation with the National Leadership of SSANIP.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94