The two-week warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has entered its final phase, severely disrupting academic activities across federal and state polytechnics.
The strike, which began on December 2, 2024, is a response to the government’s failure to address several critical issues affecting the union’s members.
ASUP is demanding that the government address several critical issues, including violations of the Federal Polytechnics Act, the non-review of the contentious “Schemes of Service for Polytechnics and Conditions of Service” document, and the non-release of the 2023 NEEDS Assessment intervention funds.
Additional concerns include the usurpation of the Academic Board’s role by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) in the admission of Higher National Diploma (HND) candidates, and the non-inclusion of members’ Peculiar Academic Allowance in the planned post-IPPIS era.
According to Nasir Gidado Hassan, ASUP chairman for Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic (HUKP), the union will not call off the strike until all their demands are fully met.
He added that the decision to embark on the strike followed a directive from the national executive, with a majority vote in support of the action at the state union level before its commencement.
’We already had a meeting on the strike with the governing council of the polytechnic led by Hajia Indo Mohammed where they pleaded we suspend the strike for the sake of the students but we refused.
‘’They even promised to implement one of our demands and we said no until all the demands were met,” he said.
The situation was the same at Daura Federal Poly, where the institution was deserted. Comrade Mansur Safyanu, ASUP Chairman Federal Poly Daura branch, disclosed that the union has already submitted its demand letter to the governing council of the Polytechnic and are awaiting their response.
The ASUP strike is the latest in a series of industrial actions by academic unions in Nigeria, highlighting the need for the government to address the lingering issues affecting the education sector.
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