Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, are set to embark on a street protest today to pile pressures on Federal Government to respect the agreement reached with both unions.
Addressing the press in Abuja, ASUP President, Dr. Chibuzor Asomugha, and his COEASU counterpart, Ahmed Lawal, said the unions could no longer tolerate government’s inability to address the remaining two of the four critical points it promised to speedily tackle to ensure early call off of the industrial action.
Dr. Asomugha recalled that during an earlier meeting with government, the unions were assured that four outstanding issues, including the appointment of the governing councils, release of the white paper on the visitation panels, implementation of CONTISS 15, and the setting up of the NEEDS Committee, would be addressed within two weeks.
He said government was only able to address two issues, including the inauguration of the governing council and the needs assessment committees.
“It is worrisome to note that the issue of outstanding is still pending and as it is, the strike will not be suspended until the government pays attention to this ,” Asomugha said.
He lamented that the unions were not offered any window of opportunity for dialogue, neither carried along by the supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, since December 18, 2013.
