The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), has vowed to sustain the ongoing strike action it commenced on Tuesday until the Federal Government shows some level of sincerity and commitment towards implementing the agreements previously entered into with a view of addressing the demands under contention.
President of the union, Comrade Usman Dutse made this known during a media briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, where he stressed that the union was forced to down tools as a result of government’s consistent failures in implementing agreements reached in 2010, 2014 and 2017 respectively.
He went on to say that government was “making fresh inroads in its penchant for undermining the sector, by pursuing the implementation of policies with the ultimate aim of treating symptoms of an ailment and at the same time allowing that ailment to devour the diseased sector.”
Comrade Dutse further said that ASUP was no longer interested in signing any other agreement or memorandum of understanding, but wants to see results from those previously signed with government.
“Members of our union were directed to withdraw their services in a comprehensive and total strike action in all public Polytechnics and Monotechnics in Nigeria effective 12th November, 2018.
“This decision was taken due to the consistent failure of Government to implement agreements it willingly signed with our union dating back to 2010 with the resultant effect of a severely derailed sector. Between 2010 and today, our union has been in consistent engagements with governments in Nigeria. These engagements always end in the signing of agreements with different nomenclatures; 2010 FGN/ASUP Agreement, 2014 Memorandum of settlement, 2017 Memorandum of Action
“This is in addition to several other promises, appeals and assurances from Government on the issues in contention. None of the items in these different agreements have been successfully implemented across institutions covered in the sector.
“Our Union has been patient and understanding with government. The Federal Government promised to address the issues before the end of November thinking that something will come out of it but up till now, we don’t have any assurance that there is any commitment from the assurances that government gave us to address our demands.
“Our members will remain at home until we begin to see commitment from government to implement the agreements. We want to see sincerity, focus and commitment; government should be responsible enough to do the needful rather than shift the blame. If they had done the needful, we would not have embarked on strike.