UNILAG Chapter (ASUU) “No PhD, No promotion” Policy Out

ASUU of UNILAG Chapter has made a call for the eradication of the “no PhD no promotion or confirmation” syndrome instituted by the management of the University. They also want the conditions of service in the University improved. They said the members of the Union may be left with no choice than to embark on indefinite strike if these demands are not met.

 

According to the News Agency of Nigeria:

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Lagos chapter, has called on the management of the institution to review their current conditions of service or face an indefinite strike.

The Chairman of the union, Dr Adelaja Odukoya, gave the warning during a sensitisation rally by members of the association on the university’s campus on Wednesday.

Odukoya told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines that the ASUU members were agitating the non-democratisation of departmental headship and the replacement of the conditions of service.

He said the members were not comfortable with the “no PhD no promotion or confirmation” syndrome instituted by the management of the 52-year-old university.

“What we are doing today is a peaceful sensitisation rally with our members and not a protest.

“ We are going from one department to the other pulling our members for this struggle as we feel.

“We feel we should create awareness around the campus so that management will not say they were taken unawares,” he told NAN.

“This issue has been on ground since four years ago during the era of late Prof. Adetokumbo Sofoluwe.

“During his time, the current Vice-Chancellor was the then Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

“Our members made these issues known to management and held several consultations with them in a bid to look into all of them.

“Since I equally took over leadership in March, these issues have also been in the front burner of my operations as head.

“Until 48 hour ago when I had the last negotiation with management, they kept telling us that they will look into it and yet nothing tangible has come out of it.”

Odukoya said the issues had been tabled before the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the association which, he noted, would be having their meeting from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8, at the University of Lagos.

According to him, in the event of failure to resolve the issues during the period, the members will be left with no choice than to embark on indefinite strike.

“This is a responsible union and that is why we are seeking means of dialogue to resolve the issues before now.

“We wrote to the management informing them of this rally because we do not want to be seen as going against the law or be seen as being violent.

“We are equally mindful of the welfare of our students who are preparing for their examination currently.

“We are not interested in strike. What we are demanding for is that the management should urgently look into all the issues brought before them and come up with a peaceful resolution,” he said.

He noted that other issues such as accumulated leave, arbitrariness in promotion criteria, treating the academic staff like second class citizens of the institution would henceforth be resisted.

Odukoya said that a situation whereby professional grades of lecturers were tied to appointment were also among issues that they were demanding an urgent review.

Addressing the rally, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Research), Prof. Babajide Alo, said that there was no need for the rally as most of the issues brought before management was already being looked into.

Mr Ben Anosike, Secretary-General, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria University (SSANU), University of Lagos chapter, said that members of the association joined the rally in solidarity with their ASUU counterpart.

He noted that issues of such nature must be a concern of all as they were all working towards a common goal.

According to him, the issue of “no PhD, no promotion” that is the case in the institution should be abolished.

“All of us, irrespective of our unions should work in tandem with whatever we are fighting for as a people,” he said.

A final year student of Education, Jerry Otor, pleaded with management of the university to urgently look into the demands of members of the association in order to prevent the situation from escalating to strike.

He expressed fear that the strike if embarked upon, would lead to the postponement of their graduation.

“I feel it is negligence on the part of management and I feel it should not be so because they all passed through the same rung of the ladder to get to where they are today,” he said

NAN reports that some of the placards the workers carried had inscriptions such as “Students in solidarity with Workers, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed” and “No to Professional Grade by Appointment”. (NAN)

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AOCOED Update 7 Weeks Strike Continue

Former Lagos State College of Education now Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Lagos, had embark on her strike seven weeks ago over unpaid remuneration and allowances to its staffs by the state government for 18months.

However, activities had shut down at the premises, all sundry effort to call it off by the student unions and other able forum had fell on sloppy ground of staff,hence they insist until the state government put measure in place to meet their target thus the striking action persist till further awareness.

We implore the Lagos State Government to ensure quick respond to this ugly situation.

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Shekarau - Era of Strike in Nigeria Education Sector is Coming to an End

The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau has announced that the issues of Strike affecting the Nigerian Education would soon be at an end. He made this announcement in Lagos during the the impact assessment tour of Federal Government-owned institutions in Nigeria.
 
According to the minister, the tour became necessary as part of efforts to gain first hand information on the challenges facing individual campuses and the progress made by them, because pictures and documents forwarded to his office could be deceptive.

The minister however stressed that his mandate upon his appointment as the ministry’s substantive minister in July was to ensure the stability of the sector, and that the resolution of the then prolonged ASUP COEASU strike less than 24 hours after he resumed office was a clear pointer to his commitment to fulfil that mandate.
He further added that part of the measures to nip strikes in the bud was his commitment to ensure the dignity of teaching service in Nigeria through adequate welfare packages, training and retraining of teachers at all levels, provision of conducive teaching and learning environment, amongst others.

He said these are targeted towards achieving the two fundamental objectives of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan in the education sector, which he listed as increasing access and improving qualities.

The Minister later made visit calls to the University of Lagos where he inspected the different series of projects going on there. Before he visited the Federal College of Education (Technical) where he commisioned two major projects and the Yaba College of Technology.

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ASUP May Go Back on Strike Soon

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics is said to be to re-considering the position of its industrial action, seeking way forward over its suspended 10-month old strike as students are becoming restive.
 
This news came on the back of the expiry of the Three months ultimatum the body issued to the Federal Government.

The President of the Union Dr Chibuzor Asomugha stated this in Abuja while speaking with journalists on the expiration of the 3month relieve period earlier requested by the Federal Government to sort-out key demands of the Union.

Dr Asomugha who said the 3month expired on 15th of October stressed that the Strike option is the most glaring alternative, adding that the National Executive Council of the Union would meet more on further deliberation.

The ASUP President added that the Union earlier met with the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics and Non Academic Staff Union on the way forward.
“Recently ASUP met with Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics and Non Academic Staff Union and we are beginning to strategise”

“Our understanding is that the Minister has been meeting with stakeholders who are directly involved in different area of our demands” he said

He said that the Union had made attempt to meet with the Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau on 13th of October and they were made to understand that he was building basis for the next meeting .
“In the interim of it we were to meet him on 13th of October but it did not hold we are hoping that by the time he invites us for another meeting we will discuss meaningfully”

“I would not be in a hurry to say there would be another strike neither is in a hurry to say there would not be”.

“Students are becoming restive and Members of the Union are equally becoming restive and it is on this basis our union would not be in hurry to make a stand and while the Union is considering the fact that an almost one year old strike was just concluded ,the effect is still there and we are still battling to ameliorate the effect and the way it is we may have to meet some more among ourselves so as to determine which way to go”
“The only body of our union that can determine if there will be a strike is NEC its decision can only be made after we met with the Minister” he re-stated.

Source – 247ureports

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ASUP STRIKE UPDATES: 3 Months Ultimatum Elapsed, FGN Still Silent over ASUP Demands

Following the suspension of the over 10 months strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), the union gave the Federal Government a three-month ultimatum which has elapsed to meet with its demands, yet nothing has been done.
 
Engineer Musa Ibrahim, the Kaduna Polytechnic chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) Chairman said this at an interactive forum between the new leadership of ASUP and newsmen in Kaduna, during the weekend. Engineer Musa Ibrahim said: “The thinking at that time by the union, though our demands were not met, was that since it’s a new Minister, let’s give him the opportunity to critically look at our problems with the aim of solving them.

Rather than giving him two weeks to do that, the union with magnanimity decided to give government three months and unfortunately the three months elapsed some days ago. As usual, with the behaviour of our government, none of the demands has been met, though there was recently a formal meeting between the minister and the union where he promised that the demands would be met soon. One of the main issues is the problem of implementation of CONTISS 15 new salary structure that we went into agreement with government since 2009 and up till date, the implementation is just half way.

“We gave government 13 demands, out of the 13, we asked government to select any four. After three months, government only met two half-way, we went on strike again and spent 10 months. We had three months again which just elapsed while the issues are still lingering.”

It would be re-called that the Academic Staff Union Of Polytechnics (ASUP) suspended their over 10 months old strike on July 16, 2014.

Source – Nigerian Bulletin

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Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) NASU Strike

In compliance with the National industrial court judgement of 1st April, 2014 and the tripartite agreement signed by the state labour leaders, Aksu management and registered trade unions on campus on the 2nd July, 2014 whose ultimatum expired on the 2nd august, 2014.
 
ALL NON-TEACHING STAFF ARE HEREBY DIRECTED TO EMBARK ON INDUSTRIAL STRIKE ACTION FROM MONDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER, 2014 TILL FURTHER NOTICE AS AGREED BY THE CONGREGATION.

Signed NASU branch chairperson.
CC:State Council secretary of AKSU,
DPO Mkpat Enin/Oruk Anam Lgas,
Directorate State Security Service and
Chief Security Officer Akwa Ibom State University.

With this development, academic and non-academic activities in Akwa Ibom State University will be on hold until resolutions are made.

In compliance with the National industrial court judgement of 1st April, 2014 and the tripartite agreement signed by the state labour leaders, Aksu management and registered trade unions on campus on the 2nd July, 2014 whose ultimatum expired on the 2nd august, 2014. - See more at: http://nigerianuniversitynews.com/2014/09/akwa-ibom-state-varsity-nasu-goes-on-strike.html#sthash.ssjhKpIY.dpuf

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ASUP Strike Updates: ASUP May Start Another Strike As 3 Month Ultimatum Given Get Closer

The Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, has reassured the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) of his commitment to resolving issues raised in its demands from the Federal Government.

He said that the Chairman of the Council, Mr Ebenezer Babatope, had felicitated with the minister on his appointment and commended him for resolving the strike shortly after assumption of office.

The Special Adviser (Media) to the minister, Dr Nnamdi Olebara, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja. "The minister described the demands of ASUP and other unions as germane and appropriate but paucity of fund in the face of competing demands was responsible for the delay.’’

``The White Paper on the Needs Assessment Report was already before the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for onward presentation to the President for his consideration and approval as working a document,’’ Olebara quoted the minister telling the delegation.

``He also reminded the minister that the three
months ultimatum given by ASUP was fast running to an end; hence the need to assess the level of
preparedness on the part of the government in order to avert another strike,’’ he said.

ASUP had on July 12, called off its 11-month strike which started in October 2013 after an appeal from the minister.

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Updates: Abia ASUP to Start Another Strike

Abia State Polytechnic Academic Staff Union of
Polytechnics (ASUP) on Thursday said it would resume its suspended strike without notice if its Governing Council did not meet its demands.

This is contained in a letter jointly signed by Mr Precious Nwakodo, and Mr Kalu Uma, the chapter Chairman and Secretary, respectively.

The letter, dated July 21, 2014 and addressed to the Chairman, Governing Council of the Polytechnic, was made available to newsmen in Aba.

“The union at its emergency congress held on Thursday, July 17, resolved to suspend its strike for three weeks from July 22.

“This decision was largely informed by the confidence members have in the leadership of the governing council that it will fulfill its promise to pay additional two months salaries on or before Aug. 11 and also address the issue of irregular payment of staff salaries.

“It is also the expectation of the union that within this period, council and management will start meeting the demands of the union.”

According to the letter, the union also demanded for visible mechanisms to improved management of the polytechnic’s resources. It called for the provision of a concrete ceiling for expenditure approved for both management and council.

ASUP further seek a return to due process and extant rules in the general administration of the polytechnic.

The union also demanded the implementation of the report on Abia State Polytechnic Staff Certificate Verification as well as the release of its 2014 staff promotions list.

The union expressed the hope that the council’s strong desire and commitment to return the polytechnic to the paths of progress would be realised. It, however, urged the council to do the needful to forestall a possible break of activities.

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Fed Poly Oko Rector Urges ASUP to End Strike

The Rector of the Federal Polytechnic Oko, Professor Godwin Onu, has called on the Academic staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) to call off the protracted strike action in the interest of the students.

According to him the strike action has made students who ought to have graduated to remain at home while those who have been admitted are yet to resume lectures.

It is expected that the meeting involving ASUP executives, joint committee of the National Assembly representing the Federal Government, Ministries of education, finance and labour today will bring an end to the strike.

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Akwa Ibom State University, Aksu Embarked on Strike for Unpaid Salaries

The Akwa Ibom State University, Aksu , has embarked on strike action due to unpaid salaries.
Yesterday, 30th June, 2014, the University teaching and non-teaching staff embarked on a strike action, calling the university management to address their unpaid salaries.

The Strike action which is on and already brought academic activities to a halt will continue according to the staff union until their current issue is resolved.

The Akwa Ibom State University, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sunday Petters spoke to the striking employees yesterday re-assuring them that the management would resolve the current salary situation soon.

Thank you.

Akwa Ibom State University Academic Calendar
Key Note in AKSU Academic Calendar
. • 25th june- Senate meeting.
• 11th July- Matriculation ceremony for the fresh students.
• 30th july-Senate meeting.
• Visit the School site www.aksu.edu to experience the new and sleek outlook, added features for the school community and the public.
• The School community and Engineering Faculty mourns the painful demise of one of our students who passed away today and was laid to rest today. Nduke was a 200L agricultural engineering student. Students and staff today paid their last respect to him in his hometown.
• Screening for fresh students who had deficiencies in their results who made complaints are ongoing.

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ASUP NEC Meeting Uodates: Strike Continues as NEC Awaits Senate Meeting

According to report reaching us, the outcome of the ASUP NEC Meeting in Yabatech, Lagos is not favorable, we are informed that the strike continues as ASUP await Senate meeting.

The Main reason for publishing this post is to inform Polytechnic Students that ASUP will be holding another NEC meeting on the 1st of July, 2014 (And we hope it is not going to be the same story)

If you recalled, the Union started their NEC meeting in Lagos State after Government representatives refused to show up for the meeting they were scheduled to have together. (Seriously, the F.G have no business with ASUP again?)



Read the official report below.
The National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) at the end of its 77th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lagos has announced that the nine months old strike continues.

The NEC said status quo remains pending the outcome of its meeting with the Senate Committee on Education on Tuesday July 1st, 2014.

ASUP President, Chibuzor Asomugha, disclosed at the end of the meeting that the stakeholders meeting scheduled for June 24 got stalled due to the absence of representatives of the government.

“That meeting was supposed to be held, resolution reached and an agreement was also signed. It was against this backdrop that we fixed the NEC meeting so that, if we have the resolutions, we will come here and suspend the strike.

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STRIKE UPDATES: 8 month Old Strike Claims More than Hundred Lives In Benue State - So Sad

It’s sad that there’s strike in almost all public corporation in Nigeria, and the latest information reaching us today, is that more than 101 striking primary school teachers in Benue State have lost their lives within the past eight months that they have been away from teaching, and this is following the Benue state government inability to meet their demand for the minimum wage.

According to the National secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Teachers’ (NUT), in Abuja, which had ordered the Benue state chapter in Makurdi to down tools in November 2013 after several meetings it held with the state government failed to yield desired results to call of the strike.

While the state government, which had on its own part evolved several strategies including a proposed cut in salaries of its work force to enable it satisfy the yearnings of the teachers but none of the measures has worked out so far, which has also result in the deaths of it’s workers.

The Makurdi NUT chairman, Comrade Benjamin Kwaghtamen, who disclosed this information to our correspondent, said that he has so far, lost more than forty nine (49) teachers while his counterpart in Gboko Local Government Area, Comrade Charles Abuul, put death toll in his domain at Twelve (12) following non-payment of their salaries for several months now.

Similarly, the chairman of Otukpo NUT, Udeh Adole, who we were able to interview, said that his chapter has lost eleven (11) teachers just as his Kwande colleague, James Faga said 21 teachers died in his locality as well as Comrade Jilaji of Vandeikya Local Government Area who confirmed the death of eight teachers in his area.

Though the Benue State chairman of the NUT, Godwin Anya however told newsmen that he could not confirm the exact number of teachers who have died within the period as he was yet to collate the figures from the 23 local government areas.

We once again, hope and pray that this strike gets called off. One thing we are not able to gather, is the cause of their deaths, we don’t know if it’s from hunger/poverty, sickness or while striking.

But we hope that no live is loss again.

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ASUP Strike Updates: ASUP and FG Meeting Postponed To 1st July AS FG Officials Not Turn Up

The 24th of June was a day all polytechnics students were waiting and anticipating for to come, because the students, Parents and Guardian hopes that the striking Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, would go back to classrooms after yesterday’s scheduled meeting, which the striking lecturers, the Senate Committee of Education and other stakeholders agreed to meet, but once again, the hope of all Nigerians affected in one way or the way by the strike was again been dashed.

Faith, the Dailyschoolnews Nigeria correspondent, was able to gather that the proposed meeting between members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP and the Government Officials, which was scheduled for Tuesday 24 June has been postponed officially by the board.

The Meeting which was called by the Senate committee of Education did not hold.
The senate committee called off the meeting and adjourn it to the 1st of July 2014, which is Tuesday next week, following the failure of the Education minister and other relevant agencies of the government failure to end the industrial crisis in the polytechnics.

The Nigeria polytechnics strike, which in October, will be celebrating one year of existence, is still not seeing any light of been called off, as none of the key issues has been significantly resolved by the federal government.

The Academic staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) executive members said that the meetings with the Ministry of Education and its leadership have yielded no fruitful results. The Senate intervention is seen as the next big hope for resolution to enable the students to resume their education.
This information was sent to our correspondent, from the desk of the National President of the striking lecturers’ union, Chibuzo Asomugha, who stated that the absence of key stakeholders stalled the meeting, and no progress was made.

Dailychoolnews correspondent was able to gathered that the following ministers,
* Ministers of Labour,
* Minister of Education,
* Secretary to the Federal Government
had been invited to the meeting alongside the Secretary to the Federal Government, Anyim Pius Anyim but none of the duo was present at the venue of the meeting in Abuja FCT.

Asomugha, who was angry at the snubbing, told our correspondent this, which we would love to quote:
“There was no meeting because of the absence of several key members whom the committee expected to meet with.

It’s a shame that we could not have them present here but there is little we can do about it.
This particular meeting has been rescheduled for next week Tuesday, 1st July and hopefully, other stakeholders earlier invited would be present then for the deliberations”.

However, when we contacted the supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, blatantly refused to speak with our correspondent on the issue as he claimed to be in a meeting, which he never came out from (lol) because his assistant told us since 11 hours ago that he’s in a meeting.

“You can call me back, I am in a meeting presently,” his correspondent disclosed.

The striking lecturers’ attention will now be shifted to their National Executive Council, NEC meeting, which has been scheduled for the 25th and 26th of June, 2014 at the Yaba College of Technology, YABATECH, Akoka, Lagos.

Here’s Asomugha exact words which is quoted below.

“Our NEC meeting holds irrespective of whether there was a strike action or not. So we shall meet at YABATECH tomorrow, which is Thursday to deliberate on pressing issues,”.

One notable notion which the union is demanding and is been supported by millions of Nigerians, is an “end to the HND/B.Sc dichotomy”.

It’s important that you are aware, that the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has been on strike since the 4th of October, 2013.

Source: dailyschoolnews

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LASU SSANU Chapter Vows to Continue Strike

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo Chapter, on Tuesday vowed to continue its month-long strike, until its demands were met. The decision to continue with the strike was taken at the union’s congress on June 23.

They are demanding for the repeal of the ‘no vacancy, no promotion’ policy of its management, a reduction in the tuition fee hike and the implementation of the 65 years retirement age policy.

SSANU National had sent representatives of the union to the management in February to dialogue on why the management should do the needful, but to no avail.

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SSANU - Non-Implementation of 2009 Agreement by the FG may Cause Another Strike

The Senior Staff of Nigerian Universities SSANU has called on the Federal Government to duly review the 2009 agreement without further delay to avoid another strike action disrupting academic calendar in government owned universities.

This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of its 24th regular Executive Council meeting at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) signed by SSANU National President, Comrade Samson Ugwoke, and the National PRO, Comrade NAD Aboribo, where it was stated that the agreement has since been due for review with effect from August, 2012 and the government is foot-dragging to the implementation.

The union also frowned at the non-implementation of the earned allowances component of the 2009 agreement to its members and urged the government to pay the arrears it owes its members in research institute that are affiliated to universities.

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