ASUP Strike Continues As Lecturers' Emergency Meeting With FG End Deadlocks

The nationwide strike by polytechnic lecturers is set to continue as an emergency meeting held between the lecturers, ASUP, and the federal government ended in a deadlock.

The emergency meeting, called by the Education Minister, Nyesom Wike, held in Abuja on Wednesday evening, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

Speaking on the outcome of the meeting, an official of ASUP, Clement Chirman, said by government's attitude towards the strike, he does not see any immediate resolution of the crisis.

Mr. Chirman, the National Publicity Secretary of ASUP, said the union's leaders left its ongoing NEC meeting in Benue to attend Wednesday's emergency meeting.

"The minister called ASUP for a meeting in his office with our representative. So we left our NEC meeting and came all the way to Abuja for the meeting yesterday (Wednesday)," Mr. Chirman, who was at the meeting, said.

He noted that the meeting, however, ended in a deadlock.

"Federal Government has offered nothing other than their former position and ASUP is not accepting that. We see the strike prolonging.

"As a union we have tried to ensure the strike ends and normal academic session is restored but to no avail. Let me say that this is a strange approach by the government to end a serious matter. We have returned this morning back to Yandev to continue with our NEC meeting," he said.

The ASUP-NEC meeting commenced on Monday in Yandev, Benue State and would continue till March 15.

ASUP has held several unsuccessful meetings with the federal government since the strike began in October.

On January 22, at the end of a three-hour closed door meeting in Abuja between the Federal Government and ASUP, Mr. Chirman told PREMIUM TIMES that the Federal Government had agreed to pay the arrears of the lecturers' salaries in two installments, in March and September.

He, however, pointed out that the ASUP strike was not all about the financial demands of the lecturers.

"So even if they pay that money and are still not able to handle other issues among the 13 we presented to them, then the problem remains unresolved," he said.

The polytechnic lecturers' demands include proper funding of polytechnics and an end to the discrimination of polytechnic graduates in the labour market.