The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has threatened to embark on a nationwide strike action over the non-payment of salaries by six states of the federation.
President of the Union, Mr Chibuzo Asomugha, told journalists at a news conference in Abuja that six states including Osun, Plateau and Benue are owing their polytechnic lecturers between eight and 10 months.
Other states in the list include Abia, Imo, and Oyo state.
“We want to state without equivocation that it is morally reprehensible and desperately wicked for a government at any level to owe its workers eight months of salaries. Such a government has, by that very colossal failure, lost the moral claim to the leadership of the people. It has failed woefully in its mandate to provide governance and should abdicate.
“If, within the next few weeks, the affected state governments do not clear the arrears of salaries and allowances owed our members, our union nationwide will be left with no other option than to rise in arms in solidarity with our suffering colleagues.
“The conditions of most states polytechnics in Nigeria are pathetic. This has greatly compromised standards in most of the institutions. Apart from criminal neglect and dereliction of duty on the part of state governments which are proprietors of the institutions, there are also constant experiences of undue interference and politicisation of appointments and recruitment of personnel”, Asomugha said.
Mr Asomugha also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and end “the unnecessary dichotomy” between Bachelors Degree and Higher National Diploma.
