END STRIKE NOW - Reps tell FG
Posted by John Ameh | 10 years ago | 2,864 times
The House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Federal Government to resolve the industrial action embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics.
It said every measure necessary should be taken to end the lengthy strike, which started in October 2013.
The House passed the resolution after a member from Zamfara State, Mr. Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau, informed the members that the graduation of over 2million polytechnic students had been stalled because of the lingering dispute.
He said the ambition of intending students had also been frustrated as no admissions had been carried out by the polytechnics this year.
Shehu-Gusua noted that though the House Committee on Education had intervened in the crisis several times, there seemed to be no solution in sight.
He added that one of the bone of contention was the non-release of the White Paper on the Visitation Panel to the polytechnics in 2012.
In his contribution to the debate on the issue, the Chairman of the Committee on Education, Mr. Aminu Suleiman, said the situation remained “disturbing.”
He informed the House that a major setback was a memo the National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission wrote the Ministry of Education, querying its decision to raise the salaries of the striking teachers.
Suleiman spoke further, “We agreed that the unions should be part of the meeting, but only on Wednesday when I spoke with the ASUP President that we are waiting for their report, he informed me that the Ministry refused to make them part of the meeting.
“That as a ministerial committee, the unions had no legal standing to be members.”
The House also passed a separate resolution seeking to investigate the role of the Governing Council of the University of Abuja in the recent appointment of a Vice-Chancellor for the institution.
A member from Edo State, Mr. Pally Iriase, who moved a motion on the subject, alleged that a dispute that arose of the appointment had ethnic and religious implications.
Iriase stated that if the matter was not addressed urgently, it could escalate.
“Unless steps are taken to courageously address the discontentment in the university of Abuja community, the matter may lead to avoidable unrest,” he said.
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