Concerns over prolonged closure of Kogi tertiary institutions

Students of tertiary institutions in Kogi State have expressed concerns over the lingering strike action embarked upon by staff of all tertiary institutions over the last two months to demand for salaries and other issues bordering on the well-being of the workers. Daily Trust reports that all the state’s owned tertiary institutions namely Kogi State […]

Students of tertiary institutions in Kogi State have expressed concerns over the lingering strike action embarked upon by staff of all tertiary institutions over the last two months to demand for salaries and other issues bordering on the well-being of the workers.

Daily Trust reports that all the state’s owned tertiary institutions namely Kogi State University, Anyigba, Kogi State Polytechnic Lokoja,

College of Education, Ankpa, College of Education (Technical) Kabba, School of Health Technology, Idah and School of Nursing, Obangede have  remained shut since January 2017.

Students, parents and other stakeholders in the state said they were worried as there had been no serious efforts at negotiation between the government and the striking workers to bring an end to the strike to enable students resume classes.

 A 100 level student in the Department of Economics at the Kogi State

University, Paul Kure, said he was already tired staying at home doing nothing for close to two months.

 Another student of Kogi State Polytechnic, Joy James, said the strike had adversely affected the institution’s academic calendar and called on parties concerned to resolve the lingering impasse.

 At a press conference prior to its indefinite strike action, the Acting

Chairperson of ASUU at the Kogi State University, Dr Daniel Aina, said the

union had over the last one year been on a long drawn struggle of one kind or the other, with the government of Kogi State on a number of issues as they relate to the smooth running of the university.

 “ASUU-KSU has sought to have audience with the Visitor to educate the administration on the modus operandi of the university system but we have been denied such opportunity. Our demands have been forwarded to government but there has been no formal response,’’ the union said.

“The hardships meted out to the perceived “ghosts” or “improper” workers are needless because even the law of the land deems everyone innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps, that would have shifted the pressure on the screening officers who may think eternity is the denominator of the screening exercise.

“As it affects the university, the kind of screening exercise we were subjected to is an aberration. Statutorily, the Visitor to the university has the prerogative to send Visitation Panel to the university which should perform such task within the Ivory Tower,” the lecturers said.

The lecturers demanded for the immediate payment of all arrears of salaries owed its members adding that about 200 of its members have not received salaries for over eight months.

Meanwhile, the Joint Action Committee of Tertiary Institutions in Kogi State has  blamed government for the lingering industrial unrest which it noted has crippled the education sector in the state.

JAC in a communiqué jointly signed by its chairman and secretary, Comrade Moses Balogun and Comrade Awodi Joel respectively, noted that their previous negotiations with the government were not fruitful because “most of the government representatives do not have the capacity to negotiate on behalf of the government.”

The communiqué stated that if government continued to be insensitive to the issues raised in their past communiqués and the present communiqué, JAC would embark on a mass peaceful protest after two weeks with effect from today, 16th March, 2017.

 JAC advised the government to constitute a board for the Kogi State University Teaching Hospital, Anyigba and visitation panels to other tertiary institutions in the state.

Reacting to the ongoing impasse, Chief Press Secretary to the Kogi State Governor, Mrs Petra Akinti Onyegbule, said government was taking a holistic step on the issues to ensure a lasting solution that would engender industrial harmony across tertiary institutions in the state.

“I think we need to go back to when the governor came on board, as at then almost all the institutions in the state were on strike. He dialoged with everybody and said that he was looking for bailout fund which had been applied for by his predecessor.

“Part of the demand of KSU for instance is the constitution of the governing council and payment of salaries. Now, the issue is not about payment of everybody’s salaries but salaries of those that have not been cleared by the screening committee. That is tantamount to saying, stop this screening exercise and just clear and pay everybody. If we do that at this point, then what is the essence of the whole screening in the first place,’’ she said.

She said a visitation panel to the institutions was constituted so that revenue generated was spent sensibly and learning conditions are improved in each institution.