Strikes halt graduation at Ekiti Poly since 2012

When the industrial unions at the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, declared a strike on January 5, this year, little did workers, students and the management of the school realise that they were in for a long battle.Over a month into the strike, truce is yet to be achieved as parties involved stand their […]

When the industrial unions at the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, declared a strike on January 5, this year, little did workers, students and the management of the school realise that they were in for a long battle.
Over a month into the strike, truce is yet to be achieved as parties involved stand their grounds in spite of meetings and interventions by notable individuals and groups including the governing council to resolve the problem in the institution that used to be the bride of admission seekers due to academic stability that used to be its hallmark.
Three unions, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) are at loggerheads with the institution’s Rector, Mrs. Theresa Akande.
The crisis begun when workers demanded for the implementation of CONTISS 15 with arrears and back dating its implementation to tally with the ASUP-FG signed agreement.
The workers also accused the rector of embezzlement of N350 million unremitted cooperative funds and what they termed as “the illegal pension deductions from contract staff benefits in flagrant disregard of the polytechnic’s financial regulations.”
Prior to the current strike, the national bodies of the unions had called for a nationwide strike which started in December 2013 and ended in August 2014 to protest the non-implementation of the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Scale (CONTISS) 15.
The students’ sigh of relief when the national strike ended and hope to resume uninterrupted academic work, however, was cut short when the local unions commenced a fresh strike on January 5.
Since then, the school’s management and staff have been pointing accusing fingers at each other.
Worried by the negative effects the action is having on the school and its students, the governing council ordered for the indefinite suspension of all trade unions as well as students union activities on campus after an emergency meeting held on Friday, 6th February, 2015.
The governing council in a statement by its Chairman, Sir Victor Ebomoyi, said the council took the decision after reviewing series of disturbances by the various staff unions that had disrupted normal academic activities in the institution over the last three years.
The council backed its decision with Section 5(1) of Decree 33 of 1979, adding that “it has observed that the directive was a consequence of the unbridled strike actions and violent protests by the unions which have not made it possible to graduate any student in its full time programmes since 2012, serial infringement of the Public Service Rules, polarisation of the students’ union as well as polarisation of trade unions into pro and anti-management.
“The governing council has therefore unanimously resolved that henceforth all union activities be suspended indefinitely.
“Also, all staff who have been on strike since the beginning of the year are hereby directed to resume work immediately or latest by Monday, 9th February, 2015.
“Consequently and in line with the directive of the Honourable Minister of Education that all institutions should be in session at this period, all full-time students are similarly directed to resume for normal academic activities as from Monday, 9th February, 2015,” it added.
The council vowed to sanction any staff that failed to comply with the directive. However, rather than complying with the directive, leaders of the unions have filed a suit at the Federal High Court to challenge the governing council and the management of the institution over the suspension of union activities in the school.
They also called for the immediate sack of the Chairman of the Governing Council, Mr Victor Ebomoyi, for acting contrary to extant laws regulating union activities in the school.
Chairman of ASUP, Mr Tunji Owoeye accused the council of backing the rector to run the institution like her personal property.
He said: “The governing council went on air to announce the suspension of union activities and only gave us letters to that effect four days after the announcement.  We have gone to court to challenge that. Our unions are duly registered.”
Reacting, through the Deputy Registrar (Information and Protocol), Ade Adeyemi-Adejolu before she was barred by the governing  council from granting press interview on the crisis, the rector, said her administration has been transparent in all its financial dealings.
She accused the workers of pursuing parochial and selfish agenda, saying the workers were acting arbitrarily by not following due process before embarking on indefinite strike.
She urged them to toe the line of civility and embrace dialogue rather than confrontation that could affect the relative peace and co-existence in the institution.
Not done in ensuring amicable resolution of the industrial dispute, early February, the rector at a meeting with some staff that defied their unions directives not to resume work, promised to pay all workers’ entitlements soon.
Akande who lamented the rate at which misinformation and falsification were allegedly peddled by the union leaders, said arrangements had been concluded to pay all outstanding dues owed the cooperatives arising from the implementation of the second phase of CONTISS 15.
She added that the institution’s governing council, acting within the powers conferred on it, took the decision to suspend all union activities on campus in good faith, so that peace could return to the polytechnic, after an unsettled academic calendar owing to perennial strikes by the unions.
Apparently tired and fed up with their continued stay on campus without academic work and the raging crisis and its effects on their future, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who condemned the action of the workers, said their action was inimical to the education and future of the students.