Stalemate

Noting that the payment of CONTISS has been a contentious issue long before the commencement of the strike on 30 June, Yeketi said the state government has never folded its arms on the matter, neither has the Governing Council nor the Management. He said the seriousness of the demand and the need to accord priority to staff welfare prompted the Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki to immediately direct the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology to dialogue with the unions on the possibility of nipping the problem in the bud. When dialogue broke down, continued Yeketi, the state government constituted a Negotiation Committee headed by the Head of Service, regretting that not much could be achieved because of the refusal of the unions to shift their position.

Apprehensive of the dangerous dimension the unions’ activities were assuming, Engr. Yeketi said the Council was compelled to suspend the activities of the unions. This action, he said, precipitated the sending of threatening GSM messages to him, and members of the council and management, warning them and their families of possible attack if they continued to stand in their ways of receiving CONTISS.

“Surprisingly enough, it was observed that even with the suspension of unions’ activities, the three unions shifted their meeting point to the town, where oaths were taken by the striking workers never to resume work until CONTISS was fully paid to them without any worker being retrenched. Besides, curses, abusive language and defaming editions of the unions’ bulletins were published where the council chairman, council members and a senior administrative staff attached to council were castigated, intimidated, insulted and threatened,” Yeketi said.

On the advertisement of staff vacancies, Engr.Yeketi said there has been a serious brain drain in the polytechnic aside the fact that many staff have also been due for retirement on account of age or length of service and there was the need to replace them. Reacting to the various allegations, the Joint Chairman of the three industrial unions, Mr. Abubakar Jos Usman, who is also ASUP Chairman, appealed to Governor Bukola Saraki to intervene by inviting the union leaders to a roundtable since “it is our belief that he has not been told the truth on the matter.” He also dismissed the various gimmicks, particularly the sacking of 508 workers in one fell swoop on the pages of newspapers, being employed by the council as antithetical, vowing that no worker would resume duty until the unions’ demand for the payment of CONTISS without retrenchment is met.

“The release of sack letters cannot intimidate us anyway. Our rights must be pursued vigorously to a logical end. There is nowhere in the world where workers do not agitate for enhanced welfare package. Instead of them facilitating the means of paying CONTISS, they go about beating about the bush, using obnoxious measurers to checkmate polytechnic workers,” Usman enthused. So far, a total of 571 staff, including four members of the executives of the unions were said to have been sacked. Meanwhile, the industrial action appears to have claimed its first major casualty, as the Rector, Dr. Yahaya Abdulkareem, has been asked to proceed immediately on compulsory leave by the institution’s council. The State House of Assembly has waded into the crisis by inviting both the unions and the council. The workers agreed to call off the strike on the condition that council’s ban on the three unions is lifted.