From Iheanacho Nwosu, AbujaAn end to seven-month-old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) will not end soon as the Ministry of Education said yesterday that the new salary structure being demanded by the lecturers was not captured in the 2014 budget.
The supervising Minister for Education, Mr Nysome Wike, who disclosed this to the House of Representatives Committee on Education, however, said the report of the visitation panel, expected to be submitted next week, would determine the steps to be taken by the government on the industrial action.
Wike was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr McJohn Nwaobiala. The minister was summoned by the committee to be part of a meeting held by the lawmakers with ASUP officials.
He said although the government was willing to pay the CONTISS-14 salary arrears, he could not make a commitment on when the money would be paid because it was not captured in this year’s budget.
According to him, “if I had a pit where there is money in the ministry to settle this, as I leave here now, we will settle it….In this year 2014, we don’t have a provision for settling this arrear. The ministry had requested for a special budgetary intervention to enable us to settle it. I can’t make a commitment that I will or that the ministry will release these funds in April or July. What I will say is that my minister needs to consult with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Minister of Labour so that we can know how we can get the funds”.
Wike denied his ministry was withholding the White Paper on the contentious issue, stressing that there was no logic in doing that.
According to him, “this White Paper contains issues specific to each polytechnic and there are issues that are generic. It is for the government to say we endorse this or we reject this recommendation…we have been putting pressure that this White Paper be released…with little additional pressure within this week or next week, that the White Paper will be released”.
He said, “the ministry has written and spoken with the SGF. The last situation is that the SGF called me to ask for the electronic copy of that report, which I did. I want to assure you that that the White Paper will be released very soon and when released, the next problem will be how to pay arrears”.
Wike insisted that it was because ASUP reneged on an earlier agreement to get their staff migrated to CONTISS -15 salary arrears paid last April and July that led to the delay in resolving the ongoing strike. He said: “ASUP rejected that proposal officially in writing. Same day, the minister had written to the President that they had reached an agreement before we were informed that ASUP rejected the proposal.
“The Head of Service gave approval in 2013 and details of how we got the 22. something billion naira was only received this year. ..I believe that was an opportunity that was lost. If they had accepted March and September, we would have worked very hard to ensure that it is implemented”.
However, in his response, ASUP President , Chibuzo Asumogha, accused the government of failing to implement the condensed four-point demand of the union to enable the polytechnics re-open.
He said government officials “imposed” the decision to pay the arrears in April and September on them, noting that though the union had agreed to step down its 13-point demand, the government was not showing the needed commitment required to make them go back to the classroom.
Earlier, Chairman of the House Committee, Hon Aminu Suleiman (APC, Kano), said the meeting was a fall-out of the motion raised on the issue last week and the charge by the Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, that the committee should attend to the letter which ASUP presented to him when they led a protest to the National Assembly last week.
He faulted government’s reason for allowing the strike to linger, stressing that the government cannot claim not to have funds to settle the salary arrears. The lawmaker advised both ASUP and the Ministry of Education to lay all the cards on the table so that pending issues will be fully thrashed out . He said the two parties must reach a common ground to end the strike.