FG Boycott ASUP Meeting With NASS, As Strike Continues

In a sad turn of event, the hopes of polytechnic and college of education students in returning back to school this week has been shattered as the Federal Government delegation boycotted the meeting between the lecturers and senate committee on education yesterday.

The striking Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) members had scheduled a meeting with the Joint Committee of the National Assembly to work out solutions to the industrial action by the lecturers.

The meeting has now been postponed till end of the month following the absence of Ministers of Education and Labour as they were said to have attended the flag-off ceremony of the centenary village by President Goodluck Jonathan.

A COEASU source said: “We were already at the meeting this afternoon when we were informed that it had been adjourned.

“Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, his counterpart in the Ministry of Labour and productivity, Emeka Wogu, and other key government officials, were absent.

“Other relevant government agencies expected at the meeting were the Minister of Finance and representatives from the Salaries and Wages Commission. Because of their absence, the meeting has been adjourned to Tuesday, July 1.”

The polytechnic lecturers who thought they will make a headway in negotiations yesterday and announce the suspension of the strike at the ASUP NEC meeting in YABATECH this week will now find for other agendas to discuss at the 3-day NEC meeting.

ASUP and COEASU members believed that yesterday’s meeting would be the final intervention to settle the grievances of the unions with an end to the over 6-months COEASU and ASUP strike is has clocked 338-days.

This makes one to wonder why the FG is delaying the resolution of the Poly and COE strikes as some people seems to be benefiting by keeping the youths out of school.

We here at Marblegee blogspot will continue to give you regular updates on the ASUP/COEASU strike as we believe all hope is not lost. Bookmark and visit regularly