… says mgt. has the power to call for resumption
John Ayeni
Possibility of holding the second semester examination might be delayed as the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic lecturers have finally joined the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics national strike.
Affirming the report, The Chairman of ASUP Mapoly chapter, Mr Kola Abiola during an Interview session on Sweet For 107.1 Abeokuta explained that the strike action was inevitable because federal government has failed to fulfil the agreement its entered into with the Union in 2014.
He added that lecturers in the Polytechnic (Mapoly) joined because the state government was yet to pay their salaries.
"It being five years that we have been dialoguing with the government. The government signed an agreement in 2014 that they would do something to ensure that things run smoothly in Polytechnics. It is very surprising that since the five years federal government have entered into that agreement there has not been any changes.
"Since October last year till December when we embarked on the strike, we discovered that government was only deceiving us. This led to a strike action by ASUP. We joined because we are member" he stated.
Mr kola who disclosed that it is unusual for the polytechnic to join the ASUP strike attributed the present strike action to the inability of the state government to pay their salaries and the challenges being faced by the school.
While debunking claims that the academic union directed students to go on holidays, he said that management only has the power to direct students to go on break or to resume to school noted that it was none of the action of the striking lecturers.
According to him, "Mapoly management have the authority to determine when students will resume or go for holidays. We Mapoly lecturers did not say they should be going home. So we will not be the one to tell them to resume. If the management knows it is time for students to have their exams and they have all the machineries on ground, they will tell them when it will start.."
While commenting on the state of Ogun Poly and the future of Mapoly, he commented that the Union have no idea on the plans of the governor saying that the present predicaments faced by the school was caused by bad advise given to the governor.
He urged parents and guardians to appeal to the state governor adding that there was no way students would not be affected by the strike.
He further pleaded with the state governor to allow the polytechnic admit students across all levels for things to be back to normalcy.