ASUP Strike Continues As Polytechnic Lecturers’ Meeting With FG Ended In A Deadlocked.

The Monday meeting between the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics,
ASUP, and the Federal Government, in Abuja, ended in a deadlock, said
the National Publicity Secretary of the union, Clement Chirman.
"The whole thing about the ASUP strike is that there is no definite
response from government. It's the same thing over and over again.
It's either we meet or we are meeting or we will meet; and after all
the meetings, up till now, none of the issues have been tackled," Mr.
Chirman told PREMIUM TIMES.
He expressed disappointment that government did not attend to the
union's issues at the same time it was handling that of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the government's delegation to the Monday
meeting was led by the Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu.
"Our expectation was since we were on strike while the government was
negotiating with ASUU and at that same time negotiating with us – our
cases were similar – government would have just handled the issues
together and forgot about them," he said. "But government went ahead
and attended to just ASUU and left ASUP. That will explain to you the
type of thing ASUP has been talking about; segregation and the concept
people have about polytechnics in Nigeria."
Mr. Chirman maintained that polytechnics would remain closed until the
government attended to ASUP's demands.
"The polytechnics will remain closed and nothing will happen until the
funding have been provided and some other pending issues are addressed
alongside white paper of the Visitation Panels to Federal Polytechnics
and pay arrears owed to polytechnic staff," he said.