Former chairman of the governing council of the Abia State Polytechnic,<\/p>\n
Aba, Dr. Chuku Wachuku, says the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics
\n(ASUP) and its sister unions in the institution have been frustrating
\nefforts to cleanse the rot hindering the growth of the Polytechnic.<\/p>\n
He stated that the three umbrella staff unions in the Polytechnic, under
\nthe auspices of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian polytechnics (SSANIP),
\nAcademic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and Non-Academic Staff Union
\n(NASU) have constituted their members into a clog in the wheels of progress
\nof the institution through their penchant to confrontation on even trivial
\nissues.<\/p>\n
Wachuku who is a former Director General of the National Directorate of
\nEmployment (NDE) said the staff unions were not committed to addressing
\nsome of the problems of the Polytechnic and never allowed the council to
\nwork since they were inaugurated.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cThe governing council was sworn in on June 2016 and we
\ninherited 8 months\u2019 salary arrears, but the Staff unions never allowed us
\nto work. The unions preferred confrontation to dialogue. Yes salary was
\nowed, but government is working hard to ensure that all workers are paid.
\nWe are not unaware of the dwindling revenues of the government. You have to
\nsituate the situation with the entire workforce of Nigeria. And relate it
\nto the Abia workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, workers in Abia Poly are not in isolation as to what is happening in
\nthe country. From the way the Union leaders conducted themselves, we began
\nto wonder if it is only payment of salaries that is causing all these
\nanimosity. Was it against this governor or governing council? It is
\nremarkable to note that these oppositions were being coordinated by the
\nASUP Chairman, Precious Nwakodo.\u00a0 It is on record that during the tenure of
\nthe last governing council, the unions and Nwakodo endured over 11 month\u2019s
\nsalary arrears. I\u2019m not saying it is good to owe workers, but they never
\nwent on strike or shut the gates. Why were they vehemently opposing the
\ngoverning council the way they did? A situation where some union leaders
\nwere writing that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu\u2019s case at the Supreme Court is
\nalmost over cannot be taken as unionism. It is targeted at influencing the
\ncase against the governor. What has the governor done to them? He paid off
\na N2 billion Naira loan for the polytechnic.
\n“I was a former Director General of National Director of Employment (NDE)
\nin this country and led several delegations to the International Labour
\nOrganization (ILO); this is not the way Unions are run. The Unions need to
\nembrace dialogue than confrontation if they want the institution to
\ndevelop. What sort of staff union will resist the opening of the
\nPolytechnic when they knew that such would generate funds to pay the
\nsalaries owed them?”<\/p>\n
Wachuku added that the council\u2019s efforts to introduce best practices and
\nreduce the over dependence of the Polytechnic on the state government was
\nresisted by the staff Unions coordinated by ASUP chairman, Precious Nwakodo.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made serious efforts to pay the arrears owed them but the unions made
\nthings difficult. We were determined to work out our salaries from the
\nPolytechnic and reduce over dependence of the institution on the state
\ngovernment but the Unions resisted it. We needed to raise the student
\npopulation, reduce overhead cost by 25% and workforce, some of who are
\nillegally employed, but the Unions refused to allow reopening of the
\nschool. We have almost plugged all financial leakages; it appeared they
\npreferred the old order. The student population of the Polytechnic fell by
\nover 100%, yet the unions were not bothered. The other time there was a
\nhuge difference in the soft copy and hard copy of a particular month\u2019s
\nsalary bill sent to the bank. My intervention saved some money for the
\ninstitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur offence is that we insist that the right things must be done. When you
\noverdo things, it means there is a hidden plan to achieve an end. How can a
\nunion official be spreading sentiments that the chairman of the governing
\ncouncil, the Registrar and the students Union President are from Ngwa. Is
\nthis unionism?\u00a0 The council chairman must go, the management must go, and
\nthe Registrar must go. The only semblance of organization in the
\ninstitution was during the tenure of Prof. Uche Ikonne as Acting Rector.
\nBefore
\nhe came, the bursary was without records, administration was porous with
\ntoo many leakages. We have an avalanche of staff whose employments are
\nirregular. The council was determined to sanitize the system. We had the
\nproblem of bloated staff strength and other rots in the system. There are
\nover 1,400 workers in a small institution like Abia Polytechnic; but the
\nUnions resisted efforts to address these problems. Imagine a situation
\nwhere there exist over 40 people working at the Polytechnic bookshop, what
\nwere they doing? A good number of the workers were employed without
\nconsidering the needs of the institution. We were determined to set things
\nright but the staff unions opposed our efforts because they are benefiting
\nfrom the rot in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former chairman of the governing council of the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, Dr. Chuku Wachuku, says the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and its sister unions in the institution…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n