The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), which represents lecturers at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic in Owo, is requesting that their eleven-month salary arrears be paid before they may administer exams to students.
Ade Arikawe, the chairman of ASUP, said during a press conference on Tuesday that professors could no longer work when hungry.
He claimed that despite their best attempts to find a solution, the inconsistent salary payment has been a recurring problem for more than seven years.
“We have tried to fulfil our duties even when we were hungry,” Arikawe said.
“We did this for the sake of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who is an Owo native, to prevent his political opponents from exploiting the non-payment of salaries against him.
“However, we have done enough and cannot wait or endure any longer. This struggle has been ongoing for seven years. We will not conduct exams for students until our salary arrears are paid. The only language we want to hear is confirmation of our salary payment.”
Arikawe disclosed that academic staff members have only been paid for February and have only gotten a portion of their March wage since the start of 2023. He went on to say that the institution owed more than N6 billion in unpaid salaries, benefits from promotions, and other costs.
The ASUP chairman also voiced worry on the instruction's nonpayment of monetary benefits to employees who had been promoted since 2015. He continued by saying that the polytechnic is currently severely lacking in supplies, tools, and instructional resources.
Arikawe blamed the ongoing decrease in government funding to the polytechnic, which started under former Governor Olusegun Mimiko's administration, for the persistent salary delays.
He stressed that premature deaths, preventable illnesses, broken marriages, humiliation, and other unthinkable living situations for the academics have been brought on by unpaid salaries.
Arikawe challenged the government's assertion that it had paid other employees' salary arrears while ignoring the lecturers at polytechnics. He criticized the formation of a committee to oversee the polytechnic's transformation into a university in the absence of ASUP.
“We demand that qualified ASUP members be allowed to migrate to the proposed university following the example of other states,” Arikawe asserted.
