OPINION: ASUP Strike; A Recurring Necessity?

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Damilare Banjoko
While still battling with the strike embarked on by the Academic staff Union of Universities about a month ago now, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) on Wednesday December 12th, 2018 followed suit in an indefinite strike. These incessant strike actions in the Education sector has raised lots of concerns about the present administration’s efforts towards revamping quality education in Tertiary institutions.

There is however no smoke without fire. So what led to the recent ASUP strike action?
Some of the reasons the Union gave for embarking on the strike was non-implementation of the NEUDS Assessment report of 2014, non-payment of salaries in state-owned institutions, non-payment of allowances, victimization of the union members among others.

It will only be unwise to ask “why strike now?” when it is so glaring that the general elections are just few weeks away and the attention of the political gladiators including the Federal government who can meet their demands are all focused on how to win the elections.

Nevertheless, to whom much is given, much is likewise expected. If the Union are asking the Federal Government for more and for the implementation of the 2009 and 2017 agreements, the question then is, what are their landmark achievements in these past years? What have they done with the little they have been given so far? How have they managed the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) money allotted to them in the past?
To me, if these question and many more are not answered, then the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics is absolutely uncalled for and unnecessary. 

But in as much as the Union have their own shortcomings, the Federal Government has reached several agreements with these Unions and I feel that those agreements should be respected by this President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and that there should be a holistic approach in addressing the issues of not only ASUU and ASUP, but the Nation’s workforce in its entirety as there have consistently been several other industrial actions in other sectors in recent times.


Banjoko Damilare Kazeem is a student of Mass Communication HND2. He is the present Photo Editor of the Press Club.

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