FG agrees to meet poly lecturers’ demands

The Federal Government on Monday met with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics behind closed doors and agreed to meet the demands of the union.

The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, and the Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu co-chaired the meeting while ASUP President, Chibuzo Asomugha, led the union team.

None of the parties, however, spoke with journalists after the brief meeting held at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja.

However, a source at the meeting, who confided in our correspondent, said the union obtained a strong commitment from the government.

He said, “The union tabled three key issues at the meeting. One is the need to constitute the governing councils of the remaining seven polytechnics. Wike was said to have informed the union that the Federal Government had agreed to constitute the remaining governing councils. He promised that the list would be out by this week and the union was happy about it.

“He also promised that the white paper on the visitation panel to the polytechnics was almost ready and would be released soon.

“On the CONTISS 15, Wike promised to work with the Minister of Labour to get the circular ready from the Head of Service having got commitment from the Presidency to work out the modality on the migration to CONTISS 15 for the polytechnic teachers.

PUNCH