By Gbenga Olarinoye
OSOGBO—Lecturers in 67 polytechnics across the country have warned Osun State Government to meet the demands of their striking colleagues in the state-owned polytechnics or be prepared to face mass protest by the members.

Addressing newsmen yesterday on the plight of lecturers who had been on strike since May 24, the National Secretariat of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, threatened to storm the streets of Osogbo, Osun State capital to protest poor condition of service of their colleagues.

The lecturers in the two institutions, as well as Colleges of Education in Ilesa and Ila-Orangun, had embarked on industrial strike over non-implementation of monetization salary, non-implementation of Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure, CONTISS, and non-adoption of the new salary table (CONPCASS) approved for lecturers between 2003 and July  2009.

Other grouse of the lecturers include underfunding of state tertiary institutions by the government.
The State Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola has been adamant in approving their demands on the ground that the government has no fund to implement them.

The Zone ‘C’ Coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) Engineer Gbenga Ekundayo said at the press conference that the National Executive Council of ASUP has directed that all lecturers in all Polytechnics in Nigeria would stage a walk round Osogbo, the State Capital in solidarity with their colleagues in the state tertiary institutions.

Ekundayo who said that Osun State Government has reduced lecturers in its tertiary institutions to second class citizens by not paying them the normal salary said that “if by next week, the governor refuses to open dialogue with the lecturers in the State Polytechnic and College of Technology, all the lecturers will come to Osogbo to stage a walk round the city in solidarity with our colleagues who have been on strike since May, 2010”.

The ASUP coordinator who said that the lecturers were three salary regime behind their colleagues in other State Polytechnics said that the threat by the state government that lecturers would be sacked if they don’t sign attendance register in their respective institutions would not work in this regards.

According to him, “Our colleagues in Osun State Tertiary institutions have endured so much by not going on strike for the past seven years which the government has not paid them. The government should encourage them by paying them their normal salary. The threat that they would sack them if they don’t go back to work cannot work”.

Ekundayo said that Osun State Government should take a queue from Jigawa, Lagos and Ondo governments which have opened negotiation with ASUP on how to implement the salary in their respective state.