By Titus Ogundepo
 |
| DSM/ERC Stand at ASUP Ibadan Poly Congress |
On
the 13th January 2014, members of the ERC Polytechnic of Ibadan
branch intervened at one of the congresses of members of the ASUP which held
at new theatre hall 1 situated at the south campus of the main campus of the institution.
This congress which was organized to appraise the union 15 days old indefinite
strike action was quite impressive as it also enjoyed a massive attendance from
members of the union from the two others campuses of the institution i.e. Saki
and Eruwa
Since 30th December, 2013, members
of ASUP polytechnic of Ibadan branch have embarked on indefinite strike action.
They were forced to resort to this option after the state government at
different times had refused to acknowledge let alone respond to several letters
written by the Union on how to avert the lingering crisis of gross underfunding
and non-payment of outstanding academic allowances among others within the
institution.
It
must be noted that as a result of gross underfunding, the polytechnic of Ibadan
like virtually all public institutions in Nigeria is bedeviled with serious state of infrastructural decay; epileptic
power supply; poor staff development programmes; lack of adequate facilities
for proper teaching, learning and research; gross insecurity of lives and
properties of residents on campus among others.
Unfortunately,
since the commencement of the indefinite industrial strike action, chairman of
the union reported at the congress that the state government is yet to show any
serious commitment to address some of the issue that led to the declaration of
the strike.
In
view of this the congress resolved that the indefinite strike action should
continue while a Needs assessment committee was set up with a task to come up within two weeks with
empirical details of all forms of rot under which workers and students of the
institution groan.
Mandate
was also given to Central working committee (CWC) of the Union to set up a
strike monitoring committee as a well as immediate production of materials like
postal/leaflets to educate the general
public of various problems facing the institution with the view to mobilize
their support for the struggle of proper funding of the institution.
Some
days to the congress, members of the ERC polytechnic of Ibadan branch, had
already issued a press statement which was later mass produced into leaflets
for mass circulation and distribution among students, workers and general
public within and outside the institution.
The
distribution of this leaflet at the congress made the intervention of members
of ERC at the congress to be well received and appreciated by both the
leadership and ordinary members of the union especially those who attended the
congress.
Members
of ERC arrived at the venue of the congress almost 20minutes before the
commencement of the congress and staged a stall with ERC banner at the main entrance.
As members arrive, each one was given a copy of ERC leaflet titled: "Ajimobi’s Government must yield to the Demands of ASUP; ASUP must come out with plans for mass action and Students’ union must fight along with striking lecturers!" (Click here)
Many ASUP members who had gone into the hall without a copy of the ERC leaflet due to the fact that they entered through the other entrance came outside to demand copies. Representatives of the union from satellites campuses like Saki and Eruwa whom requested for copies of ERC leaflets were also given 1000 copies each.
At
the end of the congress almost a thousand of the leaflet was distributed among
the ASUP members while two copies of new DSM publication was sold with three
members of ASUP who showed interest of joining DSM also dropped their contacts
which include names; phone numbers and office address.
Immediately
after the congress, a similar stall was also staged at the front of Press Council
in the South campus of the institution where over 1000 copies of the leaflets
were circulated mainly to students. Five (5) students indicated interest to join
DSM and ERC
A
sum of N10, 000 was donated to the ERC.
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