From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos
Following the agreement between Lagos State Government and the tertiary education Joint Action Committee of Staff Unions on the payment of the new minimum wage, the Lagos State University (LASU) has opened for normal academic and administrative activities.
According to a press statement by Ademola Adekoya, the Coordinator, Centre for Information, Press and Public Relations (CIPPR), LASU, sequel to the latest development, the University Management has announced that lectures would commence for final year students on Monday, 21st September, 2020.
The statement stated that all other resumption guidelines remained as earlier released by the University Management on Friday, 11th September, 2020 via the University official bulletin.
Recall that members of various workers’ unions across the tertiary institutions in Lagos State including the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), among others, on Monday disrupted resumption activities on the various campuses.
The workers, under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), among others, protested the non-implementation of the N30,000 new minimum wage.
The protesting workers claimed that, while the government has implemented the minimum wage for other workers in the state, the rationale for leaving out the tertiary educational institutions’ workers could not be fathomed.
Last Monday, LASU workers blocked the university’s entrance gates leaving the Vice-Chancellor, Olanrewaju Fagbohun, other management staff and returning students stranded.
Efforts to persuade the workers to open the gates did not yield results as they insisted that they had given enough notices to the government.
At LASPOTECH, the workers did not block the gates, they barred their members from resuming work, saying their action was backed by the state’s Joint Action Committee (JAC) on labour matters, and both the state and national leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
According to the chairman of SSANIP on the campus, Seye Ero-Philips, apart from the protest against minimum wage, the union was also agitating against other domestic issues in the school.
“We want the white paper on the visitation panel report earlier submitted to Mr. Governor to be released. Workers are still being humiliated by the incumbent administration on the campus, and promotions are being carried without the implementation of Consolidated Tertiary Institution Salary Structure (CONTISS 16),” Mr Ero-Philips said.
