The Congress of Unions comprising ASUP, SSANIP and NASU in a joint meeting has censured the entire Management of ICT Adegbenro Polytechnic, Itori for its poor administration of the institution.
The Union bodies highlighted a host of recurring problems bothering the Polytechnic that the Management has failed to tackle. The issues raised include: Admission of students, Irregularity of salary, Unpaid arrears, Non-remittance of pension, Deferential treatment, Promotion, The blue print, Internally generated revenue, Over-bloated population of staff, 65yrs retirement age, Review of admission processing fee, and Staff/student relationship.
SSANIP Chairman, Comrade Muritala Azeez in his address, appreciated the audience for the gathering and further enjoined them to confidently speak out and have their say on any number of issues bothering their minds.
“I want to express my overwhelming enthusiasm on the eventual coming together of the three Unions on this great campus. I am beginning to see that the future of this great Institution is achievable. The dreams of the founders of this Institution are coming to reality. Our coming together is not seen as a form of intimidation, it is seen as a way of charting a course towards the achievement of the great future of this great Institution. We have laboured so hard yeah, of course it is only natural that we get rewarded for our efforts variously made. And that is why we are here today, to debate the way forward to achieving the great future of everyone of us”.
We have been destined to be here. It wasn’t our choice, if we were to make the best of choices available, I’m very sure that not more than half of us would have made this choice. I want to welcome everybody here, and I want everyone of us to see this coming together as a challenge, as a way of rescuing ourselves from what is seen, what can be best described as unnecessary darkness. And I hope that with this strength, we are going to break the shackles and we are going to break into light by the special grace of God.
“You see, I congratulate all of us. We know why we are here, and it is certain we are going to achieve the reason why we are gathered here. We are intellectuals, of course, by now each and everyone of us know what they want with our level and with our age.”
“I want to reiterate that gathering here today is for business, is not for joke. And I want us to deliver our various pregnancies. We know we have a situation and that is why we are gathered here. You see I want to appreciate those of us who are present here.
“In a struggle, every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor, that is the definition of an onlooker in a struggle, he is either a coward or a traitor. You are here because you’re not in any of those categories, because you know that you have been shortchanged and you are here to speak it out, that is why we are gathered here. You know you have been mismanaged, you have been looked down upon, you know that and that is why we are all gathered here.
“Let me tell you the truth, if you refuse to blow your trumpet nobody is ready to blow it for you. We have tried our best at the various level of leadership to make a case, and we want to know whether we are even speaking your mind or not. There is no guarantee, nobody can victimize anybody for talking, nobody can intimidate anybody for speaking the truth. That is a fact. Because every single person present here is a stakeholder in the development of this great Institution. You have a role to play that’s why you are here”.
“Please, let us speak out. You see, if we are to do it for you without asking you, you won’t regard everybody here. We know what to do, don’t think we are gathered because we don’t know what to do, we know what to do, we want you to support us. We want you to tell us that what we are doing is what you want, so that we would know how to move on from here.”, he said.
Comrade Amusa S.A speaking from the audience also bore his mind on some of the issues, describing the whole situation as unpalatable.
“We are in a situation that is not palatable, and to some of us who have been working in another parastatal before joining this organization, we are seeing another thing entirely. Now I want to talk about the pension and its remittance, it is very important. You know many of us, after we have taught, after we have worked as a secretary, at the age of 60 or 65 you would be asked to go, but what do you go back with? So that is the challenge we are posing to the management. We must have an understanding of where we are going to land. Number 2 is concerning the salary challenges. When I got here, I heard that it is paid via IGR (Internally generated revenue). There are a lot of things you can generate internally to get money but if we base our hopes on generating money through tuition fees, we are not really moving forward. Let us look at another way of generating funds into the organization.”
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