Osun Lecturers Plan To Bungle Aregbesola’s One-year Anniversary

[Defender]

Facts have emerged as to the reason why the leadership of academic and non-academic staff in Osun State-owned tertiary institutions are turning down the offers and appeasement of the state government on the increment of their salaries, with a view to calling off their industrial action.

The reason behind the posture of the academic and non-academic staffers of the institutions, it was learnt, was to rubbish the forthcoming one-year anniversary of Governor Rauf Aregbesola and force the government to grant them 100 per cent salary increment, under the Consolidated Polytechnic Colleges of Education Salary Structure (CONPOCASS).

All efforts to appease the striking staff to resume their duties have been proving abortive as they insisted on securing 100 per cent increment on their salaries, turning down the pleas of the students and the state government.

The lecturers had on August 10, 2011 begun an industrial action, to press home their demands for the implementation of CONPOCASS. The state government: had, last Friday, offered them 75 per cent implementation of the new salary structure, which is the same as 75 per cent difference to the current salaries being collected by the lecturers.

However, the academics, under the Council of Academic Staff Unions of the state, (CASUOSTI), rejected the offer, saying that they would not call-off the strike action until the government grants 100 per cent increment.

Addressing a congress on Monday, at the Multipurpose Hall, Osun State Polytechnic, Iree in Boripe Local Government Council Area of Osun State, the CASUOSTI chairman, Mr. J.R Jekayinoluwa, informed the striking workers about the decision of the union, to reject the 75 per cent offer, which was welcomed by all at the gathering.

Some of the lecturers at the gathering said: "We have given you (CASUOSTI leaders) a blank cheque on this struggle; use it as you want". Earlier before the lecturers arrived at the decision to continue with their strike action, two deans at OSPOLY, said: "We thought the state government has approved the 100 per cent increment, when you called us for congress. We don't know that you are just here to seek our consent on the continuation of the strike. Why do you call us for this when we have entrusted the struggle to you? Don't call us again until the government meets our demands".

Sources at the congress confided in OSUN DEFENDER that the calculation of the lecturers and non-academic staff of the state-owned tertiary institutions was that Aregbesola would not want the industrial action to extend to November, when he would be celebrating his one-year anniversary, as the governor of the state.

According to the sources, Aregbesola would be forced to accept the 100 per cent increment before the anniversary, as he would not want to rubbish the government with the industrial action during the celebration.

Investigation revealed that with the 75 per cent increment offered to the lecturers and the current adulterated CONTISS being paid to them, the state government has covered 90 per cent of the new salary structure (CONPOCASS) being demanded by the lecturers.

The state government had earlier offered the lecturers 20, 40, 60 and presently, 75 per cent increment.

Findings showed that the 75 per cent offer, calculated with the current salary being collected by the lecturers, is equivalent to 85, 87 and 90 per cents CONPOCASS implementation being paid at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State and Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta in Ogun State.

The salaries of Osun State lecturers will be 10, 13 and 15 per cents higher than their colleagues in the three states, should the government accept the 100 per cent implementation of the new salary structure

The lecturers had begun the struggle for the implementation of CONPOCASS since 2009, even as the ousted Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola failed to offer them any percentage.

It was gathered that Oyinlola did not fully implement the CONTISS being presently received by the lecturers in the state-owned tertiary institutions.

According to impeccable sources, all the meetings held with Oyinlola on the implementation of the CONPOCASS since 2009 were not documented, just as there are no records that state the request of the lecturers before the state government.

Ironically, the present leadership of the CASUOSTI cautioned the lecturers against any industrial action in the middle of 2010 on the ground that election period was near and that embarking on any strike action would portray them as being anti-government.

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that part of the tactics employed by the defunct administration of Oyinlola was the threat to probe the employment, promotion, qualifications and activities of the workers of the institutions should he approve or grant the demands of the workers.

Presently, the monthly allocation to each state-owned tertiary institution from the government is N7m, while Aregbesola has also stopped the N9m used to augment salaries of staff by each institution, it was learnt. Each institution used to contribute N9m to the payment of their workers' salaries on monthly basis before the emergence of Aregbesola's administration.

According to the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere, the governor decided to be allocating N7 million to the institutions on monthly basis due to the decrease in their Internally Generated Revenue as a result of the reduction in tuition fees. Akere added that the state government stopped the N9m monthly contributions of the institutions to the payment of their workers' salaries in order to take full responsibility for the welfare of the staffers and give the institutions a breathing space to develop the schools.

With the stoppage of the N9m salaries augmentation of the institutions, each school will be saving N108 million annually and the state government's allocation to each institution will be N84 million yearly. Students in all the state-owned tertiary institutions have been appealing to the striking lecturers and the non-academic staff to sheath their swords and call off the strike action, saying that the industrial action was jeopardizing their (students') academic programmes.

Specifically, the HND II students that are preparing for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme have been lamenting the protracted industrial action, calling on the lecturers and non-academic staff to be friendly with the state government and call off the strike.

The Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Osun State Chapter, Comrade Seun Abosede, had also appealed to the striking lecturers to, in the interest of the students, embrace the state government's offer and resume their duties in their various institutions. Abosede, popularly called Safety, called on the academics and the state government to reason together in the best interest of the state.

Osun Defender