Staff at the Federal Polytechnic, Ukana, in Akwa Ibom State’s Essien Udim Local Government Area, began a seven-day warning strike on Friday, 7 June 2024, with a protest walk around the school premises to advocate for their demands. The workers, who began the protest after a brief congress at the institution’s TETFund auditorium, expressed dissatisfaction with management’s handling of their demands, which included non-payment of a 38% salary shortfall, non-payment of promotion arrears, and forced staff conversion, among others.

Rising from the congress, the demonstrators matched to the Rector’s Office, waving placards and chanting solidarity songs, while pressing for full implementation of their demands. Some of the banners’ inscriptions read, ‘SSANIP says no to unnecessary transfer of members’, ‘No to forceful conversion of staff, ‘Pay us our 38% balance pay gap (2016-2018)’, ‘Pay us our accurate salary placement arrears (2015-2018)’, and other requests.

Mr Tamunosiki Daka, Chairman of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP), Federal Polytechnic, Ukana chapter, addressed the demonstrators and stated that they were not out to fight anyone, but rather to seek their welfare. He expressed concern that the Association’s Management has been ignoring all issues, including personnel salary deficits, since 2015, despite many reminders.

“Please let it be on record that, I, the Chairman of the SSANIP Federal Polytechnic, Ukana, I’m not battling anybody; I was not elected to fight anybody; and I was not elected to investigate into the affairs of anybody outside of SSANIP. SSANIP welfare is my main priority, and how can we talk about welfare unless they pay us what they owe us? Since 2015, we have been complaining about salary gaps, and they believe we have no idea what we are doing. We raised this concern with the visiting panel, and they promised to get back to us, but nothing has transpired yet.

“We met with management, but they did not provide us with a solid explanation why we should not go on strike; we wrote to the interim Rector, but she did not respond until the current Rector, Dr. Uduak Ndaeyo, did, but even then, no concrete response was provided. We had nothing to hide from Congress, and Congress has now stated that our 7-day ultimatum holds, and the rules of engagement provided that before embarking on any industrial action, you must notify management 21 days, 14 days, and seven days in advance, as we have done.

“We have been begging for the past six months. How would you convince me that assigning a teaching staff to the role of ICT is the right decision? By Monday, 10 June 2024, no office will be open in this place; we will close every office, even the Rector’s office,” Daka said.

He also called on President Bola Tinubu to use his good office to investigate the institution’s personnel remuneration beginning in 2015. He stated, “We want to call on the President to investigate all personnel salaries from 2015-date when we migrated to the IPPIS platform because they are claiming that they paid us all the shortfalls to 100% but up to now no one has seen anything.”

Punch correspondent reported that after taking a protest to the Rector’s office and addressing the protesters, the Rector did not come out or send a representative.

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