The first semester examinations for the 2021 academic year of the Abia State Polytechnic Aba scheduled to commence Monday September 16 could not hold as the lecturers of the institution made good their threat to shun the exercise if they are not paid at least three months of the 29months salaries being owed them by the authorities of the institution.
It will be recalled that on September 10 the lecturers had at an emergency Congress and resolved to boycott the examinations unless the Polytechnic management take steps to address the issue of their backlog of salaries.
When All FACTS NEWSPAPER visited the polytechnic, scores of lecturers and students were seen going about with no examinations holding, a development which is said not to be going down well with the students. All FACTS NEWSPAPER authoritatively gathered that the students having earlier lost an entire academic year to the coronavirus pandemic fear that the present face-off between their lecturers and the polytechnic management is most likely to negatively affect the current academic calendar to the detriment of their parents and guardians who are forced to spend more in keeping them in school.
The lecturers boycott of the examinations is coming amidst last ditch efforts by the Abia state government and the polytechnic management to avert it.
Only last week Friday September 10, a commissioner in the Abia State Government visited the polytechnic with a view to persuading the lecturers to jettison the idea of boycotting the examinations. But his efforts came a little late as he arrived the institution minutes after the lecturers had ended their Congress.
His subsequent effort to appeal to the ASUP leadership to reconsider and reverse the decision of the Congress could not yield positive result as the union executives were said to have told him that only the Congress as properly called can reverse its earlier resolution.
Meanwhile attempts to reach the management of the polytechnic for comments again proved abortive. The Rector of the institution Dr. Kalu Okorie Osonwa was said to have gone to Umuahia on an official trip while several calls put across to the public Relations Officer PRO. Mrs Stella Nwakanma were not answered as at the time of reporting.
All FACTS NEWSPAPER findings also revealed that as at the time reporting Thursday September 16th the polytechnic management has commenced the payment of one month salary to the workers in a staggered form owing to paucity of funds.
Those earning from 100.000 naira downward are said to have received theirs while others are said to be waiting. It is however not yet clear if the lecturers will reconsider their position when the one-month salary must have gone round. Already a group known as Concerned ASUP members are alleged to be presently holding meetings with a view to getting some like-minded to commence the examinations.
