By Uche Aguoru
The reality is that Abia state polytechnic has been struggling with very high and unsustainable wage bill with a reduced IGR occasioned by dwindling student population, however it will not make any meaningful impact if we keep to blame game and procrastination as against a realistic and proactive panacea to the problem.
In as much as it is always a regrettable approach to lay off workers, it is also not commonsensical to keep them when it is most certain that you can’t meet up with their salaries and wages.
This issue has lingered overtime without a decisive effort being applied to address the problem from its roots, industrial disharmony became a regular occurrence in the institution as a result of the huge backlog in wage bills which the institution have to grapple with.
Over time the rector of the Polytechnic Professor Ezionye Eboh had repeatedly expressed his concern over the future of the institution and with the current situation at Abia state polytechnic Prof. Eboh’s dream of setting the institution on a higher pedestal cannot be achieved through a popular position or grandstanding.
Uncommon decisions are taken by uncommon leaders and such leaders must be passionate and visionary with strength of character
The management of the institution after due diagnosis came to the realization that a surgery is inescapable in order to heal the institution of the malaise if they must achieve a healthy and academically stable Abia state polytechnic where salaries will be paid regularly and on time, the most potent remedy to the ailing institution is the downsizing of the workforce to a manageable and productive size, though many had argued against such a move either out of feigned ignorance or outright mischievousness but the truth still remains that it is illogical to have over 800 non-teaching staff with just about 300+ teaching staff in an academic institution.
How can any right-thinking human being rationalize the manning of two gates by 65 security men in a non-residential institution?
Why should a responsible institution accommodate as much as 32 staff who were discovered to have secured employment into the school through certificate forgery? For those coming for their defense please be ingenious enough to convince us on how they obtained First School leaving certificate at below the age of 8.
It is doubtful if the unions will claim ignorance of the existence of these problems and its burdensome effects, if they truly desire the success of this school, they should show understanding with the management of the institution and join forces with them to sanitize the school so as to achieve operational efficiency and productive workforce.
There is no better time than now, the decision to sanitize AbiaPoly may be unpopular today but the attendant futuristic outcome will vindicate Prof. Eboh and his team, we can’t continue to keep the ailing institution on life support, the time to heal by swallowing the bitter pill is now.
Aguoru
Writes From Umuahia
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