Comrade Biodun Awoyemi, the Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) , Lagos State Polytechnic Chapter
Leaders of the protesting unions of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, during their protest at the 3rd gate of the institution, Ikorodu main campus, took out time to grant interviews to THE IMPACT on the protracted crisis that has engulfed the institution.
In the interviews with Kunle ADELABU, Publisher/Reporter-in-Chief, THE IMPACT, they alleged that the Rector of the institution, Mr Samuel Sogunro, caused the renewed crisis which led to the shutting down of the campus completely and thereby, called for the sack of the Rector, the management team and the Governing Council. Excerpts:
Rector Did The Unforgivable – Awoyemi, SSANIP Chairman
IMPACT: What is your name sir?
SSANIP Chairman: I am Biodun Awoyemi, the Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnic (SSANIP), Lagos Polytechnic Chapter.
IMPACT: This issue has been on ground for a while, but we learnt that since yesterday (Wednesday, March 27) the unions have been taking a new cause of action by shutting down the school gates, what informed this renewed protest?
SSANIP Chairman: If you are saying that this agitation just started yesterday (March 27), you might not be getting it right. We have been on these renewed agitations since January 21st 2019, when we got the wind that the management was about to forcefully implement de-migration which is the reversal of the migration we had initially attained during the 2016 agitations, so, that is why you see us embarking on this protest . Probably, this is the 9th or 10th week that we have been on this. Prior to yesterday’s (Wednesday) action, all we have been doing was just to gather at the podium to pray and do peaceful protest while we had also gone to Alausa few times. But the moment we received the Head of Service invitation for his intervention in the matter, we just mellowed. But the Rector did the unforgivable. The Rector paid his amputated salaries which we are all aware shouldn’t be what he should pay us for January and of course, we worked for it and the reason he paid for February was essentially because the students were to start their examinations and since the academic staff members are not fully partaking in this agitations, he has to pay them so as to get their supports for the conduct of the examinations. We envisaged that he wouldn’t want to pay for March. It was his refusal to pay the non-teaching staff members’ salaries that aggravated the strike and led to the closure of the main gates of the school .
IMPACT: What can you say about the allegations by some of your members that the school is owing staff salary arrears of about 87 months?
SSANIP Chairman: By now, it should be running into 100 months. When we were talking about 87 months arrears was in 2016. Simply put, the migration scheme should have been effective since 2009 but we didn’t get it until 2016. It was the salary arrears between the period of 2009 and 2016 that accrued into 87 months, but we are now in 2019.
IMPACT: The Polytechnic Public Relations Officer stated that the management members are actually waiting for the report of a committee setup to look into the crisis to determine the next cause of action, why can’t the unions also wait for this report before embarking on this renewed protest?
SSANIP Chairman: Why has the management aggravated the situation? Since we started this agitation on January 24, we were not closing gates. The students were allowed to take their lectures and write their examinations. It is not waiting for the report that aggravated this. Ordinarily, we were also expecting that the management would wait for the report and then act on its recommendations but with the incident that took place on Wednesday, there is need to tell the management that they cannot take us for granted. What happened on Wednesday and Thursday (March 27 and 28) was not because of the report because we were with the Head of Service (HOS) on Tuesday (March 26) and we had no inkling of the report, so, we wouldn’t have been reacting based on that. These renewed agitations started on Wednesday when the Rector started paying the academic staff members and neglecting others. We were not pre-empting the report or reacting to it, but incidentally, we knew that Rector does not have the mandate of either the committee or the council to do what he did. Why is he not paying us our salaries? So, it wasn’t because of any report. If they want to accuse us of not waiting for the report, the management is equally guilty because if it has not gone ahead to pay some staff members and neglected others, nothing would have happened.
IMPACT: As a union leader, what do you think should be done to finally address the issue and again, having in mind that the matter is currently in court, how do you think this matter can be addressed from the side of the government, management, unions and the students?
SSANIP Chairman: We have no issue with the students and there is really nothing to say to them. What we are urging the government to do, irrespective of the fact that the matter is in court, is to remove Sogunro-led management and the Governing Council of the institution for bad governance. We have never experienced this kind of governance before. Let’s the Migration scheme return and resolve other agitations, Sogunro’s administration cannot ensure peace in this Polytechnic. I think the best thing is to sack him.
IMPACT: We learnt that the Rector has not been coming to school for some time now, is it because of the protest?
SSANIP: Definitely, it is because of the protest and it is equally a sign that he has gone.
Sogunro Is Running LASPOTECH As A Personal Property – ASUP Vice Chairman
IMPACT: Can we meet you sir?
ASUP Vice Chairman: Abdusallam Oluwagbenga. I am the Vice Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Lagos State Polytechnic chapter.
IMPACT: There are allegations that ASUP is no longer fully involved in the struggle for the agitations for Migration scheme, and that members of the association have been going about their normal business with the management which led to the payment of their salaries while others were not paid by the management. As a union leader, what do you have to say to this?
ASUP Vice Chairman: That was not correct because at the heat of the struggle in 2017, the management, led by Mr Samuel Sogunro who is equally a member of the academic staff union and of course, he has his supporters among the academic unions and he was able to use that and pulled his clout to destroy the union. As a matter of fact, he came to the Congress to move a motion for the suspension of the union executives which is against the union’s constitution, though, that case is still pending in court. He went ahead to stop the cheque-up dues of the unions and the implication of that is that he has proscribed the unions. He did that with ASUP and succeeded but we are challenging the legality of his action in court. He also tried that with NASU but was unsuccessful. It is only SSANIP that he left out because he knows that the members are elderly people and he can easily resolve issues with them. So, I don’t want to believe that such allegations were made.
On the 21st of this year when he (Rector) reversed the migration salary that staff members of the Polytechnic were earning, many of the academic staff members were equally affected. But unfortunately, ASUP do not have a central organ to fight against that and as a result, many were suffering in silence. Some of us are of the opinion that if we cannot fight through our own union which the Rector has killed, we can do that through another channel, which we did through NASU and SSANIP and we have since stood by them. The fact that we are not on strike does not mean that we are not affected by what they are fighting against but unfortunately, there has been no channel for our members to raise their voices. That has been the problem.
IMPACT: We gathered that the renewed protest was due to the payment of salaries to the academic staff members while others were not paid, what is your reaction to this?
ASUP Vice Chairman: That we were paid on Wednesday and non-academic staff members were not paid did not surprise me at all. That has been the behavior of the Rector. He likes grandstanding and believes that any dissent opinion should be killed. He tried that with ASUP too in 2017. He stopped our salaries but we stood our ground, fought and resisted him within 24 hours. He is doing same thing now because he believes that he can arm twists the non- academic staff members and clamp down o their protest. But the Polytechnic Council has risen to the occasion since the campus has been grounded. It is now that we are realizing that he does not have the authority of the council nor that of those in Alausa to do that. That is the level the Rector could go in his maladministration. He will just take an action feeling that he is on top of the world while he running the institution as a personal property.
IMPACT: SSANIP and NASU have called for the removal of Mr Sogunro as Rector and as a permanent solution to these problems, what is your position on how the crisis should be resolved?
ASUP Vice Chairman: Definitely, that is correct and I will tell you why. Historically, I know the crisis that has engulfed the institution since 2015 is unprecedented in the history of this institution. The staff members have always been so dedicated to the progress of the school that at a time when our national body declared a strike action, we already resolved on our own campus on the matter with our management. We only told the national body that we can only support them on solidarity. This is to show the level of understanding that we tried to have with the school management. In 2015 before the coming of Sogunro, the issue of Migration had been on and we had an understanding with the management because the monthly subvention of the institution at that time could not accommodate it. The union took it upon themselves and went to Alausa to lobby and got the subvention from the government increased. This present Governing Council is also a product of the unions’ intervention. We did all these because we believed that we have a management that had the interest of the workers at heart, but what we are witnessing presently is very unfortunate. I do say it that Sogunro is one of the luckiest Rectors we have ever had in the history of the Polytechnic. In his time, the subvention was increased by over 80% and our internally generated revenue has also increased by over 50%, what is now the problem that you cannot heed to the legitimate request of the workers? On three different occasions, we had people in authority intervening in the matter and advised him to be careful and work things out with his workers. The deputy governor also advised him but he only returned to the Polytechnic to do otherwise. In the course of these agitations, there were three committees setup by the Office of the Special Adviser on Education, Lagos State House of Assembly and … but the Rector would just throw spanners in their works for no just cause. He was also the one that took us to the court and we are ready to abide by the ruling of the court but seeing that the case will not favour him and his cohorts, they went to take the matter out of court and returned to throw the Polytechnic into unnecessary crisis. We are tired of all these. In fact, if the entire Polytechnic staff members are given money freely to allow him (Sogunro) back into the system, he will still come back to foment another trouble. We are tired of him and that is why we have agreed that the way out for this institution is to send Sogunro, his management team and the entire members of the Governing Council who have turned themselves to lame dogs, away.
IMPACT: Students are also stakeholders in the institution. They are alleging that you did not grant them audience on many occasions that they tried to intervene in the matter whereas, the Rector and his management had granted them audience on the matter severally. What do you have to say to this?
ASUP Vice Chairman: Well, there is no issue to drag with the students because they are our students and children but every time I go to classes, I do advise them on what to do as union to get what they want. Unfortunately, the students do not really have the priority of what they really want. As teachers, we are not only concerned about impacting knowledge but impacting meaningful knowledge that will be productive to them in future. These students just want us to give them anything and allow them to write their exams not minding the conditions. The students don’t care about the school not supplying consumables for practical. As a teacher in Engineering Department, the students care less about engaging the management to get necessary consumables for practical and that is really disturbing. The students wrote the last examinations under very intense atmosphere but it didn’t bother them. The library was not functional and I begin to ask if they do read at all because most of the books that their parents cannot afford are supposed to be in the library. The medical centre was shut and they are fully aware of the rate of casualties that the school always recorded during the examination period. It is so sad that the students agreed with the management to bring in a nurse from outside any time there is a medical crisis.
These same students with this kind of mentality are now saying that they want to meet with the unions when we know that what we did in the past did not sit well with them. Despite all that we did to educate them on the issue of Migration, the students still made themselves tools in the hands of the management team to attack the academic staff members and destroy our vehicles. After the dastard act, the management disowned them and said that they were not the one that sent them, so, we just let go of the matter. Their process of electioneering is even faulty. Why would the management be deciding for them who should contest and who should not, it’s simply because they feel that some of the students are too radical. We are aware of all these. We are also aware of the fact that if we grant them audience, they will only keep the details to themselves and would not share them with other students at their Congress. That was why we asked the leadership of the students to seek the mandate of the Congress and invite us to present our matter to them but they refused. It was then that we gave them our bulletin detailing our positions on the issue of migration and also distributed same amongst the students and they raised eyebrow. We also made soft copies and posted them on all their platforms to enable all the students have access to the details.
IMPACT: Thank you for your time sir.
ASUP Vice Chairman: Thank you.
