The Education Rights Campaign has backed the ongoing industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics at the Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the organisation said the unions were in their right to enforce payment of their salary arrears and appropriate funding of the polytechnic.
The statement reads in part, “The full payment of salary is a right and we demand its immediate payment across the board.
“We also call for the adequate funding of education by both the federal and the state governments and the management of the Federal Polytechnic Bida led by Dr Abubakar Dzukogi.
“We urge ASUP and SSANIP and their members not to relent on in this struggle. We also urge them not to limit this struggle to a sit-at-home strike action but to commence mobilisation of members and students in mass protests in Bida, Minna and Abuja.
“The management is attacking the rights to dissent and harassing opposition staff unions. For instance six ASUP Bida leaders were arrested and detained in Minna for six days on the orders of Dr Dzukogi.
“We condemn this repressive action against leadership of unions as it is an attack on their democratic rights.
“Besides, it undermines the value of higher institutions of learning as a place where dissenting views must be accommodated.
“The ERC calls on ASUP, SSANIP, other staff unions and students’ union in Federal Polytechnic Bida to build a united movement that can begin to organise joint strikes, protests and mass demonstrations to force the management to meet demands of workers and students.”
