The situation at the Abia State College of Education Technical Arochukwu (ASCETA), especially among its workforce, is one that should elicit empathy.
Theirs is a reminder of the folk tale which narrates the dilemma of a man sent to deliver a bag of salt at a far flung location, but made to face a heavy rainfall deliberately induced by his benefactor.
Hired by the State government to impart knowledge to the young ones, these ASCETA folks have been subjected to the most inhuman treatment by their benefactor.
Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Colleges of Education, Abia State College of Education, Arochukwu chapter, Comrade Kelvin Onyema Egesi, spoke exclusively to Aro News Editor, Ugo Okoro, on August 26, 2022.
The union leader narrated their ordeal in a no-holds-barred manner.
Excerpts:
Aro News (AN): It is a pleasure to have you speak with Aro News; My we meet you?
Egesi: Thank you! I am Comrade Kelvin Onyema Egesi, Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Colleges of Education, Abia State College of Education, Arochukwu chapter.
AN: We understand that you have been having some issues of unpaid salaries; how many months are you being owed and what is the current situation etc, can you enlighten us?
Egesi: We are owed twenty five (25) months’ salary arrears, but that’s not the bone of contention. The bone of contention is that we have been shortchanged; the salary we receive is not what we ought to receive. We are supposed to receive Consolidated Polytechnic, Colleges of Education Academic salary structure, which has been in effect since 2011. Till now, the State and our School Management have not implemented it. So, that has been the problem. If they implement it now, I think that will help to solve the problem.
AN: We hear that you have lost some of your staff due to hardship occasioned by non-payment of salaries. Specifically how many staff have you lost so far?
Egesi: Yes, a lot of our staff have died because of this non-payment of salaries; not less than ten. Only last week – if I am not mistaken – we buried one worker. She died due to paucity of funds to pay her medical bills and the surgery she had, because she had a still birth, and also died in that process, she was buried last week. It was very pathetic because there was no money for the family to take care of her.
AN: Now what are your plans; have you had any interface with the government and school authorities?
Egesi: Yes, recently we wrote to the School Management and the State government about our plight and gave them a twenty-one days notice before we go on strike. But during that period, we were not invited for negotiation by them. The twenty-one days was issued to them on the 26th of May, 2022, and they didn’t do anything, so we issued another seven days ultimatum that took effect from 30th June, 2022, and till now action from them. That is to tell you that they do not care about us.
Then lastly, we converged last week at a congress of academic staff and we decided to go on a three-day warning strike and the letter was issued to them on the 18th of August, which elapsed on the 24th of August. Within that period also, the union was not invited for any dialogue.
However, we have resumed work; we resumed work on the 25th of August. And based on that, we have given them another two weeks as a window to dialogue with us, which if they don’t do, we may go on an indefinite strike.
AN: Is your agitation and protest based on only salaries or does it also cover other issues?
Egesi: Yes, not only on salary arrears, there are issues which the management left unattended to. Like promotion, the last promotion done in the college was in 2015. The financial implementation of promotion was done last in 2008. From 2008, assuming your salary was N50,000, it has remained the same N50,000 fourteen years after, with the present economic realities; which is wrong and we are asking the school management to promote our staff to 2021 and pay us our entitlements. Also, the management deducts between 10-15 percent of our salaries and we have asked them to stop this wicked practice.
An incident happened when the non-academic staff went on strike, what the management did was to pay some workers and left the others under the guise that they used the salaries of the people not paid to maintain school facilities.
We have been appealing to them in peaceful manner but they don’t want to stop all these practices.
But with our strategy to go on strike and tell the world our predicaments, I believe they will listen to us if they are reasonable enough.
Also, the management claims that the subvention it receives receive from the State government is inadequate, yet they are employing more people. How can you be employing when you are yet to take care of the staff you have?
AN: How is the morale of the staff?
Egesi: The suffering we are passing through is second to none. Many have died, many cannot walk. In the last three months, two of our staff collapsed in the school premises, if not for the students who rushed to revive them, it would have been a bitter story to tell. Many of us cannot pay our bills, our children are sent out of school and the irony is, when you ask them their father’s profession, they say our parents are lecturers; lectures that cannot pay school fees of their children! Is that person worthy to be called a lecturer?
A father who cannot take care of his family responsibilities is not worthy to be called a father and the Bible describes such people as infidels. So invariably, the government is making us infidels and this may result to nuisance to the society if we are unable to train our children.
AN: How’s the morale of the students and lectures?
Egesi: Yes, the morale is very low. A few minutes before granting you this interview, I was in class teaching. My colleagues still lecture; we still perform our duties as at when due but you know a hungry man is an angry man. There is no motivation, both the government and management don’t care, yet it hasn’t stopped us from carrying out our duties because our students are the leaders of tomorrow, and we are doing our best to deliver our services to them.
I will also like to address the issue of deduction of check-off dues. For up to 50 months, the management has refused to remit to the union the deducted check-off dues. Their argument is that they will not empower their enemies, meaning that the union is their enemy.
The management equally deducted 5 percent from our salaries to cut grass every month and, the worst is the pension and gratuities. Staff who served for 30-35 years go empty handed, no pension, no gratuities.
Many retired staff have died due to lack of money to take care of themselves. It’s also disturbing to us knowing that if we retire today, the management will not pay you a dime. These are issues that the management can solve without qualms. They should stop taking 5 percent of our salaries to cut grass; stop deducting our salaries, remit our check-off dues to the union. Mind you the check-off dues is also deducted from our salaries. They deduct and not remit, which is a criminal offence and we are hoping that in the near future, they will do something. Thank you!
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