By MUSTAPHA YAURI

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria Chapter, has raised alarm over alleged poor salaries earned by the polytechnic lecturers as the union continues its strike.

The union alleged that the lecturers earned less than the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, which according to it, is sparking concerns over educators’ welfare.

The Chairman of the union, Mallam Usman-Shehu Suleiman, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria on Thursday.

NAN reports that the joint staff unions had embarked on a one-week warning strike on June 16, which has grounded academic activities at the two campuses of the institution.

The strike was hinged on the non-implementation of the National Polytechnic and Colleges of Education Salary Structure and implementation of the 65 years retirement age for non-teaching staff among others.

Suleiman, who is also the Chairman, Joint Action Committee of the staff unions of the institutions, said a net pay of an assistant lecturer at the institution was N64, 400, which he said was far below the monthly allowance of NYSC members.

“This, among other reasons made the institutions to experience drastic brain-drain and many lecturers are on the verge of leaving the institution.

“We lose cohorts of lecturers to Federal University of Transportation Daura, Katsina State; Federal Polytechnic Gombe and Kaduna State University (KASU) among other institutions.

“We have an instance where a lecturer was sponsored to acquire masters and Ph.D. by the institution upon his return he found the situation unbearable and decided to leave,” he said.

However, the chairman added that the lecturer had signed a bond with the institution, therefore, he had to repay NUBA Polytechnic over N21m.

The chairman described the situation as ‘bad omen’ for the education sector.

Similarly, Abubakar Aliyu-Shika, Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnic (SSANIP), NUBA Polytechnic branch, said the union had been agitating for the improvement of salary since 2009, “almost 16 years ago.

“We had series of agreements with the state government on June 11, 2010, and June 19, 2014 over the matter and nothing was done besides just signing the agreement and complaints of paucity of funds.”

He added that on Dec. 17 2024, Gov. Uba Sani assured the leadership of the joint unions that the Polytechnic and College of Education Salary Structure (2024) would be implemented by the first quarter of 2025.

“Regrettably, we are in the end of second quarter of the year and no concrete steps have been taken to fulfill this promise,” he said.

Aliyu-Shika noted that one of the excuses was paucity of fund in the state and the government would fully implement the new salary structure when the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) improved.

He added that the total staff strength of the polytechnic was little above 900, saying, ”now, the government has recruited 500 new staff; it means the financial situation has improved, hence our demands.” (NAN)