by Christiana Gokyo, Jos
JOS: The Joint Union of Plateau State-Owned Tertiary Institutions and Cancellation of Recruitment Done has asked for domestication of Polytechnic Act 2019, implementation of N35,000 Wage Award and constitution of a Governing Council.
Chairman of the Union, Comr. Sunoe Peter Longbaam, disclosed this, while briefing journalists in Jos on Tuesday, saying, they hope for the best in their Tertiary Institutions with the mantra of “THE TIME IS NOW” and “THE LAND IS GREEN.”
Recalling that, the Chief Executives of State-Owned Tertiary Institutions were relieved of their appointments and the recruitment carried out in October, 2022, was also cancelled and new Heads of Tertiary Institutions were equally appointed – on temporal basis – just a day after and without due regards to Edict establishing those institutions.
He said, “The Joint Union observed with concern the politicization of removal and appointment of Chief Executives of Tertiary Institutions and outright cancellation of employment carried out in October, 2022.
“It is in the light of the above that we are compelled, today, to call for this press conference to address, inform and educate you on the danger and negative precedents the action of government will create in the nearest future.
“We are constrained to again mention the issues, which we believe that our position as a Union will be well informed Removal and Appointment of Chief Executive of Tertiary Institutions,” Longbaam stated.
He stressed that, “The position of the Chief Executives of these Intuitions: Plateau State University, Bokkos, Plateau State Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi, College of Education, Gindiri, College of Health Technology Pankshin and College of Health Technology, Zawan, were advertised, interview was conducted and they were found appointable.”
He said, “Their appointments were in accordance with the Edicts and Laws that established these Institutions,” and wondered which criteria was used to remove the Heads of the Tertiary Institutions.
The union chairman lamented that, “The removal of these officers was not in line with the extant laws governing the institutions. With this development, the union is shocked with the development, especially knowing full well that, not long our dear government is a beneficiary of law and justice.
“We are afraid – this act might be counter-produce with gross and unimaginable consequences in the accreditation of our academic programs. As if the damage done with the removals was not enough, again without minding the position of the Edict, we were again confronted with what the government termed, ‘Temporary Appointment,’ even where exists Deputy, and which by law should rightly be given such position.”
He queried, thus: “How can we have Heads of Temporary Institutions where there exists deputy(s)? This is in total disregard to the Laws guiding the operation of these institutions. This is a serious setback in our quest for a better educational system in the state.
“While expressing worry about the future of our tertiary education, this same government sets up Visitation Panels to these institutions. Where are the reports? This is very unfortunate, and the unions totally found this condemnable and demand that Government should re-visit its action, for the sake of industrial harmony.
Comr. Longbaam further stated that, “The cancellation of employment done in October, 2022, the issue of employment was a product of agreement reached with Government, leading to the recruitment of staff in October, 2022. This was to bridge the gap in manpower of the tertiary institutions.
“But, in June, 2023, the newly employed staffs were suspended by the Government, and we acknowledge the intention of Government to ‘verify and review’ the entire process, and a committee was eventually constituted to review the process and we equally applauded the effort of the Government to sanitize the recruitment exercise.
“The Report of the Committee was released and immediately another committee was again constituted to look into the Report, and Government White Paper was publicly released for implementation,” he said.
Longbaam noted that, “The White Paper report was very explicit, which did not cancel the employment done in tertiary institutions; rather, recommended that Governing Council be constituted with the view to implement the White Paper report but was delayed for some reasons not known until the outright cancellation.
He stressed that, “This action will definitely constitute a setback in our tertiary institutions. It is sad that it is the educational sector that Government chose to politicize when we expect pro-activeness in the educational sector.
“This action is painful and should be noted that any Government toying with education is destroying the future generation, while the Union believes that Government is aware that this recruitment was timely and long overdue, and some little procedural lapses should not be used to unjustly destroy the system.
“The Union also encourage that anything worth doing well should be done for a permanent solution and not temporal, and Government should note that these institutions have already suffered negligence in the past for too long and not again this time, and our staff have been overwhelmed with overstressed schedules of duty.
“The Union also urges Government to have a rethink and isolate candidates with questionable issues and reinstate the staffs, who are qualified and, especially, those cleared by successive committees, in the interest of industrial harmony.
“We are appealing to the members of the public and well-meaning Plateau people to, please, intervene for this newly-employed staffs to be reinstated,” Longbaam stated.