ASSOCIATION of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) yesterday advised parents and students to discountenance media reports that the industrial crisis between staff of all the Federal Colleges of Education across the country and the Federal Ministry of Education had been resolved and not to allow their wards return to schools as staff commence nationwide indefinite strike from today.
Secretary General of ASCSN, Comrade Solomon Onaghinon urged parents not to release their children and wards to face unnecessary risk because the crisis had not been resolved and called on President Obasanjo to caution the Education Ministry for misinforming the public instead of working to resolve the industrial crisis.
The statement issued yesterday read: “Our attention has been drawn to our press statement on the above subject matter in which we advised parents and guardians not to release their children to proceed to the various Federal Government Colleges of Education campuses to resume on 2nd October, 2004. This statement remains valid.
“Regrettably, the management of the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) in order to mislead the general public has stated in the mass media that the issues have been resolved with the association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria. This is completely false. We are shocked to our marrow to see such statement emanating from the Federal Ministry of Education as no meeting whatsoever has been held with our union.
“We seize this opportunity to invite the attention of Mr. President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to this development and to call the Education Minister, Professor Fabian Osuji to order as industrial relations cannot be practised based on falsehood. We reiterate that our demands remain as follows: Full implementation of the monetization policy; Abolition of victimization of trade union officials by principals of Federal Government Colleges; immediate stoppage of further breach of labour laws by the Federal Ministry of Education; Improved industrial relation practices between the trade union and the FME officials and regular payment of entitlements among others..
The statement added: “All union members are hereby directed that any contrary directive other than the one from the national secretariat duly signed by the secretary general of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria should be disregarded. Finally we still remind parents that their children will suffer untold hardship if they fail to heed the warning of the union as the union will not be held responsible for any adverse consequences that may occur”.
