• Strike compliance 99.9% – JAC chairman Okon
Workers of Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) today, began strike as the state government, sponsor of the institution, failed to meet their demands.
Speaking with WatchmanPost Monday morning, the chairman of the institution’s Joint Action Commission (JAC), Comrade Emmanuel Okon, said that even though they were open to dialogue with government on their demands, the latter’s refusal to attend to the demands left them with no other choice than to embark on the strike.
When asked about how effective their action was, Okon replied that it had recorded “99.9% compliance.”
WatchmanPost sought to know if such claimed success was because union leaders were on ground to enforce compliance, Okon retorted, “This is an auto-propelled struggle. We don’t need our men to enforce it. Everyone feels the pinch of our complaints and is in the struggle.”
Last Saturday, WatchmanPost had published an exclusive interview it had with the JAC chairman.
Part of that report said, “Speaking with WatchmanPost, Saturday, 15 February, the chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of AKSU, Comrade Emmanuel Okon, expressed regret that the state government has been unfair to staffers of the school.
“For over two years now, we have been operating without a Governing Council in AKSU. We met the governor in February 2024 and he promised to look into this, but up until now, nothing has happened”, Okon said.
Beyond that Okon, who also heads the Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), AKSU branch, wondered why staff of AKSU were excluded from several benefits other public servants in Akwa Ibom were enjoying.
“During last July’s Public Service Week, the governor promised to give each public servant in the state ₦20,000. He has since fulfilled that promise, but we in AKSU have been excluded from that largesse”, Okon lamented.
He said that his colleagues were also excluded from last December’s additional pay, christened Enomber, which the state government extended to its staff.
Okon claimed that it took strike launched by his colleagues for the state government to pay them their 2023 leave grants, wondering why the same scenario was playing out with regards to their 2024 leave grants.”
WatchmanPost could not reach state government or the university’s authorities for comments.
