By Promise Ogana
ASABA/Nigeria: The Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare has called on Labour Leaders to always get their facts correctly before embarking on trade disputes with constituted authorities.
Prof. Muoboghare gave the advice in Asaba when he met with the leadership of the various unions in the state owned Polytechnics and colleges of Education on their rejection of the new policy on salary payments in the institutions.
He said that acting on misinformation and not reaching out to the relevant authorities to clarify issues would lead to unnecessary crisis and disharmony.
The Hon. Commissioner stated that the new payment policy through subvention was the best thing to happen to the tertiary institutions and wondered why anybody would kick against it.
“As a former Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the Delta State University, I fought for the policy for years without success but was able to achieve it through the understanding of the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa who saw the need to approve it,” he stated
He added that while the staff in the State owned Universities applauded the new policy, he was shocked to hear that their counterparts in the state owned colleges of education and the polytechnics rejected the policy and threatened to embark on strike.
The Commissioner allayed their fears of short fall in their monthly salary payment and equally promised to look into the issue of their pension payment on retirement.
Speaking on behalf of others, Dr. O. Umukoro thanked the commissioner for clarifying the issues in a better way and promised to convey the outcome of the meeting to their members.
Dr. Umukoro equally appealed to the commissioner to always carry them along whenever new policies are being formulated.
The Permanent Secretary, Dr. Anthony Nwokolobia and Directors in the ministry were present at the meeting.
