Again, a fresh industrial disharmony is brewing in the polytechnics as the teachers are threatening strike over delay in salary payment.

The teachers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) said a delay in the payment of their salaries, especially in the last eight months, may stoke a fresh agitation.

The union’s President, Shammah Kpanja, in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, said the trend began when the workers were transitioned from the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS) to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) system.

He explained: “Our Union has observed a trend in the delay in payment of staff salaries across Federal Tertiary Institutions in the country in the last eight months. This new trend of subjecting staff of these institutions to the mental torture of enduring indeterminate periods of uncertainty concerning the release of the severely devalued pittance now referred to as salaries coincides with the transition of the tertiary institutions from the IPPIS payment platform to the GIFMIS platform.”

He declared that ASUP could be tempted into withdrawing its services if the practice continued, saying, “Our Union may be forced to direct her members to stay away from all affected Polytechnics if the situation does not improve in the coming days and sustain same until the salaries are paid; while adopting same pattern at the end of each month going forward.”

Kpanja stated that the role players in the responsibility chain have consistently placed the blame on the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, attributing the delay to the funding of the different institutions for the salaries over these eight months.

He added that ASUP has consistently complained formally to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation before now without the desired improvement, leaving staff of different Federal Polytechnics in distress at the end of each month.
According to him, the union is forced to believe that the only plausible reason for the alleged deliberate torture is the low value placed on the academic community by the government.

He maintained that both payment platforms are hosted by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, and it is expected that the transition between the payment platforms, using essentially the same payroll information, will be smooth and flawless, which has not been the case.

“Eight months is too long a trial period for the transition and it is only a government that places low value on education that will treat staff of tertiary education institutions in this manner,” ASUP said.

ASUP flayed the undeserved treatment being meted out to workers in the tertiary institutions, particularly at a time the Nigerian economy is witnessing excruciating reforms.

He disclosed that workers in different tertiary institutions have been turned into beggars at the end of each month, with paltry salaries only serving to service debts incurred in each month.

He said it is equally shameful that while the academic community is being punished with such penury, political leaders have continued to entertain themselves in mindless opulence and power-grabbing activities for the next elections.

The union renewed its calls for the release of June 2025 salaries to tertiary institutions in the country without any further delay and a departure from this new trend of delay in salary payments in the coming months.

ASUP added: “This call is made in the overall interest of the fragile industrial harmony in the tertiary education sector, particularly the Polytechnics, as no trade union will continue to watch her members go through these harrowing experiences every month as government continues to undermine her contractual obligations to workers at the end of each month.