'Call off Strike to Allow Us Address Your Demands' - Bauchi HoS Urges Striking Staff

By Muslim Lawal

YAHUZA A. HARUNA
Head of Civil Service, Bauchi State

Bauchi state government on Wednesday pleaded with the striking academic and non academic staff unions in five tertiary institutions in the state to as a matter of urgency call off their ongoing strike for government to resolve their demands immediately. 

State's Head of Civil Service, Yahuza Adamu Haruna at a press briefing held at Government House, Bauchi expressed concern for the inability of the striking staff to allow the state government address their issues rather than embarking on the strike. 

He stated that, calling off the strike will enable the state government to continue with the negotiations with the leadership of the Joint Acton Committee (JAC) of the unions for possible resolving their demands raised once and for all. 

"We are surprised by the strike embarked upon by the JAC members despite knowing the efforts of the State Government to resolve their demands, we have engaged leadership of JAC on resolutions of their demands and Government is taking measures to ensure it resolve demands of not only tertiary institutions staff, other civil servants in the civil service."

"We are concern that we have not been notified as Government by the striking staff before they embarked on the strike, but the administration of His Excellency, Governor Bala Mohammed is pro-masses, workers friendly and is on top of addressing salaries and other related issues raised."

The Hos said recently his office has hosted all accounting officers of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for crucial in a bid bring to an end, the lingering salary problem in the state. 

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde appealed to all stakeholders in the education sector including members of the Joint Acton Committee to bear with the state government in the ongoing education reforms.

The five tertiary institutions that are currently in the strike are, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic Bauchi, Adamu Tafawa Balewa College of Education Kangere, Aminu Saleh College of Education Azare as well as AD Rufai College of Legal Studies.