Lagos — Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) yesterday suspended its four-month-old national strike, which paralysed academic activities in Polytechnics across the nation.

ASUP National Secretary, Mr. Akin Ajayi, explained after the association's National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the Yaba College of Technology that the strike was suspended for two months at the instance of pleas from different stakeholders.

He said that members agreed to suspend the strike to give the stakeholders, including parents, rectors and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) the opportunity to convince government to implement the agreement it signed with ASUP last year.

Ajayi said the association expected government to meet the lecturers' demands within the two months suspension period. He said that after the expiration of the two months, if government failed to initiate a genuine plan to implement the agreement, the association might be forced to resume the strike that grounded academic activities in the institutions.

The union condemned the continued non-challant attitude of the Federal Government on the implementation of the agreement signed in September 2001.

Ajayi said that the decision to proceed on strike was informed by among other reasons, the Federal Government's "mindless marginalisation" of the polytechnic sector.

The association also demanded for a National Polytechnics Commission (NPC) to exclusively administer polytechnics in Nigeria as well as the full implementation of the Adamu Yabani panel report on the future of polytechnic education. The report recommended the career progression for diplomates of polytechnics by mounting higher degrees in the institutions.