Stalemate as minimum wage dispute grounds activities at Rufus Giwa Poly
•We are suffering and can hardly feed our families, says poly lecturers•Students, traders lament effect of closure Academics and administrative activities have completely been paralysed at the Ondo State-owned Rufus
•We are suffering and can hardly feed our families, says poly lecturers
•Students, traders lament effect of closure
Academics and administrative activities have completely been paralysed at the Ondo State-owned Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo (RUGIPO) following the demand by the staff of the institution to the Lucky Ayedatiwa government to incorporate them into the new N70,000 national minimum wage. Our Correspondent TOSIN TOPE in Akure chronicles concerns of the institution's workers and how the industrial dispute has grounded all campus activities.
At the entrance gate, a small group of confused students linger, clutching bags, books, and files. Some discussing the strike in a hushed tone, others gossiping; the classroom halls are empty, administrative offices remain locked, while staff members’ car park arena looks deserted.
The once-busy corridors that echoed with hurried footsteps and lectures at the lecture theatre halls of the state owned polytechnic have now fallen still following the 'indefinite strike' embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).
Joined by members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP); the strike, driven by aggrieved staff members demanding for the payment of the N70, 000 National Minimum Wage, has completely brought academic and administrative activities at the institution to a halt. What ordinarily is a bustling academic environment has now turned eerily quiet.
On Monday, what began as murmurs of discontent by protesting members of the SSANIP of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo (RUGIPO) has snowballed into a total shut down - exposing deeper cracks in the funding and management of state-owned tertiary institutions.
From warnings to down tool
For months, the staff unions of the institution issued warnings to the state government led by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, demanding the payment of their salaries, arrears, and increment.
Letters were written to both the state government and the management of the institution. Meetings held, negotiations, and agreements were also reached, but there was no implementation.
Last week, the workers hit the streets; they marched to the entrance and blocked the polytechnic gate, paralysing academic and administrative activities and disrupting businesses on campus over what they described as the state government’s refusal to implement the new N70,000 national minimum wage.
In 2024, President Tinubu signed the new Minimum Wage Act into law in the presence of President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio; Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin; and the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvberem, who represented the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas.
It came nearly two weeks after President Tinubu and the members of the organised labour unions-comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) agreed on N70,000 as the new minimum wage.
Not long after, Governor Aiyedatiwa approved and implemented the new minimum wage of N73,000 for the state civil servants in November 2024, surpassing the federal government benchmark of N70,000.
The wage adjustment was announced during Aiyedatiwa’s campaign, with an aim to improve workers’ welfare.
However, with over a year that the minimum wage had been implemented in the state (civil service), the workers of the state-owned polytechnic say they are yet to be incorporated into the new payment scheme. They are lamenting how the consistent economic hardship, driven by inflation and policy changes like fuel subsidy removal, have severely impacting their livelihoods, causing them to live below the poverty line.
Growing frustration
They explained that while other institutions across the state have begun implementing the wage structure, workers at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo (RUGIPO) continue to earn below the approved rate.
According to them, several meetings and appeals, including negotiations, had been made with the state government, relevant authorities, and management of the institution; but the efforts have yielded little or no tangible results.
The Chairman of SSANIP at RUGIPO, Comrade Saka Nurudeen, lamented the years of neglect of the institution by both the past and successive administrations in the state.
Nurudeen, who identified a lack of political goodwill and implementation to enhance and promote tertiary institutions' education by the current administration of Governor Aiyedatiwa, complained bitterly over the welfare of workers at the polytechnic, saying it has continued to dampen the spirit of the polytechnic workers.
"It is no longer news that staff of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO) have been reduced to second-class citizens in Ondo State," the senior worker said.
According him, despite successive reviews of the wage structure from N18,000 in 2011 to N30,000 in 2019 and the recent N70,000 by President Bola Tinubu, the staff of the polytechnic are still earning N18,000 minimum wage as salary.
Describing the situation as unjust and pathetic, considering the present economic situation in the country, Comrade Nurudeen confirmed that the workers in other tertiary institutions owned by the state had begun receiving the approved national minimum wage since October 2024.
He said: "While other workers in the state enjoy the new minimum wage, our members are still trapped on N18,000 - a wage that became obsolete since 2019.
"For over 15 months now, other workers in Ondo state have been receiving the new wage, but staff of this institution were deliberately left out. Several appeals by the unions have yielded no result. This is unjust and unacceptable.
"So, we are only demanding what is rightfully ours under the law, and we call on this government to urgently implement the new wage to alleviate the hardship faced by workers."
Nurudeen observed that the N18,000 minimum wage still being earned by the polytechnic workers is "grossly inadequate in the face of rising inflation and harsh economic realities."
He noted that workers of the polytechnic can no longer feed their family due to the megre pay, stressing that many of them have been disgraced in their various communities by their landlords.
"Our members can barely feed their families. Many of them have become objects of ridicule in their communities.
"Landlords now see them as financially unstable. This is an embarrassment to workers who serve in a higher institution," Nurudeen added.
Corroborating him, the Chairman of ASUP in the institution, Comrade Arikawe Ade, said the union has declared a total strike action, urging Governor Aiyedatiwa to intervene urgently in the matter.
Noting that the minimum wage approved by President Tinubu is not a privilege but a right, Arikawe said the polytechnic workers - who are in the workforce of the state government - deserve to earn their legitimate salaries and arrears.
He also accused the Governor Aiyedatiwa-led administration of making what he termed "endless empty promises" while workers continue to suffer and languish in "abject poverty."
"Ondo State belongs to all of us. We cannot continue to watch our members being denied of their legitimate entitlements while others enjoy theirs in the same state,” the ASUP chairman said.
Arikawe added: "We appeal to the Governor to rise to the occasion and correct this injustice. The minimum wage is not a privilege; it is a law. Our members deserve the same treatment as other workers in the state."
ASUP declares indefinite strike
Rising from its emergency congress meeting last Wednesday at the Adekunle Ajasin Auditorium, members of ASUP, presided over by Comrade Ade Arikawe, called on the state government to implement the following.
"After much deliberations, members resolved that our suspended industrial action be resumed on Wednesday 18th February 2026 midnight, if the following demands are not met on or before midnight of Wednesday 18th February, 2026:
• Payment of the 3 months outstanding arrears promised by the Governor on the 25th of October, 2025.
• "The need for the payment of 25% and 35% Consequential Wage Award, approved since January, 2023.
• Full implementation of the approved New Minimum Wage.
• Payment of the arrears accrued from the minimum wage."
Academic system in limbo: We’re enduring a lot of hardship - Poly lecturers
As academic activities remain grounded at the polytechnic, the lecturers say the ongoing shutdown is not just a labour action but a cry for survival.
Behind the locked classrooms and deserted lecture theatres are weary lecturers battling unpaid wages, mounting debts, failing health, and broken morale. For them, the strike is not a choice; it is the last resort.
Speaking with quiet frustration, the Head of Department, Mass Communication at the polytechnic, Dr. Sunday Afolayan, described the development as painful for both staff and students, warning that prolonged industrial actions damage not only academic standards but the social fabric of society.
Dr. Afolayan, who also teaches News Gathering and Writing, said when an institution shuts down, learning collapses almost immediately, and students remain idle.
"Yes, it is not a good development. Strike should not be the last option. In every single time, governments respond to the yearnings, aspirations, and welfare of the citizens. Polytechnic or university lecturers are a segment of the citizenry of any country; it is not a good thing because when the institution is on strike, all academic exercises will be paralysed.
"If we look at the implication on the quality of teaching and learning, it will definitely slow down, and in some cases destroy the process of quality and effective teaching and learning. What the students are supposed to learn when the institution is on strike is disrupted.
"It will shorten the length of the semester. No institution wants to elongate the semester or a session. At the end of the day, maybe when the strike is called off or suspended, the institution will now resort to a crash program," he said.
Afolayan stated further that beyond lost weeks, the consequences linger long after the strike ends.
"A semester that is ordinarily supposed to take 13 weeks can now be shortened to something like 8 or thereabouts. The government that designed the curriculum to last for 13 weeks knows what they are doing, and you are crashing it to 7 weeks. Definitely, you know that something will be missing."
He added, "Also, the students who are supposed to be gainfully engaged in the academic activities; wake up in the hostel or your room in town, rush to classroom, attend to classes, activities, do tests, do assignments; will now be loitering about.
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"You know an idle hand becomes a workshop for the devil. You see many of them joining bad groups. The strike would create time for the students to mix with bad eggs. Strike is one of those things that precipitate that kind of development. And at the end of the day, the social implication on the society is that crime will increase; indolence will increase; all manners of evil behaviours will increase."
He also spoke of colleagues battling chronic illnesses - diabetes, hypertension, and heart-related ailments — conditions that require steady medical care amid the poor welfare of the polytechnic workers.
"Yes, it is affecting the lecturers. For the lecturers to have gone on strike, it means that they must have endured a lot of hardship. In our institution, we lost so many people.
"You know, it's not every sickness that can kill immediately. Many of them can be managed for a long time - people with diabetes, people with high blood pressure. In fact, we have cardiac cases - people with cardiac problems that when managed can still last a lifetime. But when you are not paid, you cannot meet your obligation at home, taking care of your children's school fees.
"Many of us resort to borrowing from friends. Many of us sell our properties - landed properties, cars, and all that in order to maintain our children in school; so, the implication now is that it will continue to increase the penalty level of the lecturers. And you know, when someone is hungry, the person is angry.
"A lecturer has a backlog of responsibilities at home that he cannot meet and you expect him to have optimal production when he gets to class? There is no motivation, there is no encouragement. In fact, it is reducing the scholarship in the lives of the lecturers. A lecturer that is supposed to go to class, be productive, teach the entire curriculum; but you find out that some parts of the curriculum may be taught, and questions on that alone will be set because of the strike.
"A circular came recently that people who come late to class should be reported, same for those not regular in their offices. But it becomes very difficult for lecturers to enforce. For instance, somebody who lives at Iyere and has to trek to Owo in the morning, and is not getting to office at nine o'clock or thereabouts; you want an HOD to go and report such a person? It gets more difficult when the HOD himself is equally carrying the weight of the ugly situation in the school. So it’s affecting the entire system,” Afolayan said.
Students bear the brunt, parents voice concerns
For students of the polytechnic, the strike has triggered uncertainty and anxiety. Many fear that the disruption could extend the academic calendar and delay graduation.
Some students, who had already paid accommodation and other fees, expressed frustration over the sudden closure.
Speaking in an interview, a student in the department of Business Administration in the polytechnic, Funke Adelakun, said the strike would affect them academically.
Miss Adelakun, a National Diploma student, added, "We came prepared for lectures and tests, only to be told everything has been suspended."
Parents and guardians have also voiced concerns about the financial and emotional toll the industrial action may have on their children and wards.
Community feeling the pinch
Beyond the campus walls, the economic ripple effects are immediate. Traders and food vendors complain of perishable goods going to waste.
Commercial motorcycle riders (Okada) and taxi drivers wait longer for passengers, who are mostly students, especially at the entrance gate of the institution's campus.
The polytechnic, it turns out, is not just an academic hub, it is the heartbeat of the local economy. Shop owners now count fewer sales and losses.
A petty trader, Mrs. Adebisi said, "Students are our customers. If the school closes, we suffer too."
Institution plead for strike suspension
Appealing to the institution's staff to shun the ongoing industrial crisis for the continuation of smooth academic activities, the acting rector of RUGIPO, Dr. Olorunwa Adegun, said this was necessary to show gratitude to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for "rescuing the institution from the bottomless pit of hopelessness."
Recalling that it was the governor who ended varying percentage payment of staff salaries, Adeogun said the governor has substantially increased the institution’s monthly subvention.
The rector explained that through the repeated release of special intervention fund by Mr. Aiyedatiwa, 14 months unpaid salaries had been reduced to three months.
"The governor, through his intervention, averted an outright de-accreditation of 63 academic programmes, while his fatherly roles also broke a 12-year old no-convocation jinx in RUGIPO."
Waiting for resolution
As negotiations talks are ongoing, campus hope feels distant. Reacting, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, said the state government has pleaded for calm among the protesting polytechnic workers.
Ajibefun added, "We have invited them into a meeting and listened to their plights and demands. We agreed that the institution's gate should be open for academic and administrative activities.
"I told them to allow peace to reign and allow us to present their demands to Mr. Governor. So, their grievances will be looked into and addressed in no distant time.”
