From Paul Orude Bauchl
Bauchi State Government has lamented the carnage and vandalisation of both personal and Governement property by students of Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic noon Tuesday.
The State Head Civil Service Alhaji Yahuza  Barau, said the ugly development would have been avoided had the striking staff exhibited some level of patience and diplomacy.
Barau said he was at ATAP when the students went on rampage and witnessed the student violence demonstration.
Eye witnesses accounts said the enraged students vandalised several vehicles and  properties of both staff and institution before barricading the Bauchi-Jos federal  highway.
The students were protesting against the indefinite strike declared by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the  five tertiary institutions  in the state.
The Head of Service described the indefinite strike declaration and attendant violent protest  as consuquences of lack of proper consultation.
“When it starts nobody can control them. I was in the school yesterday. All the burning of tires and what have you, I saw it all and I had interaction with some of them”
Barau hoped that the damage might not be too much so that students would resume  early to write their examinations saying that was their major concern.
“If we had consultation, strike should be the last resort” he stated.
“The process of conflict resolution is much more bigger than we expect”
He believed the JAC sould rescind their decision to embark on the inndefinite strike
He spoke when he addressed Journalists on Wednesday at the Governmment House.
Barau, who was in company with the Commissioner for Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde,  explained that negotiations between the unions and the state government were ongoing when JAC suddenly declared the strike.
The HoS who expressed surprised at the decision of the JAC, assuring that governmment was already addressing the grey areas.
He  described the strike as unfortunate and appealed to them to return to work as government was on top of the situation.
Also speaking on the  situation, the Commissioner for Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde, explained that the State Polytechnic was closed by the government because of the violent protest which he said threatened peace and security.
Tilde said two major issues were identified as the reasons for the strike which were the omission of some of their staff from June 2022 salary and non implementation of promotion salary arrears.
The Commissioner admitted that the two issues had already been tabulated for implementation and that promotion arreas of N22.7 million for the affected staff had been tabulated for implementation.
“The JAC made their submissions and we didn’t object to them and on Saturday l was just about sending a memo to His Excellency the governor seeking his approval when the issued of strike came up,” Tilde said.
“We realised that they are under pressure from some of their members, especially young members of the union”
He assured that the state government was on top of the situation and expressed confidence the problem would be resolved amicably.