Strike Looms In Colleges Of Education As COEASU Hold Referandum Nationwide

Strike Looms In Colleges Of Education As COEASU Hold Referandum Nationwide

Bearing last minute intervention by the Federal Government through the appropriate agencies, Colleges of Education in the country may shut down following a possible industrial action by the workers.

This may be unconnected with the directed by the National Executive Council (NEC) of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) for her members from all Chapter Congresses to hold a referenda on the next line of action.

The union in a statement signed by the President, Dr Smart Olugbeko said the referanda which would hold this weekend at Federal College of Education, Okene, is towards the declaration of appropriate action.

The president appealed to well-meaning Nigerians and stakeholders in the tertiary education sector to prevail on Government to urgently take appropriate actions to avert industrial crisis in the College of Education system.

According to him, the FG has been ridiculously unfair to Colleges of Education by taking the union understanding for granted without corresponding action on her series of promises on festering issues.

“Our Union has demonstrated exceptional restrain from allowing interruption in the academic calendar of COEs through strike, all because of the consideration we have for our students and teacher education which is key to the rejuvenation of the basic education sub-sector which in turn is a sine qua non for the dire solutions the country needs to solve her multifaceted problem of insecurity of different shades.

“Our compassion for our students remains infinite but our capacity to endure FG’s injustice against COEs is not, and our patience has been stretched to the barest limits. We do not guarantee industrial harmony going forward! The entire Nigerian public should hold Government responsible for the impending industrial crisis across the entire College of Education system”.

On the Renegotiation of COEASU-FGN 2009 Agreement, Dr Olugbeko said “While the long anticipated renegotiation of COEASU-FGN 2009 Agreement holds enormous promise for mutual resolution of several challenges bedevilling the COE system, the FG has failed to accord the exercise deserved priority. Ridiculously, the FG has refused to constitute her own renegotiation team after acknowledging receipt of our Union’s team list on her own request for over three months now.

“Government has refused to accede to our demand for the fulfilment of her own pledge of N15b revitalization fund. Apart from being a far cry from the over N400b being the outcome of the 2014 Presidential Needs Assessment across public COEs, the delay in its release has made nonsense of the value due to inflation. More ludicrously, media reports quoted the Honourable Minister of State for Education as having said, on various public occasions, that the palliative fund had been released by the FG, whereas what we received was a call to propose modalities for the disbursement. The frustrating wait for the disbursement of this fund has continued ever thereafter.

“The Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) has caused more havoc to tertiary institutions than good. Up till the end of March, 2022, one thousand two hundred and nineteen (1,219) lecturers in COEs are experiencing one problem or the other with IPPIS.

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“We use this medium to reiterate our earlier statement that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), an alternative innovation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is superior to IPPIS and has the capacity to address payroll security concerns and the peculiarities of tertiary institutions.

“Against the foregoing unacceptable conditions, the National Executive Council (NEC) of our Union had, at its last meeting, requested referenda from all Chapter Congresses towards the declaration of appropriate action at its next meeting coming up at Federal College of Education, Okene, this weekend.

“It is on this note that we are again calling the FG and State Governments to do the needful without further delay to avert a looming crisis in the COE subsector of the Nigerian tertiary education system”.