4th April, 2019
The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has threatened to embark on strike for failure of the Federal Government to honour its agreement.
Mr Nuhu Ogirima, President of the Union, made this known in a letter forwarded to the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu in Abuja on Thursday.
Ogirima in the letter prayed the minister to fulfill the commitment on the issues of contention while calling for an urgent redress on the matter.
He said the union would be hesitant in making the presumption of the current Federal Government administration’s non-commitment to education, teacher-education in particular, considering the prevailing situation as well as the proposed paltry allocation to the college of education sub-sector.
According to him, the union is compelled by the prevailing atmosphere of non-commitment of the Federal Government to the fulfillment of the resolutions reached with the union on issues of industrial concern, relative to the colleges of education, to call for urgent redress.
“The union suspended her industrial action on December 5, 2018, having accepted Federal Government offer to release the sum of N15billion as palliative intervention to cushion the effects of the decay in the infrastructure in public colleges of education.
“This, along with the other resolutions reached at the meeting of the Rapid Response Team, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, on the payment of Peculiar Academic Allowance (PAA); Dual Mode.
“Others are the implementation of CONTISS 15 on lower cadre; stalled renegotiation of 2010 COEASU-FGN Agreement among others, informed the decision of the Union at the time.
“It is, however, quite disheartening to note that, more than four months after the resolutions, the status of the issues remains as they had been.”
Ogirima added that these concern had been further heightened by the fact of the refusal of other departments of the Federal Government in fulfilling the much-awaited obligation on their parts.
“Of particular note is: The Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) for the non-issuance of an awaited circular on a new cadre purportedly created to cater for HND, relating to migration.
“The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), which has refused to remit to the union check-off dues deducted from the arrears accruing from the promotion of academic staff paid between January and December 2018.
“Also, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)’s sustained bias against the colleges of education; among others,” he said.
Ogirima, therefore, said that considering the implication of the apprehension being generated in the colleges of education as a result of the aforementioned instances, the Union might be compelled to take appropriate necessary labour action to seek redress if the situation is not arrested immediately.