Lecturers of Colleges of Education across the country, on the platform of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, have given the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to meet their demands or be ready for an indefinite strike.
This was just as the Mobilisation Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign, Michael Lenin, blamed the Federal Government for the crisis rocking the education sector.
COEASU gave the ultimatum in a statement made available to The PUNCH on Wednesday by the union’s National Vice-President and South-West Zonal Coordinator, Olusegun Lana.
The lecturers said the Federal government has not been fair to colleges of education and had neglected issues affecting the union and the colleges despite many requests.
The union listed some of the issues with the government as the failure of the Federal Government to reconstitute its renegotiation team for the COEASU-FGN 2010 agreement; non-release of the N15bn revitalisation fund by the government and insistence on Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system against University Transparency and Accountability Solution which the union described as a more reliable alternative payment system.
The union urged stakeholders to prevail on the government to do the needful now before the expiration of the ultimatum. They said there would be no going back on the planned industrial action.
The statement read, “Many colleges find it difficult to run smoothly due to non-release of running costs by the government. Many state governments have abdicated their responsibility as proprietors to TETFund. The only projects you see in the colleges are TETFund projects.
“The IPPIS is causing more havoc to tertiary institutions than good. Until the end of March 2022, 1,219 lecturers in COEs are experiencing one problem with IPPIS.
“COEASU has demanded the adoption of UTAS, an alternative innovation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. UTAS has been found superior to IPPIS as it can address our payroll security concerns and the peculiarities of tertiary institutions. Therefore, it is ludicrous that FG has remained adamant about retaining IPPIS despite its injurious effects.
“After extensive deliberations on the referendum outcome conducted across chapters of the union, NEC resolved to issue the government a 21-day ultimatum immediately. NEC further resolved that in the unexpected event that the government fails to do the needful within the ultimatum period, the union shall declare appropriate industrial action.”
Speaking in an interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday, Lenin said, “We in the Education Rights Campaign support the agitations of members of COESU, as well as other unions in the education sector.
“The blame for these strike actions that have grounded tertiary education must be placed at the doorstep of the government. It is quite unprecedented that all the major unions in the tertiary education sector will be on strike; however, it shows the level of damage that the negligence of successive governments have done to the education sector through chronic under-funding.
“This is the time for Nigerian students to rise and demand that all of the demands of the striking workers must be met and the education sector must be repositioned from the current horrific state it is in.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Education confirmed to The PUNCH that it had received the letter of notification of strike from the union.
“Yes, they notified us, and we have held a series of meetings with the union,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Ben Goong, told The PUNCH.
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