Colleges Of Education Lecturers Issue 21-Day Ultimatum To FG, Threatens Strike

The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal government while threatening to commence an industrial action if their demands aren’t met.

The union’s president and the general secretary, Smart Olugbeko and Ahmed Bazza, disclosed this in a statement where they asserted that the ultimatum was issued after their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

COEASU stated that the lecturers have for a very long period suffered non-payment of salary and salary arrears as well as refusal to implement the statutory salary structure in full.

The Union also argued that the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is causing more harm to tertiary institutions than good.

On this note, they called on the government to look into their issue(s) immediately to prevent them from embarking on the proposed strike.

The statement reads:

“The National Executive Council (NEC) of our great union convened at the Federal College of Education, Okene, Kogi State on May 6 to compile the outcome of a referendum conducted across all chapters nationwide.

“We re-assessed the seriousness of the government towards resolution of festering issues and decided the way forward.

“The NEC observed, with consternation, that the FG has been ridiculously unfair to the union by taking the understanding shown over time for granted and leaving issues unaddressed, in spite of the union’s entreaties.

“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 two months now.

“The government has refused to accede to our demand for the fulfilment of her own pledge of N15bn revitalisation fund.

“Apart from being a far cry from N478bn, 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.

“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, as the only projects you see in the colleges are TETFund projects.

“COEASU has demanded the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), an alternative innovation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

“UTAS has been found superior to IPPIS as it has the capacity to address our payroll security concerns and the peculiarities of tertiary institutions.”

Kanyi Daily also recalls that the Academic Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has also announced the commencement of a warning strike on 16th May