COEASU Gives FG 60-day Ultimatum To Meet Demands

Education is regarded as the bedrock of development
in any society, but the sector is suffering a serious
setback in Nigeria as the Colleges of Education
Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has given the
Federal Government a 60-day ultimatum to meet its
demands.
The President of the Union, Mr. Asagha Okoro, said
“the nation would regret looking down on the
teaching education sector if concrete steps are not
taken to address COEASU’s grievances.”
In an exclusive interview with Vanguard Learning,
Okoro said: “we have packaged all the issues facing
the teaching education sector. If we do not see
concrete action within 60 days, we will employ non
conventional industrial methods to make our voice
heard. What we are asking for is not much; most of
these demands can be met with as little as N26bn.
After a one week warning strike, the Union met with
government representatives at the office of the
Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, last
Thursday.
Speaking on the outcome of the meeting, Okoro said:
“We were told that our concerns were germane and
will be addressed. However, the issues discussed
were forwarded to the Minister of State for Education
and we were told that a meeting would be scheduled
with him as soon as possible.”
The union had pointed out 17 issues to be addressed
by the government. They include: “the suspicious
delay in the release of the 2012 visitation white
paper; the refusal of colleges managements to recruit
commensurate academic manpower to cater for the
high dearth of academic staff to meet the
contemporary challenges engendered by the rising
population of students; the non-harmonization of
conditions of service for academic staff of all tertiary
institutions to stem brain drain from the colleges of
education to the universities; the proposed selective
imposition of IPPIS in the CoE and the polytechnics;
the truncation of a hitherto functional and innovative
Tertiary Education Trust Fund leading to obvious
regrettable gaps that compromises the critical need
for the consolidation of the gains recorded during the
past five years; non implementation of CONPCASS,
65years retirement age and Migration to CONTISS 15
in some state CoE; the non conduct of Needs
Assessment for CoE to address students and staff
needs for the enhancement of quality teaching and
learning.”
Others are: the refusal of government to approve an
Independent degree awarding status for all CoE
certified by NUC as being qualified to award degrees
in Teacher Education; illegal imposition of Group Life
Insurance underwriters and the non payment of death
benefits to our deceased colleague’s families
between 2000 and 2013; non budgetary allocations
for outsourced services and the refusal of government
to heed the call for the abrogation of outsourced
services and the offer of regular employment to all
those in the outsourced cadre and the payment of
out-standing arrears to the tune of
N2,443,278,543.96; the non allocation/release of
funds (N2,344,765,841) for crucial academic
activities like accreditation programmes, among
others.
Meanwhile, in its bid to forestall another strike action
by COEASU, the Minister of Labour and Productivity,
Wogu, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with COEASU which charged the Federal Ministry of
Education to, as a matter of urgency, meet with the
Union to determine some of the issues at stake.
At the end of the meeting aimed at reassessing the
extent of the implementation of the agreement
reached on the 30th of August 2013 between the
Ministry of Education and COEASU, the MoU states
that all new issues tabled at the mediatory meeting
will also be sent to the Supervising Minister of
Education as they are specific administrative issues
within the Sector which require tackling;
That the Federal Government appreciates the
suspension of the seven days working strike
embarked upon by the Union due to the intervention
of the Federal Ministries of Labour and Productivity
and Education on 30th August 2013;
That the Office of the Accountant General of the
Federation will demonstrate the workings of the
IPPIS platform to the Executive of COEASU on
October 29,2013;
That in consideration of the above conciliatory
meeting which is at the instance of the Minister of
Labour and Productivity, the meeting shall reconvene
after 60 days to consider progress made in respect of
the outstanding issues now referred back to the
Federal Ministry of Education. [Vanguard]