Colleges of Education lecturers threaten to join ASUU’s ongoing strike

Barely 48 hours after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) declared a one-month strike, lecturers across Colleges of Education in the country, have vowed that they would not hesitate to join their counterparts in the universities on their ongoing strike.

The lecturers, under auspices of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) said they will in the next few weeks call the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to take necessary actions as permissible by the Trade Union Act if the government fails to do the needful.

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Addressing journalists in Abuja, COEASU President, Smart Olugbeko, lamented that the lackadaisical attitude of the President Buhari-led administration to agreements with unions shows the government has a preference for crises in the education sector.

Olugbeko listed their grouses as issues of renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement, the crises being created by the imposition of IPPIS, the release of the N15 billion Revitalisation Fund which he said are critical to the development of Colleges of Education in Nigeria, among others.

“The various efforts made by the Union to make the government live up to its promise has not yielded any positive result.

“Our Union has been careful in deploying the instrumentality of strike to resolve the issues which we believe can be resolved through dialogue, but it seems this government has a preference for crisis as has shown in its dealings with unions that it has no respect for peaceful resolution of issues,” he said.

The union leader said the National Officers’ Council (NOC) of COEASU observed with utter dismay that the government could abandon the Colleges of Education sub-sector to continue to suffer from infrastructural decay while the running of the Colleges is being done by the paltry IGR of the Colleges.

He added, “However, the government has demonstrated total disrespect for our maturity in handling issues and has mistaken our understanding for weakness.

“The Union is therefore calling on the Federal Government to quickly commence the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement with the Union and release the N15 billion Revitalisation Fund to our Colleges.

“The Union will in the next few weeks call the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to take necessary actions as permissible by the Trade Union Act if the government fails to do the needful.”