Many had thought that teachers at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Oto/Ijanikin would call off their three week-old industrial action following certain resolutions members reached with the government. But a congress called on Monday by the teachers for members to sheathe swords ended in a stalemate. Members berated the government and management for not walking their talk. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA reports:
The last has not been heard of the face-off between the management of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Oto/Ijanikin and the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) AOCOED chapter.
Following the announcement last week by the Lagos State Government of N350 million bailout and an increase in monthly subvention of the college from N200 to 250 million, expectations were high that the development would be a soothing balm for the striking teachers since the announcement addressed most of the reasons which triggered the strike on the third of this month.
However, following a congress on the college premises on Monday, the union decided that the strike would continue, anchoring their arguments on what they described as ‘insincerity’ on the part of the management and the government.
However, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Tokunbo Wahab, said the striking teachers were being misguided and failing to fulfill their promise to the government to call off the strike.
The union went on strike over some demands including unpaid 53.37 per cent allowance and arrears; unfair redistribution of electricity on campus; non-revival of internally-generated revenue programmes; management’s inability to establish the college bookshops and inexplicable promotion criteria for academic staff, among others.
However, a communiqué signed by the management , the union and the Office of the Special Adviser of Education last week Friday seemed to have addressed all the union’s grievances except the 53.37 per cent allowance which the union insists, remains contentious.
COEASU-AOCOED Chairman Comrade Ige Ajayi told CAMPUSLIFE on phone that the Monday congress dragged for over six hours, adding that efforts by the leadership of the union to prevail on members not to down tools fell on deaf ears.
“We were trying to persuade our members to suspend the strike and give government the benefit of the doubt until Thursday (today); but they turned down our appeal,” Ige began.
Ige lamented that after the government announced a N50 million addition to the N200 million monthly subvention of the college, the union discovered the following day that what the government had added was just N10 million and not N50 million.
He said: “After we signed the communique, the government then went on air to announce that it had increased our subvention by N50 million. The following day, we made our finding and realised that what government had added was only N10 million and not N50 million that was announced.
“Initially, I did not want to make any announcement to our members; but many of them kept pressuring me that they heard the government announcement through the media the previous day.
I had to go to our union’s whatssup platform to announce that it was misinformation.
Ige continued: “Although during the meeting in Alausa, management had requested for a minimum of N20 million as addition to the subvention; but our members were more disappointed when we realised that what government eventually gave was just N10 million.
Many of them had vowed not to attend congress today (Monday). They said government is insincere. Some of our elders had to appeal to them to come.
“To further complicate matters, the Provost and bursar were at the secretariat earlier before the congress started. They said there was no provision for the allowance and that the N350 million bailout management was expecting from government would be used to defray personnel cost, whatever that meant.
“The agreement as entrenched in the communique stated that both management and COEASU should work out how to pay the 53.37 allowance.
“As at last year, we did not get this allowance and heavens did not fall. But this year, our members have expended so much energy, power, efforts, money and now that the money is about to be paid, management is saying they would use it for another purpose.
“I recall that when bailouts were given to our sister institution, their management had special arrangement with their staff on how their allowances were to be paid. In our case however, management has been dilly-dallying.
“Of all sister institutions in Lagos, (MOCPED) Micheal Otedola College of Primary Education is the last to start collecting this allowance and that is as far back as 2013. So what crime has AOCOED committed?
Nonetheless, government described the workers action as ‘disrespectful’ to the authorities.
“Their action amounts to disrespect to the governor,” Wahab said.
During our meeting, I brought the papers to them. They saw everything.
“Their monthly subvention was once N180 million, and then government increased it to N2000 million. Now, this government has again, increased it with additional N10 million.
“Did they ever ask that everything be given to them in subvention?
We had a Memorandum of Understanding. Kindly look through the terms of that agreement. We shall keep to our terms in the communiqué. The communiqué spelt out how both staff and management should resolve their differences.
‘’We gave them a N350 one-off bailout and we also increased their subvention.
“We must all remember that bailout is not a right but a privilege.
‘’These facts need to be put straight for posterity and to avoid a scenario where COEASU or some peole would say government wants to polarise them.
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“I told them at the meeting that what we have done is in good faith. If they are saying management told them they could not pay them the allowance, why don’t they get back to me? I override the management and I also oversee the (Governing) Council.
“See, I have often told them they need to do things within the ambit of the law. They are not the employers. Government is the employer and the owner of the school.
‘’After we had a meeting earlier in the month, they promised to call off the strike but they did not. Last Friday they did same thing and now (Monday). Does that show respect to the governor?’’.
One of COEASU member who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE on condition of anonymity, revealed that majority of members at the Monday’s congress supported the continuation of the strike.
“Many of us were very upset with government. We were dissapointed because we felt if government could change the game between few hours that COEASU leadership left Alausa for the college, then this government could not be trusted,” the source said.
“Remember that we started this strike in October; but after meeting with government, we held a Congress where we all resolved to suspend the strike because this government was still new and we wanted to give them a benefit of the doubt. Our members are however disappointed at what is happening now.”
Meanwhile, Registrar of the college, Mr Muhideen Shehu, told CAMPUSLIFE that management could not have abandoned COEASU amid their agitations.
He said: “The position of the bailout as presented to the union by management simply emphasised what the bailout was meant for,” Shehu began.
“The bailout is for the variables that have been captured since 2015. The Transport and Hazard allowances were just mooted in (by workers) at the beginning of 2017.
All relevant documents in respect of it were presented in 2018. Subsequently, management and Council were able to factor it into the 2019 budget and by 2020, we are already looking toward getting it.
“However, management was not too conservative about it. We told the union that we would return to management and see how we work this thing out especially WHEN what we were expecting from government (N250 million) was not what we got.
“We have equally directed the Bursar to work out the arrears so we know what everything amounts to. This we have done so as to ensure when we return to the negotiation table (with COEASU), we know what we are negotiating.
“We have also directed the Bursar to Alausa for some days now. He has been there on daily basis pursuing our files from one table to the other ahead of government closing financial activities for the year.”
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