The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union Thursday suspended its seven months strike for three months to allow the Federal Government look at their grievances.
COEASU President, Dr. Emmanuel Sage told reporters in Abuja at the end of a meeting with the Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau that the union decided to suspend the strike in other to give the new minister a chance to work on their demands.
Unlike the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), which is expected to resume work tomorrow, after suspending its 10-month strike, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) said yesterday it has not called off its seven-month old strike.
COEASU’s General Secretary Nuhu Ogirima told our correspondent in Abuja that the union would end the strike only after the government shows clear commitment to meet the remaining parts of the union’s demands.
Ogirima, a senior lecturer in Federal College of Education, Okene, Kogi State, said: “We (COEASU) are yet to call off our strike. We are waiting for some commitment from the Federal Government. We had a closed-door meeting with the new Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, last Thursday, separate from the one he had with ASUP. We discussed meaningfully at length. His remarks were quite impressive.
“We could see that the new minister is really determined to ensure that the issue is resolved. He made a very strong appeal to us to call off the strike. He promised to meet with us next Thursday, after studying our demands, to give us feedback and let us know the government’s position. He assured us that the issue will be properly resolved.”
Unlike members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) expected
to resume work on Monday after suspending its ten months strike, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) said yesterday that it was yet to call off its seven months old strike.
The General Secretary of COEASU, Nuhu Ogirima, who gave the indication in an interview in Abuja, said the union would end the strike only after a clear-cut commitment towards meeting the remaining part of their demands has been made by the Federal Government.
According to Ogirima, a senior lecture in Federal College of Education, Okene, Kogi State, “We (COEASU) are yet to call off our strike. We are waiting for some commitment from the federal government.
” We had a closed-door meeting with the new Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau last Thursday separate from the one he had with ASUP. We discussed meaningfully at length.
” His remarks were quite impressive. We could see that the new Minister is really determined to ensure that the issue is resolved. He made a very strong appeal to us to call off the strike. He promised to meet with us this coming Thursday after studying our demands to give us feedback and let us know the government’s position, assuring us that the issue will be properly resolved.
” We are very much willing to end the strike. But until we hear from the Minister on Thursday, the strike continues. We do want a situation where our people will be
unnecessarily victimized. As we speak, we have not been paid salaries for four months now.
Eleven months after, the polytechnics and Colleges of Education teachers’ strike continues.
Minister of Education Nyesom Wike blamed it all on the teachers, saying they were delaying the strike’s end.
Speaking at the public presentation on the education sector’s transformation under President Goodluck Jonathan, Wike said the N40 billon demanded by the teachers (N20billion for polytechnics and N20 billion for Colleges of education) would be paid in phases, but the two unions Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) disagreed.
He said the government could not raise the money at once, hence the plan to pay installmentally.
Wike said: “Government is not the one holding on to the strike. An agreed proposal to pay CONTISS-15 arrears of salaries to ASUP members in phases is facing complications. Strike is not something you resolve easily.
“As of February when the arrears were computed, both ASUP and COEASU made a demand of N20billion each, amounting to a total of N40billion. It is not possible for government to raise N40bn. It was later agreed that the money be paid in two phases of N20bn apiece.”
It was gathered that the government, ASUP and COEASU agreed that N20billion would be paid in April and N20bn in September or October.
The source said: “The minister later informed a committee he chaired at a meeting that the two unions wrote to him after he had communicated the agreement to President Goodluck Jonathan to say that they were no longer accepting the phased payment proposal.”
But the National President of ASUP, Dr Chibuzor Asomugha, faulted the minister’s claim.
Asomugha denied the union’s rejection of the proposal, saying that it was disappointing that the minister would be making such comments when efforts at resolving the crisis were going.
Asomugha said last night: “We did not reject the proposal; I think we have gone beyond that part. The question is: “Did the minister plan to pay that money at all? Did he put it in the budget?”
“First he (Wike) told us it (N20 billion) was in the budget; later, he said it was not in the budget.
“Why did he bring the Salaries and Wages Commission to begin to raise objections about the payment, if actually he wanted to pay?
“ASUP did not reject anything. We ever proposed installmental payment and we rolled out a plan on how it would be paid, which the minister rejected but tried to impose his own on us, which we also rejected.
“Later, we arrived at a plan on the installment payment on the order of President with the Ministry of Labour. If the minister was ready to pay any kind of installment and the time was up, is it our refusal that will now stop him from paying?. Or is it our refusal that stopped him from attending three meetings with the Senate Committee on Education conveyed to resolve the matter?’” he said.
On Jonathan’s score card, Wike said that part of the challenges facing the government is that about 10 million children are out of school adding that government had confronted the problem by building 120 Almajiri schools in the North.
Wike expressed disappointment that despite Federal Government’s efforts in assisting state governments towards improving quality of basic education, about N53 billion Federal Government and Universal Basic Education (FG/UBE) is still unaccessed.
The government, he disclosed, has approved nine more Federal universities to improve access across the country.
“High impact grant to institutions by TETFund, supporting institutions in developing critical infrastructure. Each university received N3 billion, polytechnic N1 billion and College of Education N1 billion each. The Federal Government funding of Federal universities and inter-University centres from 2010 to 2013 is N229, 631, 170, 175. Laboratory in 51 Federal and state polytechnics upgraded at the cost of N15 billion.”
The Chairman of the Senate House Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerije, has urged the striking lecturers of polytechnics and Colleges of Education to accept whatever resolution the Federal Government offers them to end the strike.
Chukwumerije, who was represented by a committee member, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, spoke yesterday in Ondo after inspecting facilities at the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) in Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The senator said the Federal Government had been holding series of meetings with the leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU).
He assured that the government would end the strike.
Chukwumerije urged the striking lecturers to consider the various security challenges facing the nation.
According to him, this was among the reasons the government could not meet the demands of the striking lecturers.
The senator advised them to take whatever the government was offering them.
He explained that the major concern of the Goodluck Jonathan administration was on how to rescue the over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in Chibok, Borno State.
Chukwumerije said: “Nigerians know the active role being played by the Senate during the industrial action of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the ongoing strike by ASUP and COEASU. We are deeply involved. We had a meeting last week and we are going to have another one on June 23.
“What we want all Nigerians to appreciate is that we are at a very difficult time. Our nation is going through a very difficult moment. We all heard of the unfortunate tragedy about the school children slaughtered in Yobe State. They did not stop there; these convoluted evil-minded people abducted our schoolgirls in Chibok.
“So, the President’s primary challenge is security. All institutions, all persons in Nigeria are supposed to give due recognition to this issue.
“In our negotiation with the government, we have to be mindful that the priority of this government is security. So, we are urging the ASUP and COEASU to be mindful of the security situation in negotiating with the government so that whatever that needs to be done should be done within the parametre of the challenge.”
He said the committee had directed the Chief Executive officer of NIEPA to write members on the propose merger of the institution on whether or not it is desirable for the Education sector.
Hope of a speedy resolution of the lingering dispute between the members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and the Federal Government dimmed considerably on Tuesday as the Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, confessed that the Federal Government “is in a fix” on how to progress with the issue.
Speaking at a meeting with the Aminu Suleiman headed House of Representatives Committee on Education, the minister said resolving the almost a year old dispute would be tricky as the proposal he made on the payment of the outstanding N40 billion arrears to both COEASU and ASUP has been overtaken by events.
“We are now in a fix. We are now trying to resolve the issue with salaries and wages Commission,” he said,
Explaining what transpired between the government and ASUP in particular, Wike said “I took a risk that I’ve never taken in life when I arranged a meeting with ASUP and proposed the payment of the outstanding arrears in installments.
“I asked that we solve the major issues. They said there were arrears of N20 billion for COEASU and N20 billion for ASUP.
“I asked the Permanent Secretary to write a memo on how it would be paid. I made a memo to Mr. President that I have made the offer. They now wrote a letter back that they are not accepting the proposal.”
According to him, sequel to the rejection of the proposal by ASUP, the Wages and Salaries Commission wrote a letter also rejecting the proposal, thereby compounding the problem.
“Government is not sleeping on the issue. It is nobody’s desire to see schools closed down for almost a year. People should know that what we are trying to do is not personal. Nobody wants children to stay at home. The matter started with the former minister,” Wike said.
•We deplore police handling of poly, COE teachers’ protest
Will this democratic leadership ever purge itself of the better forgotten tyranny of the military era? This question becomes pertinent in view of its unleashing of state instrument of coercion on harmless protesting lecturers over non-payment of their dues by government. Their students from across the country that joined in the protests were also victims of this official highhandedness in a country where the law guarantees the right to assemble and freely express grievances.
The Federal Government, through some errant policemen in Abuja, wantonly deployed hot water cannon and teargas to disperse striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, their College of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU counterpart, and their students who went public to protest the government’s failure to implement agreements reached with the unions.
The distraught lecturers and their home-weary students got to the labour ministry’s end of the Abuja federal secretariat carrying placards bearing, among others, instructive inscriptions such as ‘Wike must go now’, ‘Spend money on tertiary institutions’, ‘Give priority to teacher’s education in Nigeria’, ‘Adequate funding, democratic management of all higher institutions.’ This kind of public procession is not alien to our laws just as the court has also reaffirmed its legality.
The protesting lecturers could not be unduly crucified given the justifications behind their actions. The ASUP and COEASU as academic trade unions have been on strike for the past 10 and four months, respectively, without any show of concern from the authorities. The government has been lethargic to their demands, which among others, include the appointment/constitution of governing councils for the institutions, release of the white paper on the visitation panels to the institutions, implementation of CONTISS 15 for lecturers and the setting up of the NEEDs committee. Nothing, in our view, shows that these demands are illegitimate, unlawful or unreasonable.
Despite the fact that the protest was peaceful, the protesters, after being addressed by Chief Emeka Wogu, Minister of Labour, were inexcusably waylaid by security forces on their way to submit their protest letters to Senate President David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly. Their reported regrouping caught the attention of some overzealous security men that forcefully dispersed them in various directions. The lecturers reportedly used cold water and kerosene to palliate the offensive effects of the tear gas.
We wonder why the police at this age and time could be so uncivilised against eggheads engaged in orderly protest for their dues. They were peaceful during the protest. We are not in doubt about their vulnerability and peaceable conducts as nothing shows that their actions provoked or threatened public peace as confirmed by the executive through Wogu’s observation while addressing the lecturers: ‘I am happy about the way you conducted yourself; you are not violent, so allow your leaders to discuss with me at the end of the procession. Before evening, you will get an answer,” the minister reportedly declared. This is an indictment of the Federal Government’s iniquitous handling of the teachers’ protest by its own, which makes the situation more damnable for the government that enjoys trampling on citizens’ rights with impunity.
The government should realise the incontestable importance of tertiary education that is being put in jeopardy through its unpardonable apathetical attitude to the teachers’ demands. The government should realise before it is too late that no degree of oppression has successfully stifled an unquenchable urge for education in human history.
Unions seek end to 10-month strike
•Wogu promises Jonathan’s intervention
The police disrupted yesterday in Abuja a peaceful protest by members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) with teargas.
The police used teargas and water to disperse the protesters, who were calling for government’s resolution of their demands and 10-month strike.
The unions began their march at 9am at the main car park of the Federal Secretariat. They marched to the Ministry of Education, carrying placards with various inscriptions.
The protesters called for the sack of the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike.
Attempts to get the minister or a senior official of the ministry were futile.
Security operatives, especially the police, barricaded the entrance to the ministry to prevent the protesters from entering.
They disallowed the unions from going ahead with the protest. But the unions insisted that the action was their civic right.
After waiting for a while without a positive response from the ministry, the unions’ leaders, alongside those of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), became agitated.
ASUP President Chibuzor Asomugha said the union would push the government to resolve the lingering crisis.
He said nobody could intimidate ASUP.
Asomugha said: “Is it right that somebody would spend five years to get an HND (Higher National Diploma) and when he wants to go to the university, they make him a second year student? If the government is sensitive and it means its transformation (agenda), then it should start transforming the Education sector.”
COEASU President Asagha Nkoro corroborated Asomugha’s statement.
He said: “The Federal Government should arise and solve the problems of COEASU and ASUP so that they can go back to school. Since December 18, 2013, when COEASU declared its strike, the Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, has never called us for any meeting. He is calming that he has met with us.
“We challenge Wike to tell us the date and where he met with COEASU and the letter that conveyed that meeting.
“The truth is that their children are not schooling in the country. It is the children of the poor that are here. Most of these students are not even sure of a job after school.
“We are calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene. How can this be happening for over 10 months and nothing has been done? But if there is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rally, he will be there. He got to that position by the power of God.”
NLC President, who was represented by the Assistant Secretary, Industrial Relations, Nuhu Toro, said: “We are with you in this struggle. If it means to mobilise all workers for this cause, we will. We will stand by you until the right thing is done.”
The unions also marched to the Ministry of Labour and Productivity where the minister, Emeka Wogu, assured that President Jonathan had intervened in their case.
The minister said the unions’ issues with the government would soon be resolved.
He urged the unions’ leaders to meet with him after the protest for further discussion on how to end the lingering strike.
Wogu said: “I came out to you as a Nigerian. I want to reassure you that even last night, your grievances were discussed with the leadership of your unions. We are almost there. I want to commend your patience and perseverance. You have done it the best way without disrupting anything.
“Why I came out is because I was told to tell you that we are almost there. The government has not been silent over the months. What is important is that I am bringing you a message from the highest point. That I came here shows you that we are not running away from the problem.
“I want to reassure you that the current government, under the leadership of President Jonathan, has directed me to come and speak to you and tell you the truth, and the truth is that we are almost there. I know that you want us to hurry up and conclude. I want to reassure you that immediately we leave here, I will go with your leaders to my office so that we conclude this issue. I have the authority. I am speaking to you for the first time. Or, have I disappointed you before? If not, then give me this opportunity now.”
The unions’ members were marching to the National Assembly to submit their protest letter to the lawmakers when the police started firing teargas and spraying water on them.
The police warned the protesters not to go near the National Assembly.
The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, has said the ministry will resolve the 10-month strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU).
Wike said the Federal Government had met over 90 per cent of the unions’ demands.
A statement yesterday in Abuja by the Special Assistant (Media) to the Supervising Minister of Education, Simeon Nwakaudu, said the minister also announced that the committee on bridging the gap between HND and first degree holders will be inaugurated next week with the Permanent Secretary in the ministry as its chairman.
The minister alluded to reports on the unions that they had accepted Federal Government’s offer to settle the CONTISS 15 arrears in two instalments.
He said the unions should officially communicate their position to the ministry for immediate action.
Wike added that with the progress attained after series of negotiations between the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal Ministry of Labour and the unions, the strikes would be resolved soon.
The minister urged the unions to call off their strike and resume academic work in the interest of the nation.
In every nation of the world, the population of the youths is invariably the largest. Nigeria is no exception. According to a statistics, the nation is populated by 70 per cent of youths, but potential of this population is yet to be harnessed. Rather, the government treats the youths with contempt.
Section 18 of the Constitution stipulates that government has the responsibility to provide equal educational opportunities for all. Unfortunately, the government has not only ignored this provision of the Constitution, it is also making sure that the youths do not get quality education.
The recent almost six-month strike by the university teachers and the on-going industrial action by Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and their colleagues in colleges of education are glaring examples that government is not concerned with education of the youths.
Students are being subjected to pain while government and the lecturers disagree. The government seems to careless about the fate of students; it pretends not to understand their lecturers’ plight. The government looks away while the parents cry.
It will only amount to futile exercise to devote time to list unpalatable consequences of the last Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike on us, which was caused by the lackadaisical approach of the government to education. But it is good to appeal to the Federal Government, as a matter of national importance, to put an end to the on-going ASUP and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) strikes. The government must act fast to save students from academic frustration because of the protracted actions.
Granted, the rot in the system cannot be attributed to the Federal Government alone; there are bad educational policies of state governments and schools’ managements that have also contributed to erosion of our educational values.
An example of this is the crisis rocking the Lagos State University over fee hike. How can a government that is unable to pay N18,000 minimum wage to civil servants expect the poor to pay N300,000 as tuition on a single child? For God sake, that is daunting. The matter becomes more sensitive, with the revelation that some state governments are generating revenues from state-owed institutions. Is this how to develop a nation?
The suffering of the youths has doubled in the recent time, with the vicious attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on educational institutions. Scores of innocent students were butchered at the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe State recently. The unconcerned Federal Government went on with the centenary celebration, and the killers clinking glasses after the bloody assignment.
According to police reports, between June 2013 and February 2014, a total of 140 students were killed. These are the future leaders with various missions and destinies to fulfil. Nations of the world have their peculiar challenges; Nigeria is not insulated from this. But our approach to solve the challenges matters. The government has taken a highly devastating and ludicrous method to fight our problems.
The most depressing challenge we face in this country is the increasing rate of unemployment. According to Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) report last year, about 40 million Nigerians are unemployed. It said about 90 per cent of youths are in this group. One begins to wonder if Nigeria can ever become a developed nation this millennium.
The reason why Nigeria is faced with vices such as insurgency, kidnapping and militancy is because of unemployment, which is a direct product of corruption. The earlier we understand that these vices may not augur well for the future of the country, the better for us.
Our leaders must set aside personal aggrandizement and put the nation’s future (youths) first in every policy they make. The youths must also rise up to the challenge. Let there be a stop to demand of a better future. We have to be part it.
Juwonlo, student of Agriculture, OAU