COEASU To Embark on Nationwide Strike, Gives FG 21 Days Ultimatum To Address Issue
The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has given the Federal Government (FG) a 21-day ultimatum to address all lingering issues with the Union, or else it would be forced to embark on a nationwide industrial action.
President of the Union, Comrade Nuhu Ogirima, made the declaration on Wednesday at a press briefing in Abuja, while lamenting the total neglect of the Colleges of Education by the government.
“The Union, COEASU, is again compelled by circumstances to bring to the fore the prevailing rapid and awful condition of both staff and infrastructure in public Colleges of Education (COE).
“Please, do recall that in August, 2019, the Union transmitted a memo passionately requesting Mr. President to intervene in addressing the plight of the public COE system.
“The call was predicated on decades of utter neglect in COE system, which the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) could not successfully address.
“The memo, published as an open letter to Mr. President, was also copied to both Honourable Minister of Education and his Labour and Employment (FML & E) counterpart.
“In response to our follow-up correspondences, both FME and FML & E had indicated that they were awaiting the President’s response.
“Sadly, we all are still awaiting the response, almost one year after the memo was received at the Presidency, while the system further degenerates,” Ogirima remarked.
According to the COEASU helmsman, “Between 2013 and now, the Union did not merely write but also engaged, severally, FME and other related government Ministries, Departments and Agencies on all the lingering and emergent challenges of COEs.
“While FME constituted a Rapid Response Team (RRT) to handle the issues in 2017, it is quite disheartening to note that nothing substantial was achieved by the RRT, as the challenges linger on and consequently culminated into the brief national strike observed in October and November 2018.”
