COEASU Accuses FG Of Insensitivity, Demands Release Of N15bn Revitalisation Fund

Lecturers in colleges of education across the country under the aegis of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) have accused the Federal Government of insensitivity, saying successive governments over the years had neglected issues affecting the union and schools despite many entreaties.
National Vice President and Southwest Zonal Coordinator (COEASU), Olusegun Lana, said the Federal Government has not been fair to colleges of education.
The union listed some of its grievances to include failure of the Federal Government to reconstitute its renegotiation team for COEASU-FGN 2010 Agreement; non-release of N15billion revitalisation fund pledged by government and insistence on Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) against University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which the union described as a more reliable alternative payment system.
The union urged stakeholders to prevail on the government to do the needful to save colleges of education from incessant strikes.
He said: “While the long-anticipated renegotiation of COEASU-FGN 2010 agreement holds enormous promise for mutual resolution of several challenges bedevilling the COE sub-sector, the FG has failed to accord the exercise deserved priority. Ridiculously, government has refused to constitute its own renegotiation team after acknowledging receipt of our union’s team list on her own request for over two months now.
“Government has refused to fulfil its pledge of N15billion revitalisation fund. Apart from being a far cry from N478billion proposed at the 2014 Presidential Needs Assessment across public COEs, the delay in its release has made nonsense of the value due to inflation.
“Poor funding of colleges of education and poor conditions across state-owned COEs, in spite of our agitations and government’s persistent promise of redress, both Federal and State COEs remain poorly funded.
“Reign of impunity, statutory breach and administrative aberration persists our members, especially in state COEs, continue to suffer untold hardships through non-payment of salary and salary arrears, refusal to implement statutory salary structure in full, extraneous promotion criteria, idiosyncratic policies, non/improper domestication of 65-year retirement age for workers in the COE system; multiple promotions without financial effects and repression of union activities, among others.
“Many colleges find it difficult to run smoothly due to non-release of running costs by government. State governments have abdicated their responsibility as proprietors to TETFund, as the only projects you see in the colleges are TETFund projects.”
Lana lamented that IPPIS was causing more havoc to tertiary institutions. He noted that up till the end of March 2022, about 1,219 lecturers in COEs were experiencing problems with the payment platform.
“COEASU has demanded the adoption of UTAS, an alternative innovation of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). UTAS has been found superior to IPPIS as it has the capacity to address our payroll security concerns and peculiarities of tertiary institutions. It is therefore ludicrous that FG has remained adamant on retaining IPPIS despite its injurious effects.
He said after extensive deliberations on the outcome of referendum conducted across chapters of the union, NEC resolved to issue government a 21-day ultimatum to do the needful within the period.
Mobilisation Coordinator of Education Rights Campaign, Michael Lenin, said:
“The blame for these strike actions that have grounded tertiary education must be placed at the doorstep of the government. It is quite unprecedented that all the major unions in the tertiary education sector will be on strike; however, it showed the level of damage the negligence of successive governments have done to the sector through chronic under-funding.
“This is the time for Nigerian students to rise and demand that all the demands of striking workers must be met and the sector must be repositioned from the current horrific state it is in.”

But the Federal Government has said that it is in consultation with COEASU and has held series of meetings with the union with a view to resolving the issues.