The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government (COEASU).
COEASU has threatened to go on strike.
The union’s president and general secretary, Smart Olugbeko and Ahmed Bazza, said in a statement made available to journalists that the ultimatum was issued following their national executive council (NEC) meeting.
COEASU urged well-meaning Nigerians and concerned parties in the tertiary education sector to persuade the government to take appropriate actions immediately before the ultimatum expires, warning that if the federal government fails to do so within the deadline, they will declare appropriate industrial action.
The union, which stated that Colleges of Education have continued to face untold hardships due to non-payment of salary and salary arrears, as well as refusal to fully implement the statutory salary structure, also stated that the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is causing more harm than good to tertiary institutions.
They revealed that a total of 1,219 lecturers from various colleges of education are having issues with IPPIS.
COEASU also disputed the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamuclaim ,’s that the government had released a revitalisation fund.
The statement read;
“The National Executive Council (NEC) of our great union convened at the Federal College of Education, Okene, Kogi State on May 6 to compile the outcome of a referendum conducted across all chapters nationwide.
“We re-assessed the seriousness of the government towards resolution of festering issues and decided the way forward.
“The NEC observed, with consternation, that the FG has been ridiculously unfair to the union by taking the understanding shown over time for granted and leaving issues unaddressed, in spite of the union’s entreaties.
“Ridiculously, the FG has refused to constitute her own renegotiation team after acknowledging receipt of our union’s team list on her own request for over two months now.
“The government has refused to accede to our demand for the fulfilment of her own pledge of N15bn revitalisation fund.
“Apart from being a far cry from N478bn, being the outcome of the 2014 Presidential Needs Assessment across public COEs, the delay in its release has made nonsense of the value due to inflation.
“Many colleges find it difficult to run smoothly due to non-release of running costs by the government.
“Many state governments have abdicated their responsibility as proprietors to TETFund, as the only projects you see in the colleges are TETFund projects.
“COEASU has demanded the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), an alternative innovation of the 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 the peculiarities of tertiary institutions.”