COEASU Resumes Warning Strike, To Last Four Weeks

The PUNCH reports that the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union has resumed its warning strike, which was suspended in 2018, over alleged neglect of the Colleges of Education sub-sector by Federal and State governments.

Its Northwest Secretary, Inuwa Ishaq-Inuwa, announced this to newsmen at a press conference on Saturday in Kano.

Ishaq-Inuwa, who is also the COEASU Chairman, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso, Kano State, said that the union was left with no option other than to resume the strike.

He said that the union’s National Headquarters, under the leadership of its President, Dr Smart Olugbeko, directed all state-owned Colleges of Education to join the strike and press home their local demands.

He recalled that COEASU suspended its strike in 2018, but four years down the line, it resolved to continue with the strike over an alleged lack of commitments by the different levels of government to resolve some lingering issues.

According to him, “The Federal Government failed to constitute its own team for negotiations on the FGN-COEASU 2010 Agreement despite all entreaties.

“The non-implementation of the 2014 Needs Assessment Report, non-payment of outstanding promotion arrears from 2016 to date, and the non-payment of responsibility allowance to the Librarian in Colleges of Education, are some of our demands.

“Poor funding of Colleges of Education and poor conditions of some state Colleges of Education are also part of the demands,” he said.

Others, he said, are non-implementation of the consequential effect of the implementation of CONTISS 15 on Lower Cadre and the Federal Government’s insistence on IPPIS instead of UTAS that captures the peculiarity of tertiary institutions.