Let’s re-negotiate 2010 agreement, COEASU tells FG

Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), has called on the federal government to urgently resume renegotiations on the 2010 agreement reached with it to forestall industrial dispute.
COEASU, in a communiqué issued at the end of its Expanded National Executive Council (ENEC) meeting, held at Akwa Ibom State College of Education, Afaha-Nsit, was jointly signed by its National President, Comrade Nuhu Ogirima, and General Secretary, Taiwo Olayanju.
The union noted that while government was renegotiating agreements with unions of other tertiary institutions, the one FGNCOEASU reached in 2010 remained “provocatively discouraging as the process has been stalled again”.
It further called on all tiers of government, the National Council on Education (NCE), and relevant agencies to check the growing attrition in the teaching profession, warning that “if unchecked, it has the potential of imposing a gulf in the teacher-gap in the country.” On the implementation of 65 years retirement age and CONPCASS salary structure by most state governments, the union commended the state governments, while charging those paying fractions of the salary structure to desist and pay in full.
It, however, described as “exploitative and unacceptable, the non-payment of salary and the nonimplementation of CONPCASS salary structure for staff of the College of Education, Arochukwu, by the Abia state government.” It also decried the denial of right to promotion and the state of infrastructure in the institution, calling on the Abia state government to address these issues with dispatch as it has grave implication on teacher education.
“Council specifically decries the non-approval of a pension scheme for the COE, Akwanga, by the Nasarawa state government.
Council views this as insensitivity to the rights and welfare of people who give their all for the training of other citizens for the good of the nation.
“Against this background, Council calls on the Nasarawa state government to engage the staff towards securing a viable pension scheme that can address their welfare after service or retirement,” it said.
The communiqué expressed strong reservations on the continued denial of the rights of academic staff to appropriate and accruable full salary by the government of Edo, Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ogun, and Osun states in their respective colleges of education.
“Council, while urging the Kaduna state government to implement CONPCASS, calls on the other concerned State governments to pay salaries, and the arrears, in full to cushion the effects of the prevailing deplorable socio-economic life in the country.
“Given the implication of the persistence of the foregoing situations, Council reiterates the Union’s disposition to the resort to any radical constitutional means to address the issues should the respective governments fail to act, with dispatch, to resolve the matter in the interest of industrial peace,” it stated.
On alleged injustice in dispute resolution in some COEs, the Council noted that it received, reports of intolerance and injustices perpetuated against members and union leaders while handling issues of industrial concern in COEs such as Tai Solarin COE, Omu-Ijebu, Ogun state and the Federal College of Education, Potiskum, Yobe state