Lecturers under the aegis of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) have extended their lingering strike by 21 more days.
Lecturers expressed concern that the government was yet to address their pressing demands.
It noted that the Federal Government is playing dumb to issues peculiar to state-owned colleges of education, especially in Oyo, Ogun, Kwara, Abia, Kogi, Kaduna, Zamfara, Yobe, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Edo, and Ebonyi states.
COEASU said that the strike has further deteriorated in some of these states with the enforcement of the draconian rule of “no work, no pay” and victimisation of union leaders.
The union’s statement read further: “The FG is yet to come out clear on the Union’s preference for UTAS against the troublesome Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
“Having submitted the Union’s charter of demands to the FG team for the renegotiation, the posture and sincerity of government towards meaningful collective bargaining cannot be ascertained until August 2, 2022, when the renegotiation proper begins.”
Naija News understands that COEASU made their grieve known in a statement issued at the end of its National Executive Council meeting.
The communique was signed by the National President, Dr. Smart Olugbeko, and the General Secretary, Dr. Ahmed Lawan.
On the decision to embark on strike, the union said, “While empathetically acknowledging the appeal of critical stakeholders expecting the strike action to be suspended, the NEC painstakingly submitted that the timing must be properly calculated based on the foregoing reservations in order to consolidate on the gains of the struggle.
“Therefore, NEC unanimously resolved that the strike action should continue for the next three weeks within which the Union hopes that the foregoing reservations should have been addressed”.
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