Resolutions with FG on Colleges of Education not meaningfully implemented – COEASU president

Comrade Nuhu Ogirima is the President of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU). In this interview with Daily Trust, he speaks about COEASU’s lingering issues with the Federal Government, the agenda of the incoming administration, an impending strike, among other critical matters. Recently, you threatened to resort to another industrial action over what […]

Comrade Nuhu Ogirima is the President of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU). In this interview with Daily Trust, he speaks about COEASU’s lingering issues with the Federal Government, the agenda of the incoming administration, an impending strike, among other critical matters.

Recently, you threatened to resort to another industrial action over what you term “Federal Government’s lukewarm attitude to your resolutions” on an industrial dispute in 2018. What actually do you mean?

Recall that COEASU embarked on a national strike action from October to December 5, 2018; when it was suspended. It may interest you to know that the resolutions reached with the Federal Government on the challenges besetting the COEs have not been meaningfully implemented. In addition to the lingering issues, there are new challenges emanating from the side of the government that have threatened the stability of the COE system. These have heightened our concern for the survival of the COE system as the foundational teacher education institution, and indeed, the most critical level of the nation’s education institutions.

Could you give more insight into these issues and the status of implementation?

The most critical aspects of the resolutions border on the palliative fund, the quest for easy access to tertiary education and the stalled renegotiation of the 2010 COEASU-FGN agreement.

The FG pledged to commit N15bn as palliative fund to bail the public COEs, both state and federal COEs; which are 72. The fund was meant for immediate injection to check the rapidly decaying infrastructure of the COEs. As at December, 2018, the necessary bureaucracy was said to have been concluded. Sadly, it is six months, and still counting, the fund has not been made available. Checks at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation reveal that nothing has been done about it as he was said to be on leave.

The second issue is our quest to broaden access to quality tertiary teacher education. We have been seeking to realise this by our clamour for autonomy to offer degree programmes in education. It is quite obvious that the existing public universities are inadequate to admit the teeming youths seeking degree in education, especially those who cannot afford the cost of private universities.

So, autonomy for COEs to award degrees would create more space and so readily address such a challenge. This would be much more economical than establishing new institutions because the extent to which the government would need to commit funds would be minimal for obvious reasons.

Three different reports of FG committees of different administrations between 1999 and 2014 recommended autonomy. However, successive FG administrations could not muster the political will to implement the recommendations.

So, in 2018, a committee was constituted, arising from our renewed agitation, to study the reports and recommend to FG. Again, this is the sixth month and nothing has been heard of the committee. We further appeal to the National Assembly to expedite action towards a successful conclusion of the exercise.

Stalled Renegotiation of 2010 COEASU-FGN Agreement: The renegotiation commenced fully at the beginning of our agitation. However, since the suspension of the national strike, not a single meeting has been convened by the FG team. We made representation to National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to no avail.

Peculiar Academic Allowances: As academic staff, we are distinguished by certain functions that we perform, different from other categories of staff in the COE system, and not quite the main responsibilities of our professional calling. We have this incorporated in our agreement with the FG. However, this was not reflected when the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) imposed its consolidated salary structure on the system.

Does this imply that the Federal Government has done nothing at all on all your issues?

The FG has constituted a consultative committee to interface with state governments bi-annually on the challenges that may be facing COEs with a view to addressing them as they emanate. Besides, it was resolved that state governments that do not meet their obligations to their institutions would not be granted license to establish new ones and would also have the accreditation of their existing programmes denied.

The payment of arrears of promotion lingering since 2012 and shortfall in personnel allocation since 2015 are also being made, albeit in piecemeal.

What do you believe that the incoming administration should do to galvanise the education sector?

Quite a lot is required to bail the education sector from the doldrums. I will suggest that the new government adopt a radical approach towards solving the challenges besetting the entire education sector. Government should muster the political will to take decisions on education as it had done on corruption and the fight against insurgency. This could be done by either implementing the current Ministerial Strategic Plan christened: “Education for Change 2016 to 2019”, which is rich in content as it is comprehensive or synthesising, for implementation, all the critical reports/strategic plans designed for the sector by previous governments.

I would also suggest that any consideration of previous reports relative to the tertiary education sub-sector, should take cognizance of the report of the education summit that ASUU, in collaboration with the unions in the university system, organised in 2014.

With specific focus on tertiary sub-sector, the bureaucrats and the executives, the ministers in particular, would need to appreciate the tripartite nature of our tertiary education sub-sector. With specific reference to governance in the COE system, the composition of governing councils and the appointment of the Executive Secretary of NCCE; among others, need take cognizance of the qualification and nature of experience of those to be appointed. It suffices to state that the mere possession of a university degree would not suffice for political appointees for such specialised systems like the COEs and their regulatory agency.

For stability in the academic calendar of tertiary institutions, the full implementation of the agreements reached with the unions is key.