Lecturers in Nigerian colleges of education have on Wednesday suspended their two month old strike. Under the aiegies of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), the teachers earlier embarked on a nationwide strike on 2nd October, 2018.
President of the Union, Nuhu Ogirima, announced this on Wednesday at a briefing in Abuja after its expanded National Executive Council meeting.
Mr Ogirima said the suspension became necessary following reassurances from government to meet some of the key demands of the workers.
According to him, the suspension is to enable the government implement the agreements.
He, however, added that the union will reconvene in January to re-access the government’s commitment and “will not hesitate to stay away from work again if it reneges on the agreement”.
He said government had accepted that there is decay in colleges of education and agreed to implement the NEEDS assessment report
In his words, “Government, through the Minister of Education, has met with other state governors over poor and non payment of salaries in states colleges.
“Government has agreed to release a white paper tagged, ‘dual mode’ to implement partially, for some colleges to (be able to) award degrees.”
He said the government has also promised to reinstate its sacked members in Ogun State Colleges of Education.
While the Colleges of Education lecturers may have suspended their strike, their counterparts in the universities are still negotiating a path towards finding a resolution with government regarding their demands.
EduCeleb.com reported on Tuesday that another meeting by the education minister, Adamu Adamu and other state officials with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) ended in a deadlock leading to the prolonging of the one month old strike.
We also reported that lecturers in polytechnics under the banner of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) have threatened to commence their own indefinite strike from next Wednesday, 12th December.
