Kwara Colleges of Education begin indefinite strike

Workers of the three Colleges of Education in Kwara State have
embarked on an indefinite industrial action, accusing the state
government of failing to meet their five-point demands.


The workers, under the aegis of Committee of Unions of Tertiary
Institutions (CUTI) of Colleges of Education in Kwara State, had
issued three-day warning striek a week ago for the government to act.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that academic activities have
been paralysed in the institutions located in Ilorin, Oro and Lafiagi.


Mr Abdulhammed Yusuf, Secretary, Senior Staff Union of Colleges of
Education in the state, told NAN that the union had presented a
five-point demand which the government allegedly failed to honour.

He said the demands include the release of funds for accreditation of
courses, payment of backlog of salaries, 30 per cent salary increment,
promotion and payment of promotion benefits that accrued since 2013.

"In the last three years or so, there is hardly any year that we have
not gone on strike, in fact, it seems the government is not ready to
do anything except we go on strike.


"Last month, it was with some efforts before the government paid us
May 2017 salary, as it is, the government still owes us the salary of
June and July 2017 here in College of Education, Ilorin,'' Yusuf said.

The union leader also said the government was paying lip service to
the issue of accreditation of courses run by the schools.

"We have many demands on the ground for the government; Apart from
salary, there is an issue of accreditation.

"Most of the courses in the colleges have not been accredited, it
means the students are just coming in running programmes that are not
accredited.

"The implication is that they will carry worthless certificates around
if eventually, they finish here without accreditation.

"In order to prevent this, we make it one of our cardinal points that
government must address, yhey must accredit all these courses so that
the students will not suffer.

"Invariably, if the courses are not accredited, after sometimes, the
news will soon spread that courses being run by tertiary institutions
in Kwara are not accredited, which means people will start withdrawing
their children from the colleges,''

On the demand for salary increment, Yusuf explained that Kwara was the
only state still paying 70 per cent of the approved salary scale for
staff of the colleges.

Reacting, Dr Muideen Akorede, Senior Special Assistant to Gov.
Abdulfatah Ahmed on Media and Communications, said the government was
yet to receive official notice on the strike.

"We are yet to receive official notification of the strike, however,
we hope the lecturers and workers will continue to employ dialogue
with the government on these matters as strikes don't solve
problems,''