By Mike Adeyemi
The three months old indefinite strike embarked upon by the College of Education Staff Union (COEASU), Ilorin and the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the institution was on Tuesday, suspended.
The strike was suspended following the intervention of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki and other stakeholders like the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU).
Speaking with our reporter last night, the Public Relations Officer, COEASU, Ilorin, Mustapha Babatunde Ajadi, appreciated Saraki and other stakeholders, adding that his directive that the state government should without further delay negotiate with the institution’s authority led to the suspension of the strike which commenced sometimes in September.
“The college resumed basically because we respected those who had gone before the college to mediate with the state government, and we want to sincerely thank them so much.”
Speaking further, Ajadi said though the state government has only paid two and half of the seven months salaries owed the workers, he added that the decision to suspend the strike was due to the plight of the students.
“The two and half months salaries paid to us amounted to about N134million plus 19 per cent of half salary, augmented by 31 per cent by the college authority.”
According to him, prior to now, the institution was in the wilderness as the state government never deemed it necessary to mediate in the college unions matter.
The COEASU spokesman stated that the problem of COED, Ilorin transcends salary arrears but also infrastructural decay, lack of funding and poor staff welfare.
Ajadi said the college had written several letters to the state government without any reply.
“The state government has always said we should look inward, but looking at the state generally, mushroom colleges of education are springing up thus our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) capacity has dwindled, “Ajadi lamented.
Similarly, the chairman of NASU, COED, Ilorin, Mallam Anas Najeem, restated that the strike was only suspended, not called off. According to him, the decision was taken basically because of the plight of the students, which he said is paramount to the management and other stakeholders.
He said in the past, government was providing subvention to the state-owned tertiary institutions and nothing went wrong but suddenly it came up with intervention fund which was paid quarterly paid, a development he blamed for the recurring strike in the college.
Meanwhile, academic activities on Tuesday commenced at the institution as students were noticed in their large numbers trooping in to lecture rooms.
Some of the students who spoke with our reporter under condition of anonymity lamented the effect of the strike and appealed to the state government and other stakeholders to avert a recurrence.
Recall that the Kwara State Government last week released the sum of N378, 426, 018.04 as allocation for the fourth quarter of 2017 to six tertiary institutions in the state.
While announcing the release of the funds last Tuesday, the Commissioner for Finance, Engr Demola Banu, said N134, 333,338.48 of the figure is allocated to COED, Ilorin.
