NEED TO AVERT PROTRACTED INDUSTRIAL CRISIS IN THE

UNITY SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE FEDERATION:

            It has become highly necessary and extremely important to invite the attention of the general public to the avalanche of unresolved industrial relations related matters affecting members of staff of the Federal Government Colleges nationwide and to state that the non resolution of the issues in dispute will surely lead to protracted industrial crisis of a monumental proportion in the Unity Colleges.

2.         The unresolved issues include the following:-

(a)        Ceding of Unity Colleges to the State Governments and/or the Old Boys Association without due consideration of the way staff will be affected- The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria has been reliably informed of plans by the Federal Government to cede the Unity Colleges in the country to the “State Governments” which did not request for them and which have not been able to run their own colleges effectively.  Our fear is that if the schools are handed over to the “State Governments”, they may auction them thereafter to private individuals thereby accomplishing the discredited objective of the Public, Private, Partnership (PPP) Model of the last Administration.  There is no Basic 7, 8 & 9 as at now in any of the schools to accommodate those who have completed elementary 6.   It is necessary to inform the general public of the very negative role the Permanent Secretary in charge of the Education Ministry is playing in the new onslaught to do away with the colleges by attrition.  The Permanent Secretary, Goke Adegoroye Ph.D has now assumed a larger than life posture in the entire matter.  He has declared war against the Union, Teachers, Parents and their precious children.  He has also decreed that there will be no more admission into Junior Secondary Classes even though other secondary schools being funded by the Federal Government – particularly in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Police are still running Junior Secondary Schools while implementing the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Scheme.  The argument put forward in the advertorial by the Federal Ministry of Education in the Punch Newspaper of 27^th November, 2008 that UBEC ACT 2004 does not allow fee paying Secondary Education is not correct.  The fact of the matter is that Federal Unity Colleges are tuition free from JSS1 to SS3.  We make bold to state that the existence of Federal Unity Colleges compliments the provisions of UBEC ACT in the aspect of free education rather than the deliberate distortion of facts as contained in the advertorial placed by the Permanent Secretary.  Moreover, over 64,000 candidates who wrote the last National Common Entrance Examination into Federal Government Colleges across the country are still at home waiting for the admission list to be released so that they can start secondary school.  Many of the affected children have now been forced to take to hawking and touting and other social vices that may end up truncating their destiny and turn them to layabouts.  We are worried that the Federal Government is now abdicating its social responsibility to the citizens in the area of Education contrary to the provisions relating to Education in the Nigerian Constitution.  In Chapter II of the Constitution that contains the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, Section 3 (a) – (d) of Article 18 provides that “Government shall provide (a) free compulsory primary education, (b) free secondary education, (c) Free university education, and (d) free adult literacy programmes.  The policy being pursued currently in the Education Ministry particularly as it relates to secondary education negates this provision.  The policy being presently implemented will worsen the rate of illiteracy in the country.  Going by the statistics from the Federal Ministry of Education, 47% of Nigerians who should be in schools are out of schools as at the end of 2005.  This figure is likely to worsen with the way education is being toyed with.  It is instructive to point out that United States of America with its high level of development is still talking about building more schools at the Federal level to ensure that the future of their youth is not mortgaged and the leadership position of the country is in no way threatened in the foreseeable future.  The question that readily comes to mind with the scenario that is being played out in the Education Ministry is where lies the future of our dear country Nigeria if we continue to toy with Education of our children who are expected to be leaders of tomorrow?  The Federal Government is advised to act fast by ensuring that Goke Adegoroye Ph.D does not make nonsense of the past gains that had been made by the country in the field of education.  Our quest to become one of the top twenty economies in the world by year 2020 can never be actualized if we allow Goke Adegoroye Ph.D and his co-travellers to implement without questioning the obnoxious policies being contemplated in the education ministry in the name of Reforms.  As a way forward, we demand the immediate release of the admission list into JSS 1 in the Unity Colleges.

(b)        Posting of Union Officials before completing their tenure contrary to an earlier agreement of 2006 on the matter.  It will be recalled that the Federal Ministry of Education did a general posting in 2006 during which a number of elected officials of the Units of the Association in the Unity colleges were affected. The Association protested to the Federal Ministries of Education and Labour and explained during the meeting convened to discuss the matter that posting of union officials while serving their tenure is against the spirit of the ILO Conventions on Rights to organise and Collective Bargaining of which Nigeria is a signatory. The objection of the union arose from the fact that it costs a fortune to install a democratic government in place.   Based on this and other arguments put forward by the union, the management of the Education Ministry as well as the Labour Ministry and the Association agreed that the union officials posted should be returned to their previous locations and that the mistake of posting out union officials while serving their term will not be repeated.  Unfortunately, the posting exercise that has just been carried out affected many members of Executives of the union in virtually all the colleges.  The union cried foul and protested once again to the ministry to correct the anomaly.  Instead of acceding to our request, the Permanent Secretary took a u-turn and boasted that the posting done would never be reversed even in spite of the earlier agreement on the matter.  The situation in the schools now is very tense.  The agreement of 2006 must be respected.

(c)        Posting of Staff without any financial provision as contained in the Public Service Rules (PSR).  The PSR 12210 and 17301 provide that officers posted out of their station should be paid allowance which includes allowance for 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, transport and resettlement allowances.  The Education Ministry had always been flouting this Rule as all those affected in the recent posting exercise were not given a dime even though many of them were expected to cover hundreds of kilometers between their old and new duty posts including settlement of accommodation issues in their old and new destinations.  We see this act as being wicked and inhuman more so when there was nothing to be lost in allowing the posting to take place when the money to effect it is available.  The Federal Government needs to act fast on this matter as innocent lives are being lost due to attempt by some posted officers to use outdated means to get to their new locations due to paucity of funds.  Payment must be made within 30 days.

(d)        Rejection of Staff posted by Headquarters by some principals thereby inflicting unnecessary financial burden on the affected staff.  Some of the officers that were posted were rejected by the Principals of their new schools without any valid reasons.  This has resulted in those officers having to move back to the Headquarters of the Ministry to report their predicament.  A lot of pains and unnecessary financial burden were placed on the affected officers in the process.  The Education Ministry has now gone down as an establishment that deliberately marginalizes, traumatizes and dehumanises workers all in an attempt to frustrate them out of service.  All Principals must be made to accept the postings from Headquarters.

(e)        Suspension of Mr. Izah K. C. of Federal Government College, Ijanikin Lagos without pay when the Conciliator was already addressing the Trade Dispute.  Mr. Izah K. C. of the Federal Government College, Ijanikin was allocated government quarters.  He was alleged to have infringed on some unwritten rules by the Principal of the college and therefore given quit notice.  The matter was reported to the Association by the staff.  The Union promptly intervened having been convinced that the alleged offences were mere imagination.  The union therefore declared a Trade Dispute against the Ministry of Education on the matter.  While the Conciliator appointed by the Labour Minister to preside over the dispute was still handling the matter, the Education Ministry apart from refusing to attend the meetings convened by the Conciliator, and without the knowledge of the Federal Civil Service Commission, suspended Mr. Izah K. C from duty without pay.  We view this development as very strange and which if not reversed will make mockery of the 7 points Agenda of the present Administration particularly in the area of adherence to the Rule of Law and due process in the conduct of public affairs. The suspension must be lifted and Mr. Izah transferred to any other school in Lagos not later than 30 days.

(f)         Suspension of Mr. Ugorji, L. U of Federal Government College, Ijanikin, Lagos without the knowledge of the Federal Civil Service Commission.  Mr. Ugorji was allocated government quarters in his former school, FSTC, Yaba which he later showed interest in buying under the Federal Government’s policy of Sale of Government Quarters.  The Principal of FSTC began to harass Mr. Ugorji to pack out of the quarters because of the gains that will accrue as a result of the MTN base station located inside the quarters.  In order to get Mr. Ugorji out of the way, he was illegally suspended without the knowledge of the Federal Civil Service Commission.  We are asking that the suspension clamed down on Mr. Ugoji should be lifted.

 (g)       Setting up of Human Relations Unit to warehouse documents on Labour issues.  The Federal Ministry of Education is reputed to be one of those Establishments where industrial relations consciousness within the management hierarchy is very dangerously low or non existent.  The resultant effect of this sorry state of affairs is that simple issues relating to the conditions of service of staff are usually mishandled thereby leading to numerous avoidable crisis.  That forms the reason why this union has been clarmouring for the establishment of Industrial/Human Relations Unit to warehouse documents relating to Union/Management meetings and other industrial relations related matters. Most of the grievances of staff particularly those listed in the Trade Dispute against the ministry can be handled by such a unit if created and only areas of disagreement can be referred to the top hierarchy.  For over seven years now the Ministry has been unable to establish such a unit with the result that every matter with unions is treated on an ad-hoc basis.

(h)        Quarterly meetings with Management of the Federal Ministry of Education to urgently resolve issues as they arise.  We strongly believe that quarterly meetings with the management will go a long way to intercept issues as they crop up without necessarily allowing them to degenerate into a crisis situation before attempts are made to resolve them.  The Ministry has not cooperated in realising this objective.

(i)         Non payment of 15% salary increase to staff in the 104 unity colleges as was done to those in the Headquarters, Abuja and all other Federal Ministries.  It will be recalled that the Federal Government increased the salary of workers by 15% with effect from January, 2007.  Members of staff of the Ministry including the colleges were paid the increase starting from April, 2007.   After series of agitation for the settlement of the arrears arising from the increase i.e. arrears for January, February & March, 2007, staff in all other Federal Ministries and the Headquarters of the Ministry were paid theirs while those in the 104 Unity Colleges were left out without any reasonable explanation on why that should be so.  There is urgent need to address this issue within 30 days as it appears that the whole truth is not being told on the unpaid arrears.

(j)         Non- Payment of arrears of promotion of the past three years.  It is very sad that officers who gained promotion to the next grade levels are being denied the fruit of their advancement.  We do not believe that that should be so, moreso when there is a section of the ministry (variation) that is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that all those promoted are rewarded with emoluments commensurate with their newly acquired status. For example officers who have gone for interview for GL. 12 are still being paid GL. 09 salary/allowances.

(k)        Refusal of the Federal Civil Service Commission to interview officers who fall within the field of selection on GL 14 – 16 from the Federal Ministry of Education.  The Federal Civil Service Commission recently conducted promotion Interview for officers on GL 14 – 16 in all the Federal Ministries/Extra Ministerial Departments.  During the exercise, officers who fall within the field of selection from the Federal Ministry of Education and who presented themselves for interview were excluded from the exercise because the Permanent Secretary Goke Adegoroye Ph.D failed to declare the required vacancies as was done by other Ministries.  The resultant effect of this exclusion is that the affected officers would have lost their seniority in the process and the promotion prospect of officers below GL 14 will be hampered since the consequential vacancies that should have been created by the advancement of those on GL 14 and above would not be there.  There is therefore the need to normalise the seniority arrangement in the Ministry by arranging fresh interview for all the officers that were denied promotion interview.

(l)         Redeployment of Goke Adegoroye Ph.D, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education.  Goke Adegoroye Ph.D is very arrogant and has morbid hatred for workers.  He insults staff as if he is running a slave camp. He has very poor human relation thereby compounding his lack of knowledge about the challenges facing education in the 21^st century.  He has bungled the JSS ! – 3 admission exercise for 2008 and the interview of GL 14 – 16 officers in his Ministry.  Being well schooled in chicanery, he was appointed DG of Bureau of Public Service Reforms in the last Administration and used the opportunity to send thousands of civil servants out of service and many to their early graves.  A comprehensive letter has been addressed to the Secretary to the Government as well as the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation calling for his redeployment to a place where he will be made to work with superior officers and no subordinate staff except a Secretary.

3.         In view of the foregoing, the Trade Union side has already informed the Federal Ministry of Education to meet all the above demands on or before Sunday, 4^th January, 2008 failing which the entire 104 Unity Schools will not re-open for classes in the second term billed to commence on Friday 9^th January, 2008.

4.         All Parents/Guardians are advised not to release their children/wards to the schools next term until all the issues in dispute are resolved.

5.         Meanwhile all Chairmen of the Units of the Association in the 104 Unity Colleges nationwide are invited to attend a crucial meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, 6^th January, 2008 to further deliberate on the matter and decide on the way forward and how to implement the decision of the Central Working Committee in respect of the issues raised.

Solomon .A. Onaghinon Esq.,

      Secretary-General