Aggrieved members of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) staged a peaceful demonstration on Wednesday accusing the Federal Government of neglect.

The lecturers went round the campus shouting solidarity songs.  They also displayed placards with various inscriptions on their demands.

THE LEADER leant that the protest was held simultaneously in all the colleges of education nationwide, as directed by the national executive of COEASU.

COEASU Chairman, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Mrs. Ukachi Wachuku told journalists during the protest that they were compelled to embark on the demonstration to let the Nigerian public know that the government has abandoned the colleges of education in Nigeria to decay because the students in these institutions are children of the poor.

The union accused the government of refusing to give ear to or address the problems hindering effective teaching and learning in the system which have lots to do with infrastructural decay, lack of staff motivation and poor conditions of service.

She recalled the reasons why they embarked on a one week warning strike last year August, which was to remind the Federal Government of its refusal to implement, in totality the 2010 FG/Union agreement, the non-migration of lower staff cadres, as was implemented for their colleagues in the polytechnics, non-payment of peculiar and responsibly allowances as implemented for their colleagues in the universities, upgrading Alvan to a University of Education as earlier pronounced in 2010 by the then Minister of Education before it was politicized, non-performance of the ceremonial handover of Alvan to Federal Government by the Imo State Government and non-payment of pensions to their retired staff by Imo State Government when the college was under the state.

She wants the Federal Government as a matter of urgency to engage COEASU in a sincere and result-oriented dialogue with a view to addressing and resolving the contentious issues without further delay.

She also requests Imo State Government to make haste to tidy up the ceremonial handover of Alvan to Federal Government as this has been the clog in the wheel of progress of the college and as well pay their retired staff their entitlements.

The COEASU Chairman said the peaceful demonstration was the first in a series of action plans to demonstrate their resentments to the insensitivity of government to their legitimate demands and for keeping poor innocent students of the colleges of education Nigeria at home, ostensibly because they have no one in government to speak for them.

It should be recalled that COEASU began its strike on December 18, 2013.

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