Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike is a Special Adviser to the President on Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s affairs
Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union [COEASU] of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, Saturday trooped out to protest what they called the”maladministration”of the Supervising Minister of Education, Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike . They maintained that he is not qualified to be a minister.
Its former National President, Comrade Remi Makinde said it would have been logical if Wike holds the office of “Special Adviser to the President on Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s affairs rather than be in an office that decides the future of all Nigerian students.
Makinde said Wike is a lawyer, who is interested in helping the Presidency to fight Amaechi rather than looking for ways to tackle all the challenges in the education sector.
The lecturers expressed their grievances over the ongoing strike which has entered four months .
The protest came up at the institution’s gate and led by its Chapter Chairman, Dr. Samuel Akintunde
They carried placards with different inscriptions such as “IPPIS is repugnant, Jonathan should respond to the cries of the masses” FG should safe education from drowning “
The protest was initially disrupted by men of the Nigerian Police led by CSP Emmanuel Okoi,who prevented workers from blocking the free flow of vehicles along Akure- Ondo-Ore-Lagos road.
The Police later settled with the workers as the lecturers resolved to stage the protest at the college’s gate.
Akintunde said the battle of the lecturers was to liberate colleges of education and to improve the academic standard of the students.
He said the federal government has abandoned teachers’ education completely, adding that none of the 10 issues raised by the union has been solved.
The COEASU chairman noted that the federal government has been recalcitrant,stressing that the government has only met two times with the lecturers and on these occasions it was different groups who represented the government on the dialogue table.
His words, “Our fight is about bringing up quality education in Nigeria. The federal government prefers dialoguing with University sector when they came up with their demands but neglect other group in the education sector. If you visit any of the college of education, you will discover that we are working with obsolete tools.
” We are saying that it is high time all these things change. Secondary schools workshops and laboratories are better than those ones in Nigeria Colleges of Education
“We have tabled 10 issues that can make education move forward but the federal government has turned a deaf ear to this. We are ready to work, but they have been delaying us from working and since the best approach they know is strike, we will continue to seat at home until they are ready to meet our demands”
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