Teachers at Kwara State Colleges of Education have stated that their well-being has greatly improved under Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and they are proud of their decision to support him in 2019.
The Joint Academic Staff Union in Tertiary Institutions (JASUTI) praised the administration for implementing the Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONPCASS), which had been pending for several years, during a ‘thank you’ visit to the Governor over the weekend.
“Your Excellency, you speak with authority. We are grateful for (your) approval of the CONPCASS for Academic Staff of the Colleges of Education Ilorin, Oro Lafiagi, and Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies (CAILS).” Bilikis Olasehinde, State Chairman of JASUTI said during the visit
“On behalf of the academic staff of Kwara State’s tertiary institutions under my leadership, we thank you sir.”
“Your Excellency, we have come to express our gratitude for everything you have done for us.” Sir, please allow me to take you down memory lane. When you came in as governor of Kwara, there were issues in the state’s tertiary institutions. We were on strike because of salary arrears. As soon as you arrived, we decided to call a halt to the strike and give the new government the benefit of the doubt. We thank God for that because within 24 hours of meeting His Excellency, you delivered on your promise. That is greatly appreciated.”
Olasehinde also praised the administration for restoring monthly subventions to institutions, claiming that as a result of the development, members of JASUTI now receive full salaries every month.
“On the subject of our subvention, His Excellency stated that we would be receiving our full salaries in the future, and that the era of percentages was over. This is a current reality. The subvention is distributed to all of our tertiary institutions as and when it is due” She stated.
“We also met with His Excellency about accreditation issues at our tertiary institutions. He promised us again and kept his word. That is greatly appreciated.”
During the visit, the JASUTI leadership was accompanied by State NLC Chairman Comrade Isa Ore, TUC Chairman Comrade Babatunde Joseph, Public Service Joint Negotiating Council Chairman Comrade Saliu Suleiman, and State Controller of Labour Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Alhaji Yusuf Raufu.
Dr. Afeez Abolore, Commissioner for Tertiary Education, and Comrade Abdulkareem Onagun, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Labour, were in attendance.
Governor AbdulRazaq, for his part, explained how his administration saved the state’s tertiary institutions from closure due to a lack of funding, claiming that the previous administration completely neglected the schools.
“The previous administration completely ignored the schools; they were not paying salaries, let alone fixing the infrastructure.” That didn’t matter to them. Kwara State College of Education (Technical) Lafiagi was the first institution I visited, and I was completely disappointed…. “Over the years, the state government has abandoned its responsibilities,” AbdulRazaq said.
“We are pleased to have met your expectations. While we are eager to do more, it is clear to all that we are emerging from a terrible era that no one should ever wish to repeat.
“The previous administration couldn’t even pay when the minimum wage was N18,000.” We have now increased the minimum wage to N30,000. We even made certain that your salaries were paid while you were making your demands.”
AbdulRazaq stated that his administration is committed to restoring Kwara’s lost glory in education through appropriate investments in infrastructure, employee welfare, and other support programs.
“Kwara State was established at the same time as Lagos and other states. Lagos now has three state universities as a result of their excellent management. They’re on an upward trajectory, while we’re sinking. We thank God and the people who made it possible for us to stop the rot. We’ve put a stop to it, and things are looking up. We will see to it that the right thing is done. We have also not raised the school fees since our arrival. We have frozen it, which means that despite inflationary trends, we are effectively giving students a discount.
We have also restored college subventions “He continued.
“Since we have put the issues of subvention and minimum wage behind us, our next step is to see how to upgrade facilities in our institutions. We’ll also look into how you will expand departments, schools and facilities. Bye and large, we should put hands together and do the right things to make our education robust and place it where it should be. Kwara used to lead education in the north before. We went down but we are on our way back up and In Shaa Allaah (God willing) we will get to the top again.”
Rafiu Ajakaye
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
September 4, 2022.