The Federal Government has halted for two weeks the take-off of the implementation of the takeover of King’s College, Lagos, by its old boys association following a meeting with labour unions of the Federal Ministry of Education.
The agreement was reached on Wednesday night at a meeting between the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, and labour leaders led by the National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrade Bola Audu.
At the end of the meeting, both parties reached a five-point agreement which includes the immediate suspension of the industrial action embarked upon by workers of the ministry and an assurance that no staff would be victimised for participating in the industrial action.
A two-week suspension on the take-off of the implementation of the takeover of King’s College by the old students was also agreed on, the redeployment of policemen from the premises of King’s College, and the setting up of a seven-man negotiation committee to x-ray the Federal Government’s agreement on King’s College with the old students.
The minister had earlier on Wednesday addressed journalists on the controversy surrounding the proposed management arrangement involving the King’s College Old Boys Association, (KCOBA) where he assured that the arrangement would neither lead to an increase in school fees nor loss of jobs.
Alausa dismissed reports that the government intended to sell any of the Federal Unity Colleges or extend the King’s College arrangement to other colleges.
He said, “Let me be unequivocal, Federal Government is not selling any Unity College. Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, does not have the intention to sell any Unity College, and we will not sell any Unity College. That is the government position, and go and write it down and hold on to that, we are not selling the government institutions.”
He stressed that government had no plan to extend the arrangement to other Unity Colleges.
The minister said the proposed arrangement with KCOBA was intended to mobilise additional resources to rehabilitate and modernise King’s College while retaining government ownership, driven by the extensive deterioration of infrastructure at the school and the need to restore its historical standard.