The Federal Ministry of Education and labour unions within the ministry have reached a five-point agreement to end the industrial action that has crippled operations at the ministry’s headquarters, following a crucial meeting between the Education Minister and union leaders.
Under the agreement, the unions have agreed to an immediate suspension of the strike, with the Federal Government guaranteeing that no staff member would be victimised for participating in the action.
The deal also secured the withdrawal of policemen deployed to King’s College, Lagos, whose presence on the premises had become a flashpoint in the protests.
Crucially, the government has agreed to a two-week pause on the take-off of the proposed takeover of King’s College by the King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) , the arrangement at the heart of the dispute.
A seven-man negotiation committee is to be set up within that window to scrutinise the terms of the Federal Government’s agreement with KCOBA.
The breakthrough follows weeks of tension over the proposed management arrangement, under which KCOBA was to inject fresh funding into the historic Lagos school in exchange for a role in running it, while the government retained ownership.
Recall that the Education Minister, Dr Tunji Alausa, had defended the deal as a response to years of infrastructure decay at the college, insisting it would not lead to a fee increase or job losses, and that it was not a template for concessioning any of the country’s 115 Federal Unity Colleges.
Unions, however, had pushed back over the terms of the arrangement, the presence of police on the school premises, and the redeployment of affected staff, escalating into strike action that shut down the ministry’s headquarters.
The five-point agreement now sets a two-week clock for both sides to thrash out a revised path forward, with the incoming committee expected to determine whether and how the King’s College arrangement proceeds.
