By Daniel Tyokua
Barely three days of schools resumption, the Federal Capital Territory wing of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and chairmen of the Six Area Councils are divided over the indefinite strike embarked upon by primary school teachers.
The chairman FCT state wing of NUT, Stephen Knabayi told The AUTHORITY in an interview that the union had tabled teachers’ demands to the Six Area Council chairmen for long, as well as informed the UBEB on its unresolved issues, but there was no positive response.
In a communique issued after an emergency executive meeting, jointly signed by the NUT state chairman Stephen Knabayi, state secretary, Margaret Jethro and the state Publicity Secretary Haruna Samson, the union listed nine demands to be met by UBEB and Area Council chairmen before teachers will return to class.
The issues raised by the union include non-implementation of 40% peculiar allowance and its arrears, non-payment of 25 months arrears of the 2019 new National minimum wage, non – release of some promotion letters to beneficiaries and non-implementation of the promotion.
Others are non-payment of promotion arrears, non -upgrading of concerned teachers, non – implementation of annual increments in some councils and non-compliance with the agreement on payments of the backlog of teachers entitlement among others.
The communique reads: ” Having explored and exhausted all available avenue of getting these outstanding demands of the concerned teachers met without the desired result including the non-commitment of the Councils to the welfare of primary school teachers”
But the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) said the demands of the striking primary school teachers in the FCT are not feasible, said the chairman of Abaji Area Council and National Chairman of ALGON.
The teachers claimed that they had earlier given the six Area councils’ chairmen a seven-day ultimatum to pay the 40 per cent peculiar and other allowances owed them.
They alleged that throughout the period of the ultimatum, the area council chairmen neither acknowledged receipt of the letters nor invited the union for dialogue nor attended to any of their concerns.
Abdullahi said: “I met with the NUT leadership twice. I met with the Chairman recently and asked him to arrange a meeting with his members of the Executives which I attended in their Head Office at Gwagwalada.
“I pleaded with them, and we are still pleading with them to reconsider their action. What they are requesting is not feasible,” he said.
The chairman stressed the need to join hands with the leadership of the NUT to approach the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike for help.
“He just resumed office. We appealed to them to give him at least three months to settle down so that we can approach him with their complaints, but they insisted they have to go on with the strike.
“So, we have no option than to wait for the minister to call on us so we can explain things to him,” Abdullahi said.
Reacting to the development , Director FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Hassan Sule, said that the board had not been officially communicated by the NUT that they would embark on an indefinite strike.
Sule, who described education as “fundamental” said: “I have not received any official communication from NUT that they are going to embark on strike.
“When I heard that the primary section did not resume on Monday, I had to call the Chairman of the ALGON and the NUT chairman.
“I think they have a little misunderstanding. Normally if there is going to be a strike, there must be grievances, and there must be communication.
“I cannot say it is a strike because they didn’t write to us that they are going to commence a strike. I have not seen any circular. It is just a communication between NUT and ALGON chairman.”
The director, however, said that he had met with the NUT leadership and the ALGON chairman over the issue and they assured him that the difference would be resolved.
He reiterated the board’s commitment to ensure that the issues were resolved, stressing, “keeping the children at home is more dangerous.”
