Chief Servant, stop deducting teachers’ pay!

As can be seen from the pay-slip, this teacher’s take home remuneration is N34, 000.  His colleagues receive over N50, 000 in Nasarawa State where the minimum wage has been put through.    Imo has done one better; it raised its minimum wage to N20, 000 instead of the N18, 000 stipulated by the Federal Government.What […]

As can be seen from the pay-slip, this teacher’s take home remuneration is N34, 000.  His colleagues receive over N50, 000 in Nasarawa State where the minimum wage has been put through.    Imo has done one better; it raised its minimum wage to N20, 000 instead of the N18, 000 stipulated by the Federal Government.
What worries teachers however, is not the meagre salary, they’ve learned to live with that.   The spot of bother is the fact that the little that they ‘gaveth’ is the little that they ‘taketh’.
Teachers have informed me that this is done regularly.  With this column is a pay-slip of August 2014 where two unexplained (other than their names) deductions were made.  One is called “Internet-Train”, for which they deducted N1800.  The other one is “EmirateEducationFund”.  What is Emirate Education Fund for which you contributed N1000?  I asked a teacher.  “I don’t know. We don’t know.  Nobody knows,” she said.  
One is reasonably certain that “Internet-Train” means internet training.  But has the training been done? No. It’s now more than two months since the teachers were charged for that training without their consent and without enjoying the training.
“The government is given to deducting our salaries without explanation,” one of the teachers told me, “and they continue to do this because nobody has come to our defence; this time, it’s hoped your intervention will stay their hands away from our money.”
I do realize that Talba’s regime is not without its good sides; because this column’s criticism is such that admits praise when a subject merits commendation.
By the near estimate of my memory, I can recall three things he did right.
First, in 2009 and a year after, he recruited university graduates, NCE holders and so forth and turned them into teachers – personnel the state direly needed.  In doing that, he drew no distinction between those from Niger state and those from other states – reasoning that we’re all Nigerians.  He sent some to the state university and many to secondary schools.  But before then, he subjected them to six months of intensive teachers training.  Many have since imputed rather unwholesome intentions to that initiative – especially in the national outlook of the recruitment, thinking he had some designs for the office of the president.  
Although I do not doubt the logic of such submission, I beg to differ with them for discounting such a well-executed project.
The second was the verification exercise he caused to be conducted in various sectors of the government.  The one that concerns this column, however, was done in the education sector where head teachers and administrators sat on tens of appointments.  They collected benefits due to those appointments, but kept the beneficiaries in the dark.  That verification exercise, forced the hands of these degenerate fools as they started inviting even those who least expected, to come and receive their offer letters.
Third, where his predecessor feigned helplessness, preferring to refer reported cases of infractions to Allah with his famous Allah ya isa, the Chief Servant asserts himself; he has what writers and teachers call presence. He leaves no doubt who is in charge.
 The last one has been counted among the good he does, because helplessness is not the mark of a leader who was elected to protect his people from pilfering.
Yet, we cannot, in good conscience, call these three as achievements worth celebrating.  They are normal duties beckoning on a governor’s sinecure.
In any case, many other actions have occurred to obscure the good ones.  At such moments, one is left to ask: What’s the point of this again?
For the Talba who deducts teachers’ salaries, is a pale imitation of the Talba who paid pensioners their entitlements in his first few months in office.  Those actions inspired big dreams and expectations from Nigerlites.  Those prospects have now fallen short of their aims.  
We were given to understand that beyond the rhetoric, this was a leader who put thoughts to words and those to actions.  Sure in the knowledge that a Ph.D. would a make a difference.  That governor had been several standard deviations above this one; so that we’re starting to get the sense that what we have now is what is as well as what was – the original.  
Overall, the Chief Servant has served no one – that name itself has turned epithet, the prevailing parlance is the Chief Serpent.
Since 1999, and as of this moment, we’ve been luckless in Niger; we’ve not had a governor who could be described as an experience worth repeating.  Yet, for this regime, it may be too late; because on its term, the day is yielding its hold and darkness is beginning to gather.
Other than these deductions, there are other surprising actions of the governor which merit further exploration; and God willing, they would be discussed here in the future.
To remove all doubt, for I know that Talba’s government is  in the club of the easily offended, following is the text I sent to the commissioner  of information – my former friend, Danladi Ndayebo, who had once threatened me with a defamation suit on behalf of the state.  I also know that they’re not beyond spinning their own versions of stories. So I called the reader to witness the message I sent:
 “Salam.  This is Dr. Ibraheem Dooba.  Your state government has been deducting teachers’ salaries without following through with the purposes for which the deductions are made.  This is the subject of my next column and tomorrow is my deadline.  Thus, you’ve until then to respond to this.”
He hasn’t replied.