Nasarawa teachers reject incomplete salary, down tools

The chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) Nasarawa State chapter, Francis Jatau, explains why the union embarked on strike.   Your members recently paralyzed learning activities in public schools by embarking on strike. Why? We carried out a peaceful rally and later embarked on strike for a number of reasons.  Since January 2015, teachers’ […]

The chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) Nasarawa State chapter, Francis Jatau, explains why the union embarked on strike.
 
Your members recently paralyzed learning activities in public schools by embarking on strike. Why?
We carried out a peaceful rally and later embarked on strike for a number of reasons.  Since January 2015, teachers’ salaries have not been paid in full and no teacher can predict the amount he will receive in subsequent months.
We decided to take this action because whenever we table our complaints to the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, they kept making promises to increase the percentage but to no avail.
Our salaries are paid by the LGA’s and that was why we held our protests in all the LGA secretariats.
We observed with dismay that Nasarawa is the only state that pays incomplete salaries and there is no agreement on refunding the balance. If we continue to be quiet, one day they will deny us our salaries.
If they said we agreed and signed under organized labour on the issue of payment in percentage, they are not telling the truth. We only signed an agreement that whenever the subvention of the month comes and it cannot pay full salary, they should keep it; that is the only agreement we know and signed. Nobody asked them to pay teachers’ salaries in percentage. Some mischief makers are now saying that we agreed on percentage payment but none of us, not a single teacher or the NUT, agreed on that.  We said that even if it takes up to four months to make up one month full salary, they should do so. With that, we’d know how many months they owe, just like other states, as owing salary is not peculiar to one state.
Is it a good idea to keep teachers’ salaries for three to four months? How can the teachers work without salaries for four months?
It is a very good idea because teachers in other states have not been paid for six to seven months. The teachers in Nasarawa State are 100% ready to endure the situation. This is not my decision; it is the decision of the teachers that they was ready to wait for months as long as they receive their full salaries. We have our congresses in our various branches and they give us feedbacks.
Another bone of contention is the issue of returning the payment of teacher’s salaries to State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). The UBE law says primary education should be controlled by SUBEB.
 There is an allegation that SUBEB and NUT connived and deducted teacher’s salaries?
I am not a politician, I can swear to the Almighty God that since my assumption as chairman, I have never connived with anyone, SUBEB or any institution to cheat or deduct teacher’s salaries.  What the NUT is trying to do is to ensure the restoration of due process and the rule of law. The law is that in all the 36 states, primary education is controlled by the SUBEB. My appointment letter was signed by the SUBEB. The SUBEB has all the details of teachers in primary schools.
They seized the payment of teachers’ salaries from SUBEB and gave the ministry on the pretext that salaries of people who left service and those that died were still being released by SUBEB. Let me ask this question: since they took over from SUBEB, has the salary figure changed? It is still the same. Do they employ? So, what have they been doing with the money they accused SUBEB of embezzling?
Our demand is for the right thing to be done. Everything should go back to SUBEB, even this issue of percentage. They should send the money to the right body; it is the duty of the SUBEB to tell teachers the amount of money available. The SUBEB can cry to the state and federal governments and not the LGA chairman.
 ALGON is saying NUT was a signatory to the agreement on payment of salary in percentages?
No, NUT was not a signatory to the issue of percentage. Let the letter be made public.  The issue was brought up when the governor summoned a meeting following a media publication that teachers were being paid in percentage. The governor asked the LG chairmen if the NUT signed an agreement on payment in percentage and the chairmen rightly said no.
It was the Trade Union that agreed on percentage because they have other means of livelihood unlike teachers. We insisted that they should keep our money for three or four months in order to get one month salary complete.
Right now, we are in a dilemma. For instance, I am on Grade Level 14, and last time I got N26, 000 as salary while some of my colleagues received less than that in some LGAs. We can no longer survive with the ongoing arrangement. We don’t have means of generating money because they said education is free in Nasarawa, but they also failed to provide chalk and registers in the schools.
Our only hope of survival as teachers is through salaries, and if that salary is not forthcoming, nobody should tell the teacher to endure. Instead of the LG administrators working out ways to settle the problem, some of them are busy worsening the situation.
 Going by the economic crisis, don’t you think this incomplete payment would go on for a while?
There are many ways to solve the problem. One, we have suggested keeping the money in banks for some months till one month full salary is complete; Two, we suggested splitting the subvention that comes according to the departments, that is by either paying health this month and the other departments the following month. One thing that is worrisome is that the percentage varies. We consider this strike action an opportunity to dialogue with the government.
Both the state government and ALGON need to appreciate the NUT for providing class registers. We can go on strike for many reasons in Nasarawa. The government has failed to supply registers, chalk and teachers’ guide. We are aware of the economic crisis in the country, which is why we have not considered the issue of promotion since 2011.