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From John Adams, Minna
With barely two weeks after the organized labour in Niger state in conjunction with the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Niger state wing called off its three weeks strike action, there are indications that the Teachers Union may be embarking on another strike action to demand for the payment of some allowances to it members.
The state Chairman of NUT, Comrade Akayago Adamu Mohammed dropped the hints when he briefed newsmen in Minna on Friday to clear the air on why the union decided to called off the three months old strike last week, saying that the three months sit at home protest by Primary schools Teachers in the state, was mainly to address the percentage salaries payment by the government to primary schools Teachers in the state.
According to him, “we went for the sit-at-home strike majorly for the government to stop the percentage salaries payment which the government has complied”.
He said following agreement reach between the government and the Union, primary school will from this month (April) began to enjoy 100 Percent salaries, adding “this is one of the Major achievements of the sit-at-home Protest”
Comrade Akayago further disclosed that the union has also during the sit-at-home protest, agreed with the government to stop any form of deductions from Teachers salaries that are inconsistent with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
“It was also agreed that the government should immediately remove all names of death, retirees and ghost workers inserted in nominal rolls and biometric payment vouchers of respective LGAs”, he added.
He however hinted that the union has began another round of negotiations with the government on other numerous lingering problems with Teachers in the state which discussion is already in progress.
Some of these lingering problems, he stated further includes, promotion and annual increment, Teachers Salary Structure (TSS), the provision or outright refund of money to secondary schools Teachers whose salaries were deducted for the supply of ZPAD tablets to ease their teaching.
“We hope and pray that the government will listen to us and address these demands in other to forestall another industrial dispute, because we believed that strike action should be the last option in resolving issues as relate to welfare of workers”
Meanwhile the Chairman has disclosed the 7 Man Teachers data collection committee set up by the state government to verify the certificates of primary schools Teachers in the state has concluded it assignment and will submit it reports next week.
According to the Chairman, the Teachers Certificates Verification committee which has the state Secretary of the NUT, Comrade Garba Labaran as it Chairman, was set up by the state government to uncover both qualified and unqualified primary schools Teachers on it pay roll.
Although he refused to disclosed the findings of the committee, the chairman however said that about 28,000 primary schools Teachers are currently on the pay roll of the state government.
It could be recalled that the immediate past administration in the state had in 2011, uncovered about 6,000 unqualified primary schools Teachers across the 22,000 primary schools in the state after a similar exercise.
The Chairman pointed out that worried by the increasing numbers of these unqualified Teachers still existing in the system in the state, the government decided to revisit the exercises, using the union to undertake the Verification.
