Kwara teachers in the throes of salary arrears

Akanbi Sarafadeen is a primary school teacher in Kwara State. He is currently experiencing troubled times and incapable of discharging effectively, his financial obligations to his family. Reason: Sarafadeen, whose only source of income is teaching, was until recently, owed four months salary arrears by his employers, the Kwara State government. The recent payment of 90 per cent of one-month salary did little to ameliorate his family’s sufferings.

Also owed three months salary arrears (October 2015 to December 2015) by the government of the 49 year-old-state, is Mrs. Mary Adedeji, a widow, who teaches English language in a junior secondary school in the state.

Right now, Adedeji is regretting her decision to settle for teaching rather than broadcasting, which she was also in love with. Her inability to pay the tuition for her undergraduate son in a private university in the country evidently adds to her gloom.

These scenarios are just a reflection of the pathetic situations that striking primary and junior secondary school teachers in Kwara State have found themselves in. The thoroughly disenchanted teachers have therefore vowed not to suspend the strike action until all their emoluments and other conditions that precipitated the action are addressed.

The other laid down conditions include; a clear-cut modality for future payment of salaries without any default, and the urgent need for a biometric capture of members of the state’s chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), in order to block any existing conduit pipes.

Already, prominent traditional rulers in the state had “brokered” peace between the striking teachers and their Local Government Service Commission’s (LGSC) employer. But the result only led to the payment of 90 per cent of one-month salary arrears, and the teachers are insisting on the completion of the one-month salary payment before they would consider suspending the strike action.

But the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, Oba Abdulwahab, is urging the teachers not to lose sight of economic realities “of the moment,” and go back to work with the part payment already made, while giving the government time to frantically find solutions to the niggling issues.

He blamed dwindling Federal Government’s allocation to council areas as reason for their inability to offset teachers’ salaries arrears as payment of salaries of primary school teachers lies with the local government councils.

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Dr. Muideen Akorede, added that the state government, in its desperate bid to ameliorate the teachers’ sufferings, got a lifeline of N1.5b, on behalf of the councils, which the latter would defray when their allocations increase.

A teacher needs psychological balance in classroom to teach effectively. Primary school teachers handle pupils and children. Therefore, they need calmness and satisfaction on the job to teach well, otherwise there could be a transfer of aggression from their end to the children. He may even start behaving like a drunken driver

Commissioner for Education, Mr. Musa Yeketi, who also appealed to the teachers to return to their classrooms, said the government would “very soon” find a permanent solution to their problem, warning that the lengthy strike action was capable of widening the gulf between pupils in the state and their counterparts from other states.

All these appeals appear to be falling on deaf ears as the state NUT Chairman, Musa Abubakar, told The Guardian that his members will “this time around fight the fight to a logical conclusion.”

“The strike action came up because of an issue relating to three months outstanding salaries. The agitation for the payment had been on for many months without any serious response from the government. It all started immediately after the last general elections.  We don’t want any separation of responsibility between the local government areas and the state government. All we are after is the payment of our salaries.

“According to what the government told us, the development started due to dwindling allocations from the Federal Government to the LGAs. We had then thought the problem would be short-lived until it turned out to be a nightmare. We are of the opinion that if we allow it beyond this level it would bastardise the system of education in the state,” he stated.

The NUT boss, who said that the last time teachers in the state experienced something akin to this was in 1996 added, “We are not just after the payment of salaries, but we are jealously guiding the future of education in Kwara State. It is the only hope that a common man has and the leveller for both the rich and the poor. As it is today, we don’t have any moral justification to ask our members to go back to work.

“A teacher needs psychological balance in classroom to teach effectively. Primary school teachers handle pupils and children. Therefore, they need calmness and satisfaction on the job to teach well, otherwise there could be a transfer of aggression from their end to the children. He may even start behaving like a drunken driver.”

Abubakar, who thanked traditional rulers in the state for their mediatory role in the course of the impasse, however, stressed that they regrettably will not resume work until their salaries were paid.

“The intervention of the traditional rulers we believe, made the state government to, on behalf of the councils facilitate the N1.5b loan out of which 90 per cent of one month salary was paid to some teachers. We hope they would pay the balance of the 10 per cent soonest.

“We equally want the government to begin the biometric capture of all our members and others drawing salaries from the councils. But again, the big fear we are nursing now is that if this trend continues the way it is now, where salaries are cumbersome to pay, it means that our members will only be paid six months salaries throughout 2016. You can see that this development calls for collective action. Despite all the envisaged fears, once we see the government ready to address these problems, we will not also hesitate to call on our members to go back to work.”

Abubakar regretted that “none of my members got the one-month salary arrears paid because the borrowed money could not go round all other staff drawing salaries from the councils. The pensioners of the councils, SUBEB staff and even the traditional rulers with their rightful five per cent stipends and many others collect monthly entitlements from the councils.

“The financial obligations of the LGAs are too many thereby making them to be overloaded. Therefore, the Federal Government should either jerk up the allocations to them, or take our salaries away from them and give to a separate board to be paying.”

Meanwhile, secretary of the Council of Elders of the state’s chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdulraheem Adisa, has urged the striking teachers to suspend their strike in the interest of the sector.

According to Adisa “We are appealing to these teachers to kindly go back to work. We were privileged to attend a meeting where allocations from the Federal Government to the councils were disbursed transparently. We saw that the major problem was a drastic fall in their allocations. We witnessed the whole exercise. So we want the concerned teachers to show understanding of this and save our education sector.”

Chairman of the state’s chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Iyiola Oyedepo, is of the opinion that the APC-led government in has failed the workers.

According to him, “Virtually all sectors in the state are in ruins over non-payment of their salaries. The water corporation workers in the state are on strike, workers in all the 16 council areas are either on strike or observing one form of work to rule. It shows that the government on ground is not capable or competent to continue discharging its duties to the workers. We warned the workers against subjecting themselves to this type of inhuman treatment during the campaigns for the last general elections, but it appeared that our warning was not heeded. We identify with them though, they however, need to give another party a chance, especially the PDP to showcase what it can do when the opportunity comes their way.”

Presently, the state government is yet to constitute a new board for the Local Government Service Commission. But the immediate past chairman of the board Suleiman Maja, appealed to the teachers to return to work in the interest of the future of the students.

Maja added, “When we had the opportunity to serve under the commission, we never hid anything away from the teachers. In fact as soon as the allocations arrived, their representatives would be called upon to see and right there, we would all settle for a workable sharing formula without any crisis.