TEACHERS of the 104 Federal Government Colleges and workers at the Federal
Ministry of Education, on Wednesday, insisted that the ongoing indefinite strike
embarked upon last week, will not be suspended until the N1.8 billion allowances
owed them are paid.
The leadership of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), which
declared the strike, last week, has further accused the two Ministers of Education,
Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and Nyesom Wike, of doing nothing to end the strike.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that effort by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief
Chukwuemeka Wogu, to resolve the impasse had proved abortive as the meeting held
at his instance, last week, was deadlocked.
It was gathered that Wogu had appealed to the leadership of ASCSN to suspend the
strike ,while concerted efforts were made to address the demands of the workers.
The indefinite strike had crippled all government activities at the Federal Ministry of
Education and the closed down of the 104 Unity Schools nationwide.
Some of the ministry officials, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, on Wednesday,
said the Ministry of Education currently lacks direction and focus and that President
Goodluck Jonathan, should as a matter of urgency, declare emergency in the sector to
salvage the rot in the system.
“For now, the two ministers have abandoned the ship of the ministry and you can see
that it is sinking. The Minister of State, you know for quite some time, has been in
Rivers than in Abuja, to oversee the affairs of the ministry.
“The luck they have is that we are sharing the building with the Ministry of Police
Affairs. Otherwise, what we intended doing was to lock them out. I can tell you that
we are all united in this struggle to see that Jonathan intervenes in this matter,” a
ministry official said.
Buttressing this, the Organising Secretary of the Association of Senior Civil Servants
of Nigeria, Musa Abbas, told theNigerian Tribune that there was no bending over
backward on the strike until the demands of the workers are addressed.
He said the workers had decided to embark on the indefinite strike when all avenues
of dialogue with management of the ministry had been exhausted without positive
result.
He added that the workers were aware that the sum of N1.8 billion was released by
the Federal Government to the ministry to settle all the outstanding salaries and
allowances of staff “but that is not to be”.
Abbas said: “All the staff are on strike, staff of the 104 Unity Schools, Federal
Inspectorate Offices and the headquarters, Federal Ministry of Education.
“Our grouse is that we want our entitlements paid to us. Since 2007, we have been
dialoguing with the management and they kept on promising. They collect money
from Federal Government and they will not pay the staff allowances. These are
promotion allowance, repatriation allowance, death benefits and so on.
“What they want to use the money for, is for their tours, because we are made to
understand that one of them is going to contest in an election and he is going to use
that money for his campaign expenses. That is why we have shut down the ministry
and until they do the needful, we won’t return back to work,” he said.
He revealed that “these allowances that have accumulated over the years include but
not limited to: outstanding promotion arrears for 2007-2010 and the balance of 2011;
arrears of salaries to some staff for July, August, September, and October 2013; end-
of-year incentives; non-payment of 1st 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation; 2010
mandatory training; repatriation allowance; duty tour allowance to affected officers,
etc.”
The Chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Federal Government Wing, Comrade
Emeka Okonta, told Nigerian Tribune on Wednesday in Abuja, that the Unity Schools
will continue to remain shut as long as the Federal Government fails to address the
grievances of the teachers and other federal workers in the Ministry.
He said he was among those that were owed their salaries between July and October
2013, when the Integrated Payroll System was introduced by the government and up
till now nothing has been done by the Ministry to pay off the arrears.
Okonta said: “Unity schools are on strike now because of the backlog of arrears of
promotion of the staff. It is not only unity schools but the staff of the Federal Ministry
of education, as you know, some of our members are at the ministry as none teaching
staff, so all us put together are on strike. Both the ministry headquarters, the schools;
the inspectorate and other agencies that has to do with the ministry of education are
closed basically, because of backlog of arrears.
“This is as far back as 2007 till date, I am also involved, so you can imagine how it is.
And something happened last year, the ministry introduced divide and rule strategy
whereby some people were paid their arrears around June, July and August while
most people were not paid and all efforts to get the government to approve the
payment has proved abortive. There are many other issues but these are the basics,”
he said.
Although, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn
Nwaobiala had dismissed claims by Senior Staff Association of Nigeria that the
Ministry received the sum of N1.8 billion from the Federal Government to settle debt
owed the staff.
But the workers have insisted that concrete efforts must be made to off-set the
outstanding arrears as a basis for ending the strike.
Okonta said: “I heard that they met with the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief
Chukwuemeka Wogu and government through the minister has been pleading that we
go back to classroom, but our members said we are not going back until that money
is paid or at least, when there is evidence that government has started doing
something concrete about the payments”.

Culled from Nigerian Tribune – www.tribune.com.ng/news/news-headlines/item/18127-n1-8-bn-arrears-unity-school-teachers-shun-fg-s-plea-on-strike

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