The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), says the demands of the striking Primary School teachers in the FCT are not feasible.
The National Chairman of the association and Chairman, of Abaji Area Council, FCT, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi stated this in an interview with Journalists in Abuja.
The FCT Wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in a communique issued on Wednesday had directed all Primary school teachers in the FCT to begin an indefinite strike from Thursday.
The strike action, according to the communique, followed the failure of the six Area Councils’ Chairmen to pay the teachers’ 40 % peculiar and other outstanding allowances.
The communique was jointly signed by Mr. Stephen Knabayi, Ms. Margaret Jethro, and Mr. Haruna Samson, Chairman, Secretary, and Publicity Secretary, respectively.
The teachers claimed that “they had given the six Area Councils’ Chairmen a seven-day ultimatum to pay the 40% peculiar and other allowances owed them.”
They alleged that throughout the period of the ultimatum, the Area Council Chairmen neither acknowledged receipt of the letters nor invited the union for dialogue nor attended to any of their concerns.
The concerns of the teachers include; non-payment of 25 months arrears of the 2019 approved national minimum wage, nonrelease of some promotion letters to beneficiaries, and non-implementation of released promotion letters.
Other issues are; nonpayment of promotion arrears, non-upgrading of concerned teachers, nonimplementation of salaries for upgraded teachers, and non-implementation of annual salary increments in some councils.
There is also the issue of non compliance with the agreement on payments of the backlog of teachers’ entitlement amongst others.
The teachers explained that “the strike was their last option having exhausted all available avenues to get their demands met.”
Reacting to the development, Abdullahi explained that teachers’ requests were not feasible, stressing that contrary to their claims, he had met the NUT leadership on Saturday and Sunday.
He said; “I met the NUT leadership twice. I met you the Chairman on Saturday evening and asked him to arrange a meeting with his members of the Executives which I attended in their Head Office at Gwagwalada.
“I pleaded with them, and we are still pleading with them to reconsider their action. What they are requesting is not feasible.”
The Chairman stressed the need to join hands with the leadership of the NUT to approach the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike for help.
“He just resumed office. We appealed to them to give him at least three months to settle down so that we could approach him with their complaints, but they insisted they had to go on with the strike.
“So, we have no option than to wait for the minister to call on us so we can explain things to him,” Abdullahi said.
When contacted on the matter, the Director, of FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Hassan Sule said that the board had not been officially communicated by the NUT that they would embark on an indefinite strike.
Sule, who described education as “fundamental” said: “I have not received any official communication from NUT that they are going to embark on strike.
“When I heard that the primary section did not resume on Monday, I had to call the Chairman of the ALGON and the NUT chairman.
“I think they have a little misunderstanding. Normally if there is going to be a strike, there must be grievances, and there must be communication.
“I cannot say it is a strike because they didn’t write to us that they are going to commence a strike. I have not seen any circulars. It is just a communication between NUT and ALGON chairman.”
The Director, however, said that he had met the NUT leadership and the ALGON Chairman over the issue and they assured him that the difference would be resolved.
He reiterated the board’s commitment to ensure that the issues were resolved, stressing, “keeping the children at home is more dangerous.”
Mercy Chukwudiebere
