By Abdul Aji.
The Kogi State Wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, has joined their counterparts all over the country protesting the handing over of their salaries and allowances to Local Government councils as the local councils seek autonomy at the National Assembly.
NUT officials from all the LGAs in the state gathered at the state secretariat of the union on Tuesday carrying banners and placards, part of which reads: “Kogi NUT says No! to funding of primary education by local government councils, they have no capacity to pay primary school teachers,” “Save Primary education from imminent collapse,” “we say No to the dark era of nonpayment of salaries”, among others
Addressing the press during the protest match, the state chairman of the union, Comrade Suleiman Abdullahi said the NUT is not against the granting of autonomy to local governments; their grudge is that their salaries and allowances should not be handed over to the LGs.
He said the national headquarters of the union has taken the matter before the National Assembly to either handover basic education teachers’ emolument to Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, at Abuja or to state governments, as experience has proved that local councils would not pay teachers.
The NUT chairman refers the National Assembly to a Supreme Court ruling contained in the Nigerian Law Reports of 6thMay 2002 that says administering of UBE is the responsibility of state governments and local councils only come in as a participant in the implementation of basic education, and should therefore not handle teachers’ emolument.
He said teachers have emolument crisis all over the country and Kogi State is worst for it, pointing out that since the governor granted a waiver to LGs in Kogi state to pay teachers, many LGs never paid and those who pay have been paying below 40% since January 2016; therefore granting autonomy to LGs with teachers emolument amounts to “final funeral rite for Basic Education in Kogi State.”
