The Executive Chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mallam Nuhu Ahmed has assured that the new salary formula which had reached advanced stage, is targeted at ending the cycle of salary arrears owed teachers in the state.
He averred that the board is working round the clock to ensure that every genuine teaching and non-teaching staff in primary schools in the state, receive salaries and allowances as and when due.
The SUBEB boss made this known when he received in audience, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), State Wing Executive Council Members (SUWEC) during an unscheduled visit to his office in Lokoja, the state capital.
Mallam Ahmed debunked the rumour being peddled around bordering on slash in salary, table payment and refusal by SUBEB to pay November salary owed in five LGEAs as well as outstanding December salary to all teachers as act of mischief to paint the government in bad light.
According to the Chairman, “the new strategy being put in place by government is to wipe off the gruesome rising salary debt burden and ensure that every genuine staff is paid without exception commencing from January this year.”
“The teaching and non-teaching staff of primary schools of five LGEAs that are yet to receive November salary in addition to December salary will be paid their arrears gradually,” he said.
His words, “this is the first allocation I will receive since I assumed duty. It is intact in the LGEAs salary account in Zenith bank. If Allah help me, my desire is to ensure that no backlog arises from the payment of January salary to genuine teachers”.
Mallam Ahmed sympathise with the teachers and called on NUT and SUWEC to educate their members on the new trend, promising to that all things being equal, individual accounts would be credited as soon as possible.
The SUBEB boss assured that efforts would be made to clear the backlog of salaries, especially in Ajaokuta, Ofu, Okene, Omala and Olamaboro local government areas.
These, he said, were local government areas where teachers were yet to receive their November 2014 salaries, even as all the teachers in the state were being owed December salaries.
He urged teachers in the state to be patient with the government; as everything was being done to guarantee steady payment of their salaries.
Mallam Nuhu, who commended the leadership of the NUT for its understanding and cooperation, stressed that the state government was working very hard to make life better and more meaningful for its members.
“I am a teacher, a teacher trainer; teachers’ welfare is my priority. To say I sympathise with the teachers in their moment of trial is to say the least. All I ask from them is to be given the benefit of doubt to work out this formula,” he pleaded.
Earlier, speaking on behalf of SUWEC, Comrade Sulaiman Abdullahi Ndalaye said they were in the Executive Chairman’s office to clear the air on the rumour making the rounds.
He said “with the look of things and the evidence presented on the way forward, the NUT wholeheartedly backs the ingenuity of the Executive chairman to succeed in his mission,” adding that, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Culled from The Graphic
