NUT laments as teachers die of hunger in Kogi due to non-payment of salaries
Kogi State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teacher, NUT, has lamented
the death of hundreds of their members due to hunger and starvation over
non-payment of their salaries.
The state Chairman of NUT, Comrade Ayodele Thomas, told journalists in
Lokoja on Monday that, “teachers are being owed up to 15 to 25 months
salaries.”
According to him, “the situation has created some critical health challenges for some members.”
He added also that the state Governor, Yahaya Bello’s directive that
teachers’ salaries must be treated on First Line Charge, with not less
than 45 percent payment, “was surprising as local government
administrators have flagrantly refused to adhere to the directive.”
Instead, he said they are paying teachers between 20- 30 percent of their monthly salaries.
Thomas said that the Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy
Affairs swiftly set up a committee to implement the governor’s
directive but regretted that the local government chairmen, along with
local government treasurers and some top government officials, were
frustrating the effort.
He showed an October 5, 2017 letter from Kogi State Head of Service,
entitled: “Computerizing and centralizing of the payroll of the state,
local governments workforce and pensioners” where local government
administrators and other stakeholders were specifically directed to pay
teachers salaries as first line charge from the Joint Account Allocation
Committee.
Thomas reiterated that the local government bosses still refused to comply with the directive.
He said, “Efforts to meet with the governor, to let him know about the
latest development, has not been successful,” alleging that the
Secretary to the State Government, Folashade Arike, of not responding to
three different memos sent by the NUT to her on the issue.
The NUT Chairman pleaded with the state governor “to look into the
plights of teachers by directing the local government administrators to
comply with his directive.”
He said government officials should stop playing politics with teachers’ salaries.
The NUT boss further revealed that some children and wards of teachers
in the state can no longer go to school due to lack of payment of
salaries.
He also claimed that “while other categories of workers in the state
collect their minimum wage, primary school teachers have been denied
theirs.”
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/29974
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