GOVERNOR AMOSU MUST MEET THE DEMANDS OF TEACHERS AND STOP HARASSMENT OF
THEIR LEADERS
PRESS STATEMENT
The Socialist Party of Nigeria
(SPN), Ogun State Chapter, condemns in strong terms the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) led government in Ogun State, over its refusal to honor the
agreement the state government freely went into with the Ogun State Wing of
Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) on Monday 30th November, 2009, on
the implementation of Teachers Enhance Allowance, which is 27.5% of the salary.
This irresponsible action by the government has now led to an avoidable strike;
as the state chapter of the teachers union has been forced join their
counterparts in 17 states in an industrial action beginning from June 1st
2013.
This strike action has led to
closure of public schools in the state, which are attended by the poor working
people children whose parents cannot afford private school education. The top
government officials, whose failure to meet teachers’ demands has caused the
strike, however, send their wards to expensive private schools home or abroad
in most cases with looted public funds.
It would be recalled that the
National Executive Council (NEC) of the NUT, at a recent meeting held in Asaba,
Delta State , directed its State Wings whose governments have refused to honour
the 27.5% Teachers Enhance Allowance and in some cases the 18,000 Minimum wage
to teachers to commence a stay-at-home strike with effects from the 1st
of June 2013. The affected states are Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Edo, Benue, Cross
River, Abia, Nassarawa, Ebonyi , Zamfara, Plateau, Borno,Kogi, Niger,Sokoto and
Taraba states.
It is particularly shameful that the
state governments controlled by the ACN that claimed to be a progressive party
with much touted claims of workers friendliness and free education policies,
have shown no qualms about punishing teachers by denying them their right to
pay and conditions
Indeed, apart from refusing to
implement Teachers Enhance Allowance, the Ogun State ACN government has been
unrelenting in its attacks on teachers’ welfare conditions. The teachers, especially
the primary school teachers, have had to bear continuous late payment of
salary, whenever the government chooses to pay and the non-payment of 30%
Christmas Bonus, which was paid to their local government counterparts.
Other attacks suffered by
teachers in the state are non-payment of promotion arrears till date;
deliberate stagnation of teachers on same salary Grade Level in both primary
and secondary schools; delay in
harmonization of salaries of teachers in both primary and secondary schools to
correct obvious lopsidedness in promotion prospects; and withholding of
deductions from teachers salary meant for cooperative and other schemes planned
towards retirement.
All attempts by the State Wing Executive
Council (SWEC) of NUT to reach amicable resolutions with the government on the
issues raised were arrogantly rebuffed. This prompted SWEC to resolve at a
meeting held on Wednesday 8th May, 2013, to join the strike as
directed by the national leadership. It
is worthy of note, that state government rather than address the issues that
led to the strike in the first place, has now resorted to threats, false
propaganda and outright intimidation calculated to force the teachers back to
classrooms.
We of the Socialist Party of Nigeria
(SPN) Ogun State Chapter call on Governor Ibikunle Amosu to stop intimidation
and harassment of SWEC members forthwith, and rather commence immediately the
payment of 27.5% Teachers Enhance Allowance to teachers in the state, while
opening up channels of communication with SWEC as to how and when other
demands will be met.
We call on the teachers union not
to limit the strike to a mere stay-at-home action. They should organise mass
activities like rallies, public meetings and mass circulation of leaflets to
sensitize the public on their demands and mobilize mass support for the strike.
We also call on Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other trade unions as well as
pro-masses organizations to support the teachers with various solidarity
actions.
This utter insensibility to the
plights of workers by various state governments across the federation,
regardless of party afflictions, has again underscored the fact that as long as
these money-bag capitalist politicians and their parties remain in power, with
their anti-poor policies and conduct, this current rot and crisis in the system
would continue. For a complete break, we call on workers and youths to join and
build the SPN as a formidable working people alternative to wrest power from
corrupt and anti-poor capitalist elements in order to guarantee adequate
deployment of the resources of the society for the benefit of working people
and the poor as well as socio-economic development of the society.
Eko John Nicholas
Protem State Secretary
Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN)
Ogun State Chapter
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