By Gloria Emmanuel The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has threatened to embark on what it described as the ‘mother of all strikes’ should the Federal government succeeds in its plan of scrapping the State Joint Local Government Account in the proposed constitutional amendment.
Speaking at a media briefing organised specifically to inform Nigerians about the decision of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the NUT on the proposed amendment of the 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as it affects the Local Government Autonomy and the scrapping of the State Joint Local Government Account, the teachers said the proposed amendment is not in the interest of education in Nigeria.
The union insisted that the status quo should remain, observing that “No matter the amount of money provided to the Local Governments, they can never effectively take care of primary school teachers”.
The teachers also called on the Members of the State Houses of Assembly to use all their legitimate and diplomatic powers to ensure the maintenance of the status quo as a way out of future gloom and bleak of education of the Nigerian child.
The NUT National President, Micheal Olukoya who briefed the media on behalf of the nation’s teachers maintained that the planned abolition of State Joint Local Government Accounts would be a disaster to the Federal and States administration in so far as implementation of education is concerned adding that, urgent action should be taken to address the imminent effect of such abolition.
NUT while insisting that Local Governments can never manage primary education properly, also recalled that the Supreme court as its 2002 judgement declared that “In so far as primary education is concerned, a Local Government Council only participates with the State Government in its provision and maintenance. The function obviously remains with the State government”.
Speaking on the premise of the above, the union strongly demand that the State Joint Local Government Account be maintained.
In their words, “But where the Joint Account must be scrapped then the responsibility for the payment of salaries of primary school teachers should be transferred to the state government in conformity with the supreme court judgement.
“In line with this call, we propose that State’s allocation from the Federation Account be reviewed upwards in favour of the states, since it is obvious that local governments enjoyed the current boost in their allocation due to responsibility imposed on them for primary school teachers”.
The teachers feared that, if the joint account is scrapped, it will result to non-payment of salaries of the primary school teachers nationwide, non-remittance of 7.5percent counterpart contributions from local government councils to the pension funds of primary school teachers nationwide and it will finally lead total collapse of the primary education in Nigeria consequent upon uncontrollable industrial actions that will ensue thereafter in all local government councils”.
Olukoya recalled the sad memory of the near total collapse of Primary Education between 1990 and 1994 when primary education came under the control of the Local Governments noting that “Even at the time the local governments allocation from the federation account was increased from 15 percent to 20 percent to ensure that local councils comfortably assist the state governments in the payment of the salaries of the primary school teachers.
“Unfortunately, primary education was never in the priority list of the Local Government Councils as virtually all of them restored to owing the teachers their salaries for upwards of 6-12 months continuously.
“Expectedly, the situation attracted incessant strikes from the deprived teachers which heralded a near total collapse of primary education in Nigeria. The after effect of that near collapse is still hunting the entire education sector of Nigeria till date.
“The period was also the era when all the Local Government Councils failed to contribute its mandatory 15 percent of the teachers emolument to the pension fund meant for the payment of pensions and gratuities of primary school teachers”, he noted.
Olukoya regretted that, “All primary school teachers who retired during that period and even soon after were not paid their pensions and gratuities. Both salaries of the teachers and the pension funds were diverted to other areas of choice of the councils thereby leaving the teachers to wallow in penury and pains for years, resulting in the death of several teachers and retirees”.
Prompt News recalls that in an effort to address the anomaly then, the Federal government set up the National Primary Education Commission (NPEC) now Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and deducted the salaries of the teachers as first line charge from the Federation Account and paid the teachers through the commission.
The NUT scribe noted that, “It is therefore worrisome that when the Federal and State Governments are focusing on how to fix the entire education system in Nigeria and reverse the mass exodus of Nigerian students to other countries, the progress is once again about to be thwarted and reversed back to the dark era with the recent proposed scrapping of the State Joint Local Government Accounts as contained in the Bill for an Act to further alter the provisions of the 1999 constitution of the country.
The union therefore vowed that it will not compromise on scrapping of the State Joint Local Government Account if the responsibility for payment of salaries of primary school teachers is not transferred to the state government.
“We wish to reiterate the position of NUT that never again shall the primary school teachers in Nigera be returned to bondage, suffering, penury; deprivation and subjugation through the unpatriotic and inhuman control of their salaries by the local government operatives”.
