*Chairmen, education scribes war over recruitment
*FCTA absolves self of blame
By Sarah NEGEDU
The incessant strike action by Local Education Authority, LEA, teachers in the Federal Capital Territory may be fueled by the political friction among party heavyweights in some area councils.
For instance, the employment of LEA teachers in Bwari area council by the Council’s Education Secretary, Solomon Dagami, is said to be largely responsible for the non- payment of teachers’ salaries in the area council.
Sources in Bwari Area Council claim that the chairman, Hon John Gabaya, and the education secretary, are at loggerhead over the last recruitment of teachers, which the chairman claim was done without his knowledge.
Education secretary, Dagami, who is believed to be sympathetic to the ruling All Progressives Congress, had in late 2020, recruited about 600 LEA teachers into the employ of the secretariat.
The decision, however, did not go down well with the chairman, Gabaya, who belongs to the Peoples’ Democratic Party.
The cold war between the two, has led to the non-release of the teachers’ salaries in the council, as Gabaya claims not to be aware of the recruitment process or given the teachers any employment letter.
Pupils in public primary schools across the FCT were turned back home on Wednesday, January 26, as LEA teachers resumed their strike action following the failure of area council chairmen to pay their promotion arrears and minimum wage differentials in some cases.
Recall that the FCT teachers had embarked on a five-day warning strike on November 18, 2021 accusing the area council chairmen of ignoring their demands. The strike was however suspended on December 1, 2021.
Executive chairman of the Federal Capital Territory Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Alhassan Sule, at a recent media briefing absolved the FCT administration off any blame as he insisted that strike is mostly due to the friction between the LEA secretaries and their chairmen.
Sule pointed that area council chairmen should rather be blamed for the primary schools’ teachers strike, as the administration isn’t owing FCT teachers’ salaries to make them embark on indefinite strike.
In his words, “We have paid all promotion arrears as far as FCT education is concerned. But that of local government has to do with friction between the LEA secretaries and their chairmen when it has to do with the employment of teachers.”
He said the board was surprised to receive a letter from the NUT secretariat directing the teachers to embark on an indefinite strike from Wednesday, January 26 to press home their demands for salary and promotion arrears.
The UBEB chairman insisted that the FCT administration has paid every teacher under its payroll up to the December and would be paying that of January any moment.
“I could remember that in December, NUT and the local governments had an agreement to suspend their strike based on the agreement that they are going to have a roundtable to discuss the template on how they are going to implement the arrears.
“I believe that what the area council did by not inviting the NUT to a roundtable is one of the reasons that they decided to go back to strike.
“They are not talking of the arrears now, but that they should come together and get a workable template on how they are going to decrease all the outstanding arrears dating back to 2015, 2016 till date in the local government areas,” he said.
Clarifying the issue, the FCT NUT chairman, Comrade Stephen Knabayi, said the union decided to resume the strike action due to lack of commitment by the six area councils over agreement with the union to come up with a workable template for payment of LEA primary school teachers’ arrears in the FCT.
He, however, noted that as far as the union was concerned, the payment of teachers’ salaries in FCT schools have been prompt and regular, in accordance to monthly disbursement by the Joint Account Allocation Committee, JAAC, meeting.
“We have been part of the meeting and members of JAAC where allocations come from the federation account and shared accordingly, where the issue of teachers’ salaries is made a frontline charge. Also, there is never a time when salaries are held by the six area councils.
“But presently, we have directed that schools should be shut down in the six area councils with effect from today Wednesday. That has to do with the outstanding arrears and the none payment of the arrears of the new national minimum wage, and some months of annual increment in some LEAs,” he said.
