Unpaid salaries take toll on Kogi teachers

Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau; Suleiman

Teachers in public primary and junior secondary schools in Kogi State are going through hard times owing to unpaid salaries, ARUKAINO UMUKORO writes

A teacher at Universal Basic Education Junior Secondary School in Okene Local Government Area, Kogi State, Mr. Ondeku Lateef, is not a happy man. He has not been paid his salary since November, 2014.

He said, “The last time teachers were paid was in October, 2014. We have been struggling to survive. We are dying out of hunger. I’m supposed to have gone for treatment for typhoid fever. Recently I went for a medical test which was conducted free. At the end I could not afford the N5,000 fee charged in the hospital. Now, I’m taking local herbs at home.”

Lateef added that his family of six now struggled to feed. “My wife is a trader. She sells textile. The problem is that her customers are teachers. Thus, she is being owed a lot of money. The teachers are not paid, so they can’t pay up their debts. And they are not buying new cloth too. My wife’s business is now grounded,” he complained.

Lateef is one of the 2,000 teachers in the state owned primary and junior secondary schools currently owed not fewer than three months’ pay.

In 2014, the teachers in Kogi State went on a lenghty strike over unpaid N18,000 national minimum wage. According to Lateef, teachers in the state only collect 60 per cent of the minimum wage.

An umbrella body for teachers, the Basic Education Staff Association of Nigeria, called for a stop to irregular payment of salaries to its members and asked for the full payment of the arrears of leave allowance owed teachers since 2011.

According to the chairman of the state chapter of BESAN, Mr. Adomu Suleiman, no fewer than 2,000 teachers are affected by the current situation of events. Already, nine teachers had died due to fall out of the strikes and its attending factors.

He said, “At times, it takes about four months for us to get paid a month’s salary. We have protested and gone on strike several times. We were teargased during the last demonstration which was in July last year. It’s a terrible thing coping with no salary. We are incurring debts every day. We could not celebrate the last Christmas and New Year festivals. In Okene LG alone, we lost nine teachers; several other teachers are on sick bed. Also, for the past four years, the state government has not given us our leave allowance which is 10 per cent of the annual salary.”

Suleiman said last year’s strike lasted for over six months. “Officially the state chapter of Nigeria Union of Teachers has not pronounced that the strike is over. Teachers are just going to school for the interest of the pupils and at their own convenience,” he said.

Lateef added: “Not all teachers in the 21 LGAs are paid the mere 60 per cent they are paying. Many primary school teachers in the state can’t say precisely how much they earn as salary. Reason: they have no choice but to accept whatever is posted into their bank accounts.”

Another teacher in UBE Roman Catholic Mission School, Omala Local Government Area, Kogi State, Mr. Mathias Sani, corroborated Lateef and the union leader. According to Sani, teachers in the state are suffering due to the non-payment of their salaries since last year.

He said, “The situation of teachers in Kogi State is a very pathetic one. Most of the teachers go looking for money to borrow, because of the delay in salaries payment. When the salaries are eventually paid, they use it to settle their debts. We couldn’t celebrate the Christmas because our November and December, 2014 salaries were not paid. Now, we can’t even pay our children’s school fees.

“Although some local government areas have paid their teachers November salaries, ours and about three other local government areas have not yet been paid.”

The effect of the teacher’s plight is, however, telling on the pupils and education generally in the state as the business of impacting knowledge is no longer given the deserved seriousness.

Suleiman said teachers were simply going to school at their own convenience. “You can’t owe someone three months’ pay and expect them to go to work. The state NUT chairman had said that although teachers were going to school, they were not expected to teach. that there are various forms of strike, what does he mean by that?” he said.

According to Sani, aside from their financial struggles, it is also difficult for the teachers to teach the pupils effectively on empty stomachs, adding that the state government had neglected public schools for too long.

Another teacher at Central Primary School, Okene, Mrs. Amina Fasache, echoed Sani’s views. She said, “The last Christmas period was not easy for us. I have six children and my husband is also a teacher. We borrowed money to survive. We are still managing through borrowing from here and there to survive. This has seriously affected our family finances. But, what can I do? Once I get my salary, I’ll first pay my debts. I don’t even know how to pay my children’s school fees when they resume. All public primary schools in Kogi state are affected by this.”

A teacher in a junior secondary school in the state, Mr. David Ohilo, has since taken to farming to survive.

He said, “My condition is even better because those teachers who do not have any other thing to do are simply living like slaves in the society. The state government keeps making promises without fulfilling it.”

Lateef also said teachers are simply going to school for the sake of the pupils.

“It’s the equivalent of a sit-at-home protest, but some teachers are going to school for the sake of the pupils. Most of the parents of the pupils are also teachers, so they are aware that the public schools are left for the less privileged. If our salaries are paid now, it would be because of the oncoming elections.

“Teachers were threatened with a no-work-no-pay policy or sack, so we all ran back to our duty posts. That was what put an end to the strike last year. We hope that something would be done, but the situation is getting worse,” Sani said.

Many teachers complained that they are still being owed salaries since November. “It depends on the local government area. Some primary school teachers have not been paid since October, November, others since December,” said a teaching staff, Mr. Joseph Ayorinde.

But the chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Mallam Nuhu Ahmed, told SUNDAY PUNCH on the telephone that the state government was doing its best to settle the teachers’ salary arrears.

Ahmed said efforts were being made to ensure that the primary school teachers in the state do not embark on another strike.

He said, “It’s not true that nothing has been done. Every teacher has been paid November salaries. The cause is not that of the management of SUBEB. They caused it themselves. Some of them (teachers) are supposed to have retired, but they overstayed. All what we owe is December salary, and from the allocations we have received in January, this will soon be addressed.

When contacted, the state NUT chairman, Mr. Suleiman Abdullahi, said he would call back our correspondent to address the issue. However, at the time of this report, he had yet to do so.

Ahmed noted that the union had reached an understanding with the government not to embark on another strike.

He said, “We have held meetings with the NUT and the teachers’ association and they have given their pledges of support to the government, and they have come to an understanding with the government. Both unions have pledged never to go on strike again. They are aware that the problem belongs to all of us, and they too are making efforts to help restore glory to primary education in the state.

“Every state, not only Kogi, has liquidity problems. But, the state government has taken it upon itself to do what it can do for the teachers so that our pupils at the grass roots will have education. The governor is so concerned about grass roots education and he’s doing everything to ensure that teachers are taken care of, and we are paying them.”