The Sun News On-line

A last ditch effort by the government to avert the proposed strike by primary and secondary school teachers failed yesterday following the insistence of the teachers that government must back its promise of a separate teachers salary structure by a circular.

The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) met for several hours with government’s representatives at the ministry of education headquarters in Abuja to trash out their lingering differences over a Teachers Salary Scale (TSS) for embarking on a three-day warning strike beginning across the nation this morning.

Although Education Minister, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachuku, who spoke to journalists after the meeting had described the meeting as very fruitful, he said the parties did not arrive at any major conclusion, even as he hinted that the proposed strike may have been aborted.
But the NUT said there was no going back unless government issued a circular before midnight today approving the TSS.

Aja-Nwachuku said the NUT leadership was convinced of government’s sincere determination to approve a separate salary structure for its members and had promised to hold further consultation with their members before reverting back to government.

He said the Federal Government had proposed a 27.5 per cent enhanced allowances for teachers in the Federal Government Colleges based on their basic salaries, but noted that the central government lacked the power to compel states to follow suit since education is on concurrent list.
“We showed them evidence that we are working very hard to ensure we implement it at our own FGCs, but it is not our responsibility to negotiate salaries for states and local governments,” he said, adding that his team had pleaded with the teachers to step down their proposed strike.

However, NUT officials at the meeting told journalists that the only condition on which the union would rescind its decision is the issuance of an official government circular before tomorrow, a condition described by the minister as impossible.

Although the minister refused to state categorically that salaries of teachers in Federal Government employ would be withheld should they take part in the strike, he said government would insist on constitutional provision.

“Whatever the constitution says, that’s what we are going to implement in our schools. Government has enough political will to obey the law,” he said.
The Federal Government negotiation team was led by Aja-Nwachuku and included representatives of the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Federal Ministry of Labour and the Salaries and Wages Commission.