►Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Federal Government wing, FEDWING, Mr. Emeka Okonta, said yesterday that teachers in 104 unity colleges nationwide were on strike because of unpaid backlog of arrears of promotion of staff of the schools and Federal Ministry of Education.
►Okonta, who fielded questions from newsmen on the issue in Abuja, said the union was determined to continue the two weeks old strike until all the demands of the workers were met by the federal government.
►Okonta, who fielded questions from newsmen on the issue in Abuja, said the union was determined to continue the two weeks old strike until all the demands of the workers were met by the federal government.
He said: “Unity schools are on strike now because of the backlog of arrears of promotion of the staff, not only unity schools but the staff of the Federal Ministry of education.
“As you know, some of our members are at the ministry as none teaching staff, so all of us put together are on strike.
“That is why you see that both the ministry headquarters, the schools; the inspectorate and other agencies that have to do with the Ministry of Education are closed, basically because of backlog of arrears. This is from as far back as 2007.”
He also accused the Ministry of Education of adopting divide and rule policy in handling the affairs of the workers, stressing that while some workers were paid their arrears in June, July and August, others were not paid at all.
According to him, efforts to get government to pay those not paid were rebuffed by the federal government.
“Though the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, has been pleading that we go back to classroom, our members said we are not going back until that money is paid or at least, when there is evidence that government has started doing something concrete about the payments,” Okota said.
