LG lacks capacity to cater for teachers ―NUT

Members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Oyo state chapter, on Thursday, staged a protest reiterating their objection to primary education being under the purview of the local government.

The NUT, which made this call against the backdrop of local government autonomy being part of the amendments to the constitution, argued that local government would still lack the capacity to cater for primary education, even if granted autonomy.

Led by its Chairman, Mr Samuel Akano and Secretary, Mr Waheed Olojede, on a protest march to the state Assembly, the union said the funding and management of primary education should be the sole responsibility of the state government.

According to Akano, the only alternative to the funding of primary education by state government was that the federal government ensures that payment of serving and retired teachers as first line charge, through States Universal Education Boards.

He argued that foisting such autonomy on local governments to solely continue to manage and fund primary education, in time past subjected teachers to a life of woes and penury, and destabilization of the education sector.

“Sometime ago, we were on the streets concerning local government autonomy and what we are saying is that we don’t want anything that will affect primary education and basic education in Nigeria again.

“We don’t want the payment of serving and retired primary school teachers to be included under the local government autonomy because we remember our not good experience in the past.

“We want the idea of first line charge to be implemented so that money will be deducted from local government and taken to the SUBEB to implement payment of salaries and pensions,” Alamo said.

Addressing the protesters, Speaker of the Oyo Assembly, Honourable Micheal Adeyemo said the Assembly, having received the amended constitution, would soon invite stakeholders for ratification on issues connected to local government autonomy.

“We owe teachers a duty, all of us here because without teachers, we cannot be here, we can’t have what we are doing today, we cannot have that education that qualify us to be your representative so we acknowledge the role, the sacrifice and all the efforts of teachers across the state.

“Also, we’ve received the amended constitution for our ratification and we’ve notified the good people of Oyo state on Tuesday. What we have before us is a question of yes or no, so all these requests, we cannot put it into what we have received, but whether yes or no, we have to listen to you.

“I want to appeal to you consistently, persistently, keep on telling us, and keep on telling the people concerned until they do that which is expected of them in a peaceful manner. We noted the sacrifice, the suffering of teachers in the past, if anybody here has said he doesn’t know that suffering, then we are not honest. There was the time of the zero allocation and the teachers happened to be at the receiving end, never will we go back to that period. We will continue to listen to you.

“We pray that God almighty will let those who love teachers emerge one day, and the teachers will be accorded their rightful place in this country,” Adeyemo said.

David Olagunju