Niger Assembly makes case for striking public primary school teachers

Niger State House of Assembly has directed the state government to revert to the state joint local government accounts in order to enable teachers of public primary schools to resume work.

Speaker of the House, Abdullahi Bawa Wuse, stated this recently while reading the resolutions under matter of urgent public importance brought before the house by Hon Abdulmalik Madaki, member representing Bosso Constituency during plenary.

The speaker said the house also resolved that the failure of the state government to comply with the directives would lead to the house not approving the 23 local governments budget.

Earlier, in his presentation, Madaki said the teachers have refused to resume work because they were being paid salaries on percentage by their council areas, as a result of the partial autonomy operated by the state government.

He explained that the state government neglected the provision of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended, which provides in Section 162 (6) and (8), stressing that there is nothing like partial autonomy and no state has the power to give autonomy without constitutional provision.

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The lawmaker lamented that the welfare of school teachers and other staff of local governments is not being catered for and as a result, the teachers have been on strike for months because they are not being paid their full salaries.

Madaki said the strike was affecting the academic learning of children, who had been at home for long and could lead to them engaging in social vices.

The lawmaker said the percentage payment had also affected other administrative staff of local government councils and had grounded activities at local government levels.

According to him, the state government has kept aside the law and was working with opinion, doing what they feel was favourable to them, adding that the money that comes into the account of local governments can pay full salaries for the affected staff and there will still be balance.

It would be recalled that teachers in public primary schools in the state on January 10, 2022, commenced a sit-at-home in compliance with the order of the state wing of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) over percentage salary payment.