He was asked to pay but up till date, nothing has happened. I want to remind us, those of us who are watching, put yourselves in the place of these teachers, who have been displaced from their homes because they cannot afford rent. Put yourselves in the place of these teachers who cannot afford medical bills. If you look here, you see the pictures of the ones that have died. Over 25 teachers are dead, displaced, their children, you can see one of them is here. That child is supposed to be in school. No money to pay school fees: “This is the Rivers State you said you love. We are in pains, we are in pains. Tax payers’ money was sent to Sokoto- N500-million. We are in pains. We are not happy, we are sad. Remember one thing, Your Excellency, your children will grow up to hear these stories. His Excellency, your children will grow up and meet with the children of the oppressed, they will meet with the children of the oppressed what will your children say when it is will be mentioned that their father kept them in this condition. This act alone is enough to push these people to hating the society”.
You can call it the lamentations of Golden Spiff, but you know, he is speaking not just for himself alone. Golden Spiff is the Chairman of the Parent Teachers Association (PTA), of the International Secondary Schools, ISS, run by the Rivers State University and was lamenting for 255 teachers of Demonstration Schools of the Rivers State owned tertiary institutions.
The affected schools are Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Demonstration Secondary School, Ndele; Rivers State University International Secondary and Staff School, Port Harcourt, and Ken-Saro Wiwa Polytechnic Comprehensive Secondary School, Bori. Their names were immediately expunged from the State Government Salary vouchers on the orders of Governor Nyelsom Wike.
Last Tuesday, the teachers had to carry out a peaceful protest to demand the payment of their 5-year arrears of salaries owed them by the Rivers State Government, who they claimed, is their employer.
They took their lamentations to the State House of Assembly Complex from where they marched to the Government House, where they submitted copies of the judgment of two court cases to their favour ordering for their payment by the state government.
The aggrieved teachers displayed banners with photos of 10 of their colleagues who died within the Five years of unpaid salaries.
They also had others with inscriptions; “Five years No Salaries”, “Pay our Parents”, “Wike we are more than Flyovers”, etc.
Lamenting their fate, Spiff stated: “We filed a case at the National Industrial Court, the court gave their judgment, he appealed, the appealed failed. He was asked to pay but up till date, nothing has happened.”
He explained that the government action against the teachers was capable of causing disaffection.
They called on the lawmakers to prevail on Governor Nyeson Wike and the state government to obey court orders and pay their salaries because their families had been subjected to hardship and scavenging to survive. They said many of their members are dying and many are hungry and sick and need urgent medical attention.
It was not clear if the governor or any high ranking official of the state government granted audience to them as they were still busy with over a week-long commissioning of projects.
The woes of the affected teachers started on February 18, 2016, when the state governor, Nyesom Wike, ordered their salaries to be expunged from the payroll.
Wike had argued then that since the schools charge parents school fees, the management of such schools should be responsible for the salaries and allowances of their teachers and should not depend on the state government for payment of salaries.
The teachers took the matter to the National Industrial Court in Port in 2016 and in June 2018 got a judgement, compelling the state government to pay the teachers.
The government appealed the case and recently against the confidence of Governor Wike that he would not lose was defeated by the teachers again when the appeal was struck out for lack of merit but the governor would yet not pay the teachers.
The teachers lamented the challenges they had faced for the past five years without the payment of their salaries. They said that 25 of their members had died out of different challenges that could have been resolved if the teachers were being paid.
At the Tuesday’s protest, they came with placards, showing pictures of such members. And in an interview on Thursday with our correspondent on the telephone, Golden Spiff said that another member, one Mrs. Nemi, died on Wednesday, partly of heart break over the non-payment and lack of funds to secure medical attention.
Spiff also said that one other member popularly called Odeyemi, was currently admitted in the hospital and has gone blind also because of lack of funds arising from the refusal of the governor to pay them.
The insistence of the state government not to comply with the court judgements forced the teachers to address a joint press conference in conjunction with the Rivers State Civil Society Organisations, (Rivsco).
The affected teachers had earlier threatened that if the Government failed to pay them within 14 days, they would stage peaceful protests and occupy the Government House urging the government to obey court orders as an administration that preached obedience of the rule of law as they had won all litigations concerning the matter from National Industrial Court and Appeal Court.
The Chairman of the Rivers Civil Society Organizations, Enefaa Georgewill, said the organization was calling on the state government to pay up their five years salaries owed by the state government.
He threatened that the organization would join the affected teachers to protest if their salaries were not paid.
They claimed that since Wike’s order in February 2016, their respective institutions had refused to pay their salaries which had resulted in unnecessary hardship for themselves and their families.
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