World teachers day: ‘We have no reason to celebrate’ ― Kogi teachers

The people said the celebration had again been affected for the third year running due to non-payment of salaries by the state government.

According to the state chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Ranti Ojo, the condition of teachers in the state was regrettable as they had nothing to show for their contributions to the development of the society.

He said as, on October 5, which is the day set aside for the celebration, teachers in the state were yet to receive their June salary and 40 per cent of August to December 2017.

He said the theme of this year celebration  “The Right to Education Means the Right to Qualified Teachers’, implied that dozens of the state are entitled to education and that entitlement could only be guaranteed by the availability of qualified teachers.

He said, “We are grateful to God for keeping us alive in spite of the physical and psychological trauma to which we have been and are still being subjected to as public servants in Kogi State.

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“We in the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Kogi state. note with heavy hearts and deep grief that this year marks the third year in succession that we are commemorating the World Teachers’ Day in Kogi state with our spirit dampened. This is as a result of nonpayment of salaries for an unthinkable number of months. and the subjection of our members to a series of traumatic experiences as a result of the removal of their names from payroll for a flimsy reason or no reasons at all. This is how gloomy it has been with us as teachers in Kogi state since January 2016.

“On this occasion of the World Teachers’ Day, however, we wish to bring the attention of the world to the fact that as teachers in Kogi State, we have been denied basic means of livelihood. we have been compelled to work under conditions that are subhuman, our humanity has been trampled upon and we have been made beggars even in our nobility as teachers.

“As we speak today, 5th October, the government is yet to pay the salary for the month of June 2018, that is to say, that four months’ salary is outstanding. In addition, 40 per cent of the salary of the months of August to December 2017 totalling 200 per cent or two months’ salary is also outstanding against the government. The above is different from other various and varied categories of salary indebtedness to tutors and other public servants in the state ranging from three to 17 months depending on the period one is delisted or reenlisted into the payroll.”