Benue NUT Frowns At Removal Of Allowances By Government

By Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

Nigeria Union of Teachers Benue State chapter has frowned at the removal of professional entitlements to teachers in the State by the present administration of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia.

Srate chairman of the Union Comrade Levi Akuma in a phone interview on Wednesday, decried the manner government has removed promotion, learning society and examination allowances which are the rights of teachers.

Comrade Akuma said the union vigorous fought for promotion of its members, maintaining that this has been a law in the service that a junior grade level staff should stay on that particular level for 2 years and the next year he/she will be promoted while for the senior grade level, it 3 years before another promotion.

“I do not know why people like to jump issues like that. Our complaint is that, we fought for our promotion. So, we have stayed upto 18 years without promotion. We continued to write circular to government and 2021 government gave us letter.

“In 2022, February, government, implemented the promotion. Then we discovered that we have 27.5 percent which the union also fought for. Teachers were demanding for a Teachers’ Service structure, TSS. We did not get that structure but llater Northern Governors agreed to give that percent. It was implemented in Benue in 2010 and we have been collecting that uptil today. It was just in the month of May and June,that we were recently paid.

“Then we discovered this on our payroll, they removed the promotion, learning society and examination. Then we complaine that it is not correct, we re entitled to this. These are professional allowances and they are not suppose to take it.

“We learnt that over 2500 teachers have been taken away from our payroll. Some on grounds that they are ghost workers and others in the aspect that they were due for retirement and did not retire. So we said let govenment give us circular to the five years so that those who didn’t fall within that, should go while those who are there, should remain. They have no power to force you to stay on the payroll. If your days are numbered in the service, you will go and give way for another person to come in.

“There was a time, the Attorney-General of the State wrote that they should stop retiring teachers based on the new edit of Federal government harmonizing teachers retirement age to 65 years. When that came, the State government did not domesticate it on time. It was in May last year, that it was domesticated and set the bill and gazetted. So, we are only waiting for the circular to that effect. And uptil now, the circular has not come and some teachers are saying that they have been retired.

“When this government came, there was a circular that government did not agree with the elongation but I do not believe they were referring to us but those on contract. So, we said no that government should reverse that decision because promotion is legal and we have taken it upto a year before this administration came in. It is not politics, we not playing politics here. We believe that the Governor may not be aware of this but when it comes to his table, he should solve it quickly.

On the salary issue, the NUT Chair said they are owed for 16 months by the immediate past administration of Samuel Ortom.

“The salary issue the months are many. Under the Ortom government , we were not paid from February to December 2017. In 2021, we were not paid in December.

In January 2023, 10 local governments were paid leaving 13 LGs in that month. Then from February to April, we were not paid. We have been paid May and June. So, approximately, we have not been paid for 16 months”, Comrade Levi fumed.