.Govt plans staff audit as APC begs NUT

KWARA State primary school teachers have vowed to sustain the ongoing strike until the payment of their three-month salaries arrears.

However, Dr. Femi Akorede the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, yesterday urged the workers to halt the action as the state "that is not responsible for their payment was trying its best possible to come to the aid of the existing 16 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state with the payment."

Already, the state government's allocation said to be trapped in the bank if accessed could help in offsetting some of the salaries' debts.

According to the First Vice Chairman of Kwara State chapter of Nigeria Union of Teachers, (NUT), Mr. Olu Adewara, "by God's grace, we have been patient enough with our employers, so we have resolved to continue with the strike until all the debts owed us are paid.

"Some of our members have become paupers and the state government should stop telling us that it is not their responsibilities, but that of the LGAs to pay salaries of primary school teachers. We understand that there is a synergy between the state and the councils. We are simply awaiting the salaries because, it is unfair to work without remuneration."

Apparently in response to the labour unrest, the state government yesterday said in Ilorin that it plans to carry out personnel and overhead audit as part of strategies to check the delay in the payment of workers' salaries in the state.

This is part of the communiqué issued after the meeting attended by the Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, local government chairmen and labour leaders on the salaries' arrears to local government staff and teachers. The Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in the state, Abdulateef Okandeji, who read the communiqué said the meeting also resolved that ALGON and other stakeholders would work out modalities on "how future allocations would be disbursed while prioritizing payment of salaries of staff henceforth."

Again, the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), in Kwara State yesterday appealed to the leadership of NUT in the state to suspend the strike.

According to the APC's State Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, yesterday in Ilorin, the party said "the contending issue is not really about non-payment of teachers' salaries but non-availability of funds to pay salaries, which requires collective efforts to address rather than strike action.

"As a party, we wish to state that we and share in the pains of primary school teachers in Kwara State. Quite unfortunate, this issue is chiefly caused by the dwindling allocation from the federation account.

"Therefore, in actual sense, it is not about non-payment of teachers' salaries but non-availability of funds to pay salaries. It requires collective efforts to address rather than the strike. If the resources are available today, the Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed-led Kwara State Government will pay all teachers like it has always done in the past 5 years.

"Given the cordial relationship between Kwara State Government and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) with mention to the fact that the union, not too long ago, acknowledged the outstanding performance of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed in the sector with its national merit award. We wish to say the record of the state government is clear.

"Since it is about non-availability of resources, the planned industrial action would be counterproductive and it lacks the capacity to solve the contending issues.