From: Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri

Primary school teachers in Borno State have lamented the poor remuneration and incentives in the state, even as they threatened to abandon teaching if government fails to improve their wages.

Chairman, Borno State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Bulama Abiso, who led hundreds of teachers in the state on a peaceful demonstration, in Maiduguri, on Monday, said most teachers in Borno State were yet to benefit from the N18, 000 minimum wages in the state unlike their counterparts in other public sector.

“Here in Borno, teachers are poorly paid. Many teachers esepcailly in Biu, Chibok, Hawul and Askira Uba do not enjoy the N18, 000 minimum wages since it was approved by the state. From all indication, the local government administration cannot manage primary education and primary teachers. Teachers are being treated like pensioners because it is only pensioners that do not enjoy salary review or promotion. We only work and build people to become somebody but we ended up not having anything, even feeding our families well,” Abiso said at the NUT office in Maiduguri during the demonstration.

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He said many primary school teachers in Borno earn as low as N15, 000 and the most experienced ones with over two decade in teaching service earn between N45, 000 to N60, 000. He described the wages as unacceptable.

While presenting the demands of the national secretariat of NUT through a letter jointly signed by the union national president, Michael Olukoya and secretary, Mike Ene, Abiso said the union was not opposed to local government autonomy but was concerned about scrapping the state Joint Local Government Account.

He said teachers in most states of Nigeria were being owed salaries for months due to the inability of the local governments to provide the funds needed for the payment of salaries. He appealed to the state governments to take over the payment of teachers salaries from the local government administration. He also demanded that teachers’ salaries be paid through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).