3rd June, 2013
Public schools in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria, were shut Monday as teachers began indefinite strike action to press home their demand for the implementation of their new minimum wage and peculiar allowance, also known as Teachers Salary Structure (TSS), in the state.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, after its congress in Abuja last week, directed 11 states including Ogun State to embark on an indefinite strike from 1 June until their state governments look into their plight.
The National Executive Council of the union had earlier reached an agreement that its members in 11 states of the federation where the teachers’ peculiar allowance of 27.5 percent and N18,000 minimum wage were yet to be implemented should boycott duties.
Other affected states are Ebonyi, Ekiti, Ogun, Cross River, Edo, Kogi, Niger, Benue, Zamfara, Sokoto and Borno.
On 6 August, 2008, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum under the leadership of its then Chairman, former governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the then Secretary, the former governor of Kaduna State, Arc. Namadi Sambo, signed an agreement for the immediate implementation of the scheme.
However, after five years that the agreement was brokered by the forum and other stakeholders in the sector, some of the states were yet to implement the scheme.
—Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta