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Tag: NUT

  • Housing project: ICPC arraigns NUT treasurer, contractors over N495.8m fraud

    Housing project: ICPC arraigns NUT treasurer, contractors over N495.8m fraud

    The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said yesterday it has arraigned the Treasurer of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Abuja Municipal, Mr. Percy Ndam, to court for alleged  N495.8 million fraud.

    Ndam was accused of conspiring with two contractor, Frank Igbinedion and Uche Nwedi,  to convert the cash into personal use.

    The said funds were meant for NUT Housing Loan Scheme.

    According to a statement by the ICPC spokesperson, Mrs. Rasheedat A. Okoduwa (mni), Ndam is facing a five-count charge before Justice Adegbola Adeniyi of the Federal Capital High Court 20, Apo.

    Counsel to ICPC Mr. Raheem Adesina, while pressing the charges against the three suspects, told the court that Ndam and his associates committed the crime between November, 2011 and October, 2015.

    The statement said: “The court heard that Ndam allegedly stole N296 million of the union’s money.

    “He was accused of converting N221 million from the operational account of the union to personal use in one instance and further received another N75.2 million belonging to the same union from Isaac Sanda, who is a managing director of Contemporary Archivision Ltd, a company involved in the housing scheme.

    “The court was also told that Mr. Igbinedion and Saframic Homes Ltd were paid N113.9 million in January 2012 for the processing of title documents for the land and for payment of compensation to the villagers, whose land had been acquired for the project, but allegedly embezzled N93. 899 million of the sum under the pretext of spending it on a payment to an unspecified task force and for the reprocessing of the Technical Drawing Plans (TDP) of the project.

    “Igbinedion and Saframic Homes Ltd were again accused by the commission of allegedly converting N50 million out of N100 million the former had received for payment to a company, Kenia Integrated Ltd, for the processing of title documents.

    “On their own part, Nwedi and NCR & Associates Ltd were accused of converting N56.7 million belonging to NUT to personal use under the pretext of spending the money on Land Offer Letters, TDP and payment to a consultant.”

    The statement said the offences “contravene Section 311 and are punishable under Section 312 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532, Volume 4 Laws of the FCT, Nigeria”.

    It added: “All the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges when read to them as their counsel applied for their bail, which was opposed by Mr.. Adesina of ICPC on the grounds that the applications were an abuse of court process because they were filed before the charges were served on them.

    The trial judge, Justice Adeniyi, while overruling the objection, granted their applications.

    “Percy Ndam was admitted to bail in the sum of N100 million with two sureties in like sum; Igbinedion N50 million with two sureties in like sum; and Nwedi N20 million with one surety in like sum.

    “The court said all the sureties must be resident in the FCT, swear to affidavit of service, and should not be below the rank of Assistant Director in the employment of the Federal Government or FCT or any of their agencies.”

    The matter was adjourned to October 31 and November for hearing.

  • NUT seeks special fund for primary education

    NUT seeks special fund for primary education

    The Osun State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has urged the House of Assembly to place teachers’ salaries and emoluments in the first line charge of Federal allocation in the proposed local government autonomy.

    The union’s members besieged the Assembly yesterday with placards bearing various inscriptions for special funding for primary education.

    NUT State Chairman Wakeel Amuda said the step became imperative to save primary education from collapsing.

    The union leader noted that primary education funding had suffered a setback when it was under local government administration.

    He said the union was not against the proposed local government autonomy but was not happy that teachers were owed salaries for months in some states in 1994 when local government areas were controlling primary school funding.

    Amuda said primary education was key to national growth, adding that primary school teachers should be paid through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) from the first line charge of the Federation Account.

  • NUT to teachers: Be diligent as schools resume

    NUT to teachers: Be diligent as schools resume

    The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has appealed to its members to be diligent in their duties as schools resume for the 2017/2018 academic session on Monday.

    The National president of the union, Mr. Micheal Olukoya, made the appeal in Lagos.

    Olukoya urged teachers to excel in their duties because the future of the pupils was in their hands.

    He also called on parents to ensure their wards had the required educational materials for learning to get the expected results.

    “The government should provide the necessary learning environment to guarantee an optimal result,” he said.

    On the ongoing strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Olukoya appealed to the Federal Government and ASUU to arrive at amicable settlement.

    The NUT president said an urgent settlement was necessary because incessant strikes had negative effects on education.

    “Preparing students as teachers or any other profession in the midst of strikes is uncalled for.

    “As it is now, our university degree is losing glamour due to strikes,’’ he said.

    He appealed to the government to demonstrate more commitment to agreement reached with professional bodies.

    “Government should be sincere and transparent when making an agreement, while lecturers should apply diplomacy and put the interest of the students in mind,’’ Olukoya added.

    NAN

  • Oyo NUT opposes chairman’s retirement elongation

    The Democratic Teachers Alliance (DTA) in the Oyo State wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has kicked against the purported move of the national body to elongate the tenure of the state chairman.

    The teachers voiced their grievances at a peaceful protest at DTA’s secretariat at Inalende in Ibadan, the state capital.

    The embattled state chairman, Comrade Oluniyi Akano, whose tenure began in November, 2014, was expected to leave office on September 30.

    Akano assumed office, following the demise of Kolawole Kayode.

    He was said to have been selected to complete the tenure of the late chairman.

    The angry teachers, who carried placards, said their opposition was not unconnected with the fact that the embattled chairman would soon retire, but because retaining him or elongating his tenure was an insult on teachers in the state.

    Some of the inscriptions read: “NUT National should stop imposition of illegality in Oyo State wing”; “The national head office of NUT should stop this meddlesomeness, say Oyo teachers”; “NUT constitution is against elongation of the tenure of the incumbent in any form” and “Oyo teachers say ‘No’ to elongation of office of the incumbent chairman.”

    A communique issued after a meeting attended by top leaders of the union before the protest, recalled a gazette issued in 2014, which stipulates that the state chairman was supposed to retire on September 30 from the teaching service.

    The communique, co-signed by Surajudeen Hamzat and Nathaniel Olajide, said the election of the state chairman was illegal, adding that the teachers are no longer comfortable with the illegality.

    It reads: “It has come to our notice from reliable sources that planning and a kind of scheming is ongoing, as the state chairman of the NUT Oyo State wing and his cohorts are working assiduously to retain him in the office, as the union chairman beyond his normal service year using the instrument of the national headquarters.

    “In the Oyo State gazette issued in 2014, the state chairman is supposed to retire on September 30, 2017, from the teaching service of Oyo State, hence should ceased to be the state chairman.

    “It is human nature to be anti-pathetic to change while change in itself is inevitable and constant. So, for the state chairman to remain as the NUT chairman in Oyo wing by any trick implied beyond his retirement year will contravene Article 4, Section II and IIIc of the Nigerian Union of Teachers constitution and would also be an aberration to the rule of law.

    “The incumbent state chairman, the moment he ceases to

  • NUT commiserates with Aregbesola

    NUT commiserates with Aregbesola

    The Osun State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) as well as primary and secondary school teachers have commiserated with Governor Rauf Aregbesola on the death of his mother.

    In a condolence message at the weekend by the State Chairman and Secretary of the union, Wakeel Alade Amudah and Abdullahi N. Mohammed, NUT described the late governor’s mother as a devoted Muslim, who lived a life worthy of emulation.

    The statement said: “We hereby commiserate with our governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on the death of his mother, Alhaja Saratu Aregbesola. With deepest sympathy, the union is pained that the death occurred at a time the governor needed her motherly counselling towards development of Osun State.

    “We take solace in the fact that Alhaja Saratu Aregbesola died at a ripe age. We pray to God to grant Mama Al-Jannah Firda’us. We also pray God to give the Aregbesola family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.”

  • Oyo NUT and LG autonomy

    Oyo NUT and LG autonomy

    SIR: The protest embarked upon by some members of the National Union Teachers, Oyo State, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Wednesday, July 28, is welcome development. The NUT was enjoying its fundamental human rights to protest against a policy that would be injurious to her health.

    The state government and security forces deserves accolade for allowing the peaceful protest to hold. Although, it appears the protest was in tandem with the state government position on local government administration. However, if the NUT was to support the Local Government autonomy; the protest would have been stopped for constituting a breach of public peace. Disruption of an NLC-led peaceful protest over non-payment of salary few years ago and harassment of the leaders, I think including the leaders of July 29, protest is still fresh in memory.

    The NUT Oyo State wing failed to state her position on local government autonomy and this is rather unfortunate for an association saddled with such enormous responsibility of imparting knowledge into our future leaders. From the inscription on the placard carried by the protesters and the speech of a leader, Niyi Akano, the NUT is against local government autonomy because “experience had shown that the local government tier lacked the capacity to run and fund primary education effectively particularly because that is the bed rock of education”.

    From the above, one realizes that NUT does not want autonomy for local councils because she does not have the power that is resources to fund primary education. What the above means is that the NUT do not know what local government autonomy means and this is rather unfortunate. Simply put, autonomy means power that would be granted local governments in the constitution that would make them fiscally independent of states control. Presently, the joint account system being operated by state and local government has turned the local governments into an appendage of the states and crippled her financially.

    It is a known fact that local government councils are the government closest to the grassroots and are the facilitators of the development there until the joint along crippled them. I believe protesting members of NUT know this. In all honesty, it is a common knowledge that there is corruption in local governments, but this is not peculiar to it as the revelation from EFCC of billions stolen by the operators of federal and state government showed.

    The roles of local governments in the development of the grassroots cannot be overemphasized. Therefore, it is preposterous for the NUT to throw out the baby and the bathwater because of lack of resources in the local government. As Akano concluded, the primary education should be placed under state government for effective funding. This is better than outright rejection of LG autonomy and that should have been more befitting clamour of the NUT, now that the call for restructuring of the Nigeria polity is gathering momentum.

     

    • Adewuyi Adegbite,

    ayekooto05@gmail.com

  • Primary school teachers protest in Bayelsa

    Primary school teachers protest in Bayelsa

    Primary school teachers in Bayelsa on Wednesday demanded transfer of their financial obligations from the local government to federal and state governments.

    About 100 teachers under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) marched from their secretariat located at Erepa through Otiotio to the Isaac Boroh Expressway, Yenagoa, chanting solidarity songs.

    Led by their state’s Chairman, Mr. Kalama Tonpre and Principal Secretary, NUT, Mr. Johnson Hector, the teachers said the local government authorities lack the capacity to pay their salaries, subventions and welfare packages.

    They lamented that they had been subjected to untold hardship by the local government areas, which owed them various arrears of salaries.

    The teachers displayed placards with inscriptions such as “Pay teachers’ salary for sustainable education, “Show total love for education,” “Stop politicising primary education, it is dangerous,” and “Funding of primary education should be the responsibilities of states and federal government.”

    Other placards contained brief messages such as “Respect the Supreme Court judgement that states should pay primary school teachers,” Local government councils do not have the capacity to pay primary school salaries,” “We say no to the dark era of non-payment of salaries” and “Shaky foundation collapses system.”

    Addressing the teachers, Hector said the protest was a mandate of the national body of NUT to create awareness on the poor condition of teachers ahead of the proposed amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

    He said the NUT was in total support of local government autonomy on a condition that the funding and salary components of primary school teachers be transferred to the state government.

    He said: “We are not against local government autonomy but we are of the position that the salary component of the primary school teacher should be removed from the local government because it is obvious that local government doesn’t have the capacity to pay primary school teachers.

    “We don’t want to be owed salaries for 12 months. We don’t want teachers to go on strike and close schools for months.”

     

     

  • Rivers NUT begs govt

    The Nigeria Union Teachers, (NUT) Rivers State Wing has pleaded with Governor Nyesom Wike to use the Paris Club refund, in which the state had received over N34 billion, to pay backlogs of teachers’ promotion arrears in the state.

    The state Chairman of the NUT, Sir Lucky Nkporgne-Dumnatah, made this plea yesterday in Port Harcourt at the opening of the 6th Quadrennial Delegate Conference of the state wing.

    Speaking, Dumnatah stated that since 2000/2010 promotion of the senior secondary school teachers have not been implemented, adding that the Universal Basic Education, (UBE) from 2010 till date have not conducted any promotional exercise or payment made.

    He said the non-payment of arrears have inflicted poverty  on teachers in the state and making them to behave like beggars.

    The NUT chair said: “The governor should use the Paris refund to pay our promotion arrears. The state among the few states that received the highest allocation in the Paris found.”

    : “This ugly situation has created disparity between teachers and other civil servant in the state, thus making teachers and the teaching profession below others, whereas we are the mother of all other professions.

    The Nigeria Conference of Principals schools, (NCOPS) and Association of Primary School Heads of Nigeria, (APHSON) have flayed the regular absence of the governor, and the Commissioner for Education Prof Kanie Ebekwu in almost all teachers’ functions in the state.

    The Guest Lecturer, who is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof J. B. Kenani, added that the quality of teachers determines the quality of students they will produce

  • NUT endorses govt’s plan to sack uncertified teachers by 2018

    NUT endorses govt’s plan to sack uncertified teachers by 2018

    The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has endorsed the move by the Federal Government to sack those teaching in public schools without professional certificates by 2018.

    Its President, Michael Alogba Olukoya, who said this, noted that the professionalism drive of the teachers’ registration council is a right step in the right direction.

    He said the plan will make teachers to charge professional fees and correct wrong conception about the profession.

    The NUT president spoke while participating at the workshop organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) on Training the Trainers on the implementation of professional standards among Nigerian teachers.

    Giving kudos to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and Minister of EducationMallam Adamu Adamu and the TRCN boss, Prof. Segun Ajiboye on the drive to rid the profession of quacks, Olukoya noted that those not professionally qualified must be shown the way out.

    The NUT president noted that allowing quack teachers to teach children would be a great disservice to the future of Nigeria, adding that professionalism is the way to enhance standards.

    “It is going to bring about change in the attitudes and change in the previous conception. It is going to improve the quality of education in our country. I must give kudos to the government of Muhammadu Buhari and the minister of education, who have made many pronouncements, that in Nigeria if you are not professionally qualified,you shall be shown the way out.

    “There should be a different between men and boys. You cannot give what you don’t have and we are concerned about the standards. In teaching, there should be no room for quacks because quacks in the classroom will damage the children and leave them more confused than they were before.

    “It is the responsibility of us in the NUT to ensure that this does not happen. This new development, sincerely, we teachers in Nigeria welcome it and we are going to partner with the TRCN to move the state of teaching profession to state of Eldorado,”he stated.

    TRCN Registrar/Chief Executive Prof. Olusegun Ajiboye said the implementation of the policy will begin in 2018, warning those yet to have professional certificate to take the opportunity of writing professional examination in October 2017.

    Ajiboye added that it was important to remove “cheaters” from “teachers”.

    According to him, those teaching in public and private schools must be registered to be professional teachers.

    The TRCN boss added that the Ministry of Education is working hard to ensure that teachers’ welfare are improved within the lifespan of the Buhari administration.

  • NUT issues 30-day ultimatum to 19 states owing teachers’ salary

    THE Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has issued a 30-day ultimatum to 19 states, which are owing salaries of primary and secondary school teachers.

    It warned them to pay the arrears or face the union’s wrath.

    The affected states include Benue (owed 10 months), Ekiti (six months), Cross River (six months), Ondo (five months), Kogi (15 months), Taraba (four months), Niger (three months, Delta (three months), Oyo (three months), Abia (five months) and Osun (paying teachers half salary for 23 months) .

    Other states are Nasarawa (paying half salary for 18 months), Plateau (paying half salary since 2010), Adamawa (four months), Bayelsa (seven and half months), Imo (paying 70 per cent of monthly salary to teachers) and Kwara (paying monthly salary to teachers by percentage and owed primary school teachers four months).

    Borno and Zamfara wereaccused of not implementing national minimum wage.

    Addressing a news conference in Ibadan yesterday on the funding and management of primary education as well as elongation of the retirement age of teachers, the NUT National President, Comrade Michael Alogba Olukoya, stated that the union would declared total war on any state, which failed to pay the outstanding arrears following the expiration of the 30-day ultimatum .

    He said it was inhuman to subject teachers to poverty by failing to pay them their salary as at when due.

    The NUT boss added that the teaching profession was no longer about bread and butter, but about the future of the Nigerian child.Olukoya added that the union would no longer tolerate any state government, which failed to pay teachers’ salary.

    He explained that after the expiration of the 30-day ultimatum , the union would issue a directive to teachers in the affected states to embark on an indefinite strike until all the arrears are paid.

    The news conference, which followed an emergency meeting of all states officers of the NUT, witnessed the gathering of other stakeholders in the education sector, including officers of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

    He said NUT owed it a duty to protect the interest and welfare of its members and at the same time contribute its quota to the growth and advancement of education.

    Olukoya, therefore, alerted on the danger inherent in the ongoing agitation for local government autonomy as it affects the funding and management of primary education.

    He berated the affected state governments for failing to recognise the importance of education as the most potent tool ever devised by man for his advancement.

    Olukoya deplored the high level of infrastructural decay in primary and secondary schools in states.

    On the elongation of the retirement age of teachers, the NUT National President demanded that retirement age of teachers be raised to 65 to increase the retention rate in schools.

    He said this would check the rate at which experienced teachers were being lost in the school system.