Posted by From PAUL ORUDE, Bauchi on
The on-going nationwide teachers' strike action last weekend took a new dimension as the infuriated and angered teachers in Gombe State have resorted to prayers.
The on-going nationwide teachers' strike action last weekend took a new dimension as the infuriated and angered teachers in Gombe State have resorted to prayers.
They are annoyed by the neglect over their demands by concerned education authorities in the country and they gathered at the Central Primary School, Gombe and prayed fervently against the three Education Ministers in the country who they alleged to be possessed by evil spirits which have made them not to have listening ears to their plight and that of the innocent children who are missing their academic pursuit.
The gathering, which was made up of both Christian and Moslem teachers, lambasted the three Education Ministers, who are the Minister of Education, Dr. Aja-Nwachukwu; Minister of State 1, Jerry Anthony Agada and Minister of State 11, Aishatu Jibrin Dukku who is an indigene of Gombe State.
The aggrieved teachers accused them of misleading President Umaru Yar'Adua over the plight of education sector in the country and prayed that, 'God should cast out the evil spirits in them so that they would see reasons in the demands of the Teachers which is the Teachers Salary Scale, (TSS) and do something positive about it."
The teachers also included in the prayers the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mohammed Lawal Hassan who they described as a highhanded person who is also possessed with evil spirits for his insistence on dividing the union and sponsoring some members to dissociate from the NUT nationwide strike.
They however called on President Yar'Adua to consider the importance of education and the welfare of teachers as of paramount importance in his administration so that the impasse could come to an end soonest as the academic session is about to end.
In a chart with newsmen after the special prayers for divine intervention, the Gombe State NUT Chairman, Ahmed Maisakala explained that teachers in the Gombe State would join their colleagues from other parts of the country to pray and fast tomorrow as directed by the National Secretariat of the NUT over their situation.
Ahmed Maisakala added that the teachers had gathered to pray for rainfall and bumper harvest, peace and stability in the country, the improvement of the education standard in the state and especially for the implementation of the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS).
He said teachers across the country were on strike to impress on the Federal Government to centralize and establish a certain standard for the salaries of teachers nationwide through a unified national circular and blamed the three Education Ministers for not helping matters as according to him, the teachers have the feelings the Ministers have been misleading the President and changing the teachers' demand before the President.
According to him, 'Political office holders like councilors, chairmen, medical health workers and many other professional bodies have a centralized salary structure nationwide, and that is what we want to be implemented for us too if we are to be appreciated as the mother of all professions."
On how far they have succeeded in picketing private schools to join the strike, the NUT chairman said they are re-strategizing on how to go about it in a more better and civilized way, adding that teachers in the country have suffered enough hardship and that their action is not intended to make the children suffer unjustly but to make government see reason in their plight.