Posted by From JACOB EDI, Abuja on
Striking public teachers on Monday agreed to participate in a joint committee to negotiate issues concerning the Teachers Salary Scale (TSS) after several hours of meeting by Nigerian Governors Forum, officials of the Nigeria Union of Teachers [NUT] and the Nigeria Labour congress (NLC).
Striking public teachers on Monday agreed to participate in a joint committee to negotiate issues concerning the Teachers Salary Scale (TSS) after several hours of meeting by Nigerian Governors Forum, officials of the Nigeria Union of Teachers [NUT] and the Nigeria Labour congress (NLC).
No date has been fixed for the talks but Governor Bukola Saraki, chairman of the Governors Forum, who announced the outcome of the meeting, said it would take immediate effect.
Similarly, the meeting agreed that an emergency national working committee meeting of the NUT should be convened within 24 hours to consider the proposal by the governors that the strike be called off while the negotiation continues.
NUT National President, Onem Nelson Onem, who attended the meeting and confirmed the terms of agreement, told reporters that they were always ready for talks aimed at bringing the strike to an end.
He also said the governors gave assurances that they would implement any agreement that would come out of the negotiations between NUT, NLC and representatives of the Governors Forum.
But neither Governor Bukola Saraki nor the NUT leadership was forthcoming on a definite date for an end to the strike.
Governor Saraki, chairman of the Governors Forum, who briefed newsmen after the meeting also said part of the resolutions of the meeting was that none of the teachers who participated in the strike would be victmised, just as he said there was a commitment on the part of the governors as well as the labor leaders to resolve the problem expeditiously.
Some of the issues considered before arriving at a resolution, according to Governor Saraki, included the circumstances that led to the strike, a recognition of workers constitutional right to better conditions of service, as well as the wisdom of the nation's Constitution for the practice of federalism.
Asked why the governors waited this long to intervene in the crisis, Saraki stopped short of blaming past military rulers and said that 'we are running a federalism and things have to take a normal course of action."
Although those who would represent the NUT and NLC on the joint committee were not known at press time, Saraki announced that the Kaduna State Governor, Nenadi Sambo would lead the Governors Forum's team to the talks.
Other members to represent the forum were the deputy governors of Osun and Ebonyi, while the commissioners of education of Ekiti, Yobe, Akwa Ibom, Nasarawa, Kano and Kwara would also be at the talks.
Labour leaders at Monday's meeting included the NUT President, Onem Nelson Onem, the NUT scribe, Obong Ikpe Obong and NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar.