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Teachers in the
public primary and secondary schools in Oyo State will proceed on an
indefinite strike on Monday, July 5, to protest the non-implementation
of the new Teachers’ Salary Structure (TSS) in the state.

The decision was
reached at an emergency congress of the state’s chapter of the Nigeria
Union of Teachers (NUT) on Wednesday, after assessing the outcome of
the meeting between the leadership of the union and the state governor,
Adebayo Alao-Akala, on Tuesday. The governor had incurred the teachers’
wrath for his government’s insistence on not implementing the new
special wage structure for them. This has led to series of agitations
which culminated in a warning strike observed every Wednesday in the
last 21 days. At the meeting held with the leadership of the teachers’
union on Tuesday, the governor insisted that the government lacks the
wherewithal to foot the monthly bill for teachers’ wages if the
enhanced pay would be implemented.

Rather, he asked
them to choose between retrenching some of them, or wait till the
federal government approves the proposed new salary scale for
government workers across the country. However, neither of the options
appealed to the teachers gathered at the state of the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) yesterday to get the report of the meeting between the
government and their leaders.

Immediate action

The governor’s
action subsequently prodded the teachers to demand for the immediate
commencement of the strike immediately. All efforts from their leaders
to make them see why they should prepare better for the indefinite
strike were bluntly rebuffed. After putting the options of starting the
strike immediately and later to voice vote, the majority favoured
immediate action. Olu Abiala, state secretary of the union, who
conducted the congress, had to beg them before they agreed to wait till
Monday before the strike starts.

He told them that
it would be unfair to the government if the outcome of yesterday
meeting was not communicated to them before the strike starts proper.
The congress, who were mobilized from different parts of the state,
intermittently sang anti-government songs, and occasionally rained
curses on the government for wanting to starve them to death. Although
the agitation for the enhanced teachers’ pay has being on for about two
years in the state, the aggrieved NUT members began a definite step
against the government three weeks ago when they began a 21 warning
strike.

During the period, the teachers skipped work on Wednesdays, and wore
black attires to work the following days to register their displeasure
over the non-implementation of the scheme.