EDITORIAL

Delta State Govt and the NUT strike

It is a soothing relief that the 12-day strike called by the Delta State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers has finally been called off.

The story is that Governor Ifeabyi Okowa finally took the teachers’ representatives to Government House Annex, Warri where negotiations were made and armistice struck to bring the teachers and government fight to an end.

While we commend the two sides to the feud for finally coming to the negotiating table and striking an agreement, it is important to look into certain events that played out during the strike that were very unnecessary. They were the factors that caused passions to be inflamed, and without justification prolonged the feud.

We at Banner Media Network , while we praise the initial disposition of the Governor in meeting with NUT leaders to hear them out, we are also at a loss as to why he failed to take advantage of that opportunity to and fruitfully engage the unionists to secure an early truce. Rather what a befuddled observer saw was the resort to playing politics by Governor Okowa with the NUT officials, and wielding the big stick and commanding the teachers to return to the classrooms or risk non-payment of their salaries for staying out of work. The Government also used its state media outfits to bare its fangs at the harmless teachers, unleashing propaganda in a cruel, myopic and naked show of power.

Besides, we saw activities of the hordes of social media aides, informed and uninformed supporters and sycophants taking on spaces in the social media to rain abuses on the striking teachers without advancing cogent reasons to show why the NUT strike should not hold. There was also the case of the group that called itself Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) which came out to “appreciate the efforts of the State Government in resolving the issues concerning the welfare of secondary school teachers, particularly in the areas of prompt payment of salaries, promotions and inter-cadre transfers.”

Of course, the teachers who ASUSS claimed to represent did not dignify the body with a listening ear. Also, that one of the deals struck by NUT in the meeting with Governor Okowa in Warri is the agreement to implement the inter-cadre transfers, underscores the lie of ASUSS and exposes it as a meddlesome interloper in the matter , one that really does not have the interest of the teachers at heart. That teachers preferred to honour NUT’s directive to stay away from the classrooms until their demands were met as against the call to return to classrooms made by ASUSS is proof positive that NUT is the authentic, recognized and acceptable Trade Union umbrella group for teachers in the State.  

Perhaps, the greatest disappointment of the episode is the resort to intimidation of teachers introduced by the Hon. Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Barrister Chiedu Ebie. Media reports showed that Mr. Ebie went to the police authorities to call for policemen to be sent to schools. It was indeed, shocking to see him moving around with security details, with artisans who had saw with which they cut open gates locked by the Unionists as a means of enforcing their rights to call their members out on strike, and as indication that there is labour dispute with the State Government.  

We think that the Commissioner’s action was ill-advised; it was unnecessary and quite unbecoming, especially in a democratic setting. Since when has peaceful strikes and lock-outs become illegitimate as means of expressing grievance by workers? Aside the big surprise that the shameful action was carried out with glee by a cabinet member of the administration, the action indeed, represented a minus for the democratic credentials of the administration.  IF anything, it is a precise design to muzzle dissent in our society. By that action, the administration took Delta State and Nigeria back to the forgotten years of our indecent military experiences and Gestapo actions. It is offensive seeing teachers who are grieving, and asking for better working conditions being terrorized into signing attendant registers by the orders of a government official who is supposed to look into their grievances and help to resolve such grievances and make the people happy. It is unfortunate. We therefore, condemn in strong terms the move by the Delta State Government to deny teachers, and any segment of the society in the state the right to engage in peaceful expression and enforcement of their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

We also decry the high-handedness of the State Government in denying NUT the use of its state organs of mass communication to state its own side of the story and reach out to its members. The implication of this is that the information organs only feed Deltans with one-sided stories, and denied them the benefit of hearing the other side. That such a thing is happening in 21 century Nigeria with so-called claims to learning and education is a sad commentary. It speaks volume of the tolerance index of those at the helms.

While the strike lasted, we observed the return to wisdom by the government. We commend the initiative of Governor Okowa in obeying the biblical truth that “Wisdom is profitable to direct.” This was clearly on display when the Governor decided to ride against the tide of sycophancy by calling the NUT leaders to further dialogue in Warri where amicable resolution of some of the issues in dispute were achieved, leading the NUT to call off the strike and directing its members to return to the classrooms.

We commend this effort and initiative, and recommend strongly that dialogue should be the natural template with which to handle future situations of this sort.