Lukkey Abawuru Muhammad Kabir
21 July 2008
Kano — SULTAN of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Saad Abubakar and some prominent paramount rulers in the country have waded into the impasse between federal government and the striking teachers over non-implementation of the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS).
The intervention is coming as the House of Representatives Committee on Education said it would meet President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua this week to further find a way of resolving the on-going strike.
Teachers in the nation's public primary and secondary schools have been on strike for over three weeks now.
But speaking in Lagos, last Saturday, the Sultan shortly after commissioning a mosque at the Nigerian Navy town, Ojo Lagos said royal fathers were worried over the lingering strike called by Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).
He expressed fears that the strike would adversely affect education in the country, noting that the royal fathers are trying to resolve the impasse.
Although Abubakar declined comment on details of the trouble shooting, he said "I won't tell you how far we have gone, I don't discuss such issues in the public but all I know is that we are talking with both parties on the best ways to resolve the crisis so that teachers return to schools."
Over N70 million was realized at the mosque launch.
Meanwhile, the chairman House committee on Education, Alhaji Farouk Lawan has in Kano, Kano State said the meeting with the president has become imperative so as to resolve the imbroglio.
The strike, he said, has impacted negatively on the psyche of youngsters who now seek refuge in hawking and other sundry survival practices.
The teachers struggle he said should not be seen from any perspective except that their move is to upscale the quality of the nation's education.
In another development, the state NUT chairman, Comrade, Yunusa Isa Danguguwa has warned that the union would continue to pickets the private schools since there was an enabling labour law to do so.
"We are empowered by the labour law to pickets the private schools and we will continue to do so. However, this does not mean that we are not keenly interested in the settlement of the crisis, he noted.
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