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NUT Strike: Government should dialogue and not divide or intimidate teachers

Written by Bamidele Aturu

Friday, 04 July 2008

It is truly unbelievable that the Federal Government could allow the strike called by the NUT actually take off despite the fact that an earlier warning strike was effective across the country. The unfortunate message sent by the government is that it could not be bothered by the stoppage of work at the basic level and for that reason the most important level of our educational system.

The insensitivity is highly regrettable and condemnable. It shows clearly to even the most incorrigible supporters of the administration that this government does not take the future of the nation and of our youth seriously. A government that could feel no pang of conscience while our children are roaming the streets does not earn our respect and must be told in no uncertain term that it is fumbling and doing so really bad.

To make matters worse, the government is hand in gloves with the so-called private school owners preaching incoherently and embarrassingly that private schools should not be picketed. I deplore the vainly disguised incitement of the private school owners against their public counterparts. It is a measure of our state of degenerated values that this sort of incitement could be attempted by public functionaries. It may well be that some people who ought to advise the government on the legality and indeed morality of the NUT strike have shirked their responsibility.

Nevertheless, it is shameful to listen to the President of the NUT educate our ministers to the effect that the right to picket is guaranteed by our extant labour legislations. But what the Ministers perhaps do not know is that the NUT has the right to organize or unionise all teachers at the primary and secondary levels and this again by law.

Anyone who means well for this country should join in calling on the government to abandon its mischievous divide and rule tactic and enter immediately into dialogue with the teachers. The fact that the children of government officials do not attend public schools is no justification for treating the legitimate demands of our teachers with contempt. Threatening the teachers of course is a futile exercise that cannot bring any positive results.

I call on the Minister for education to swallow his pride and meet immediately with the teachers to rescue and salvage whatever is left of the educational sector. The strike should not be allowed to extend beyond this week if this government wants to be taken seriously.

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