Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
Education Rights Campaign (ERC), an NGO has called on Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State to meet workers’ demand over pay in the state-owned tertiary educational institutions.
The group said this would make the workers to return to work forthwith.
The schools and colleges in the state have been shut down for the past three months following the strike embarked upon by their teachers over poor and unpaid salaries.
In a statement made available to Thisage in Ibadan in Monday the group condemned the attitude of the governor and asked him to source for funding from the recent Paris Fund allocation the Federal Government directed the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance to allocate to states to assist them to pay outstanding salaries to their workers
The NGO said: “We strongly condemn the Alhaji Yahaya Bello-led Kogi State Government’s failure to meet the demands spelt out by the staff unions in all the state-owned institutions who have been on strike for several weeks.
“We also demand improved funding of public education and provision of adequate teaching facilities at all levels of education in the state. We equally condemn police violent repression of students who turned out for a protest on Monday 24 April 2017 over the continuous closure of their schools as a result of the on-going strike. Three of the protesting students were arrested and later released.
” For us in the ERC, the arrest is unlawful and a violation of the students’ fundamental rights. If the Kogi state government does not want protest, all it has to do is to meet the demands of the striking education workers’ so that students can resume their studies.
“As far as we are concerned in the ERC, it is the insensitivity of the Kogi state government that has made the striking education workers not to call off their 93-day old strike which has led to the closure of all state tertiary institutions. Students have been at home for over three months now, many of whom have missed their chances to attend National Youth Service
“We in the ERC believes that the State Government led by the All Progressive Congress (APC) has enough resources at its disposal to meet all the demands of workers in Kogi state and also that of the education workers in the state-owned tertiary institutions, considering the different bailout reportedly accumulating to about forty billion naira (40billion) which the Federal Government has given to every state of the federation including Kogi State.
The group maintained that past and present governments of Kogi State have always hidden under the cover of poor budgetary allocation by the Federal Government to the state as a reason for the government’s inability to provide free, functional and quality education for her people.
