Nigeria Union of Teachers, FCT chapter on Wednesday demanded that primary school teachers’ salaries be transferred to state governments, if Local Government autonomy was to be granted.
The FCT Chairman, Stephen Khabayi, made this call when he led the union on a protest to the FCT minister, Malam Bello, in Abuja.
Khabayi said that the protest was to reiterate its earlier stand that autonomous body like the Universal Basic Education Commission be allowed to oversee teacher’s salary in case of LG autonomy.
According to him, this is imperative following the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in its 2002 judgement in the case of Attorney General for the Federation versus Attorney General of the 36 states.
Khabayi said: “The court held that the responsibility of providing and managing primary school education in the country obviously lies with the state government.”
He said that it was against this background that the National Executive Council of the NUT redirected its entire states wing including the FCT, to carry out a solidarity rally rejecting the autonomy.
He said that this made the NUT-FCT embarked on a peaceful rally against granting full autonomy to local government.
Sunday Affang, Director Operation, Planning and Strategy Office of Permanent Secretary, FCTA, received the protest letter from the teachers.
Speaking on behalf of the minister, Affang promised to relay their message, while assuring them of immediate response from the minister.