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Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and some teachers under the auspices of Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) in Kwara are bickering over alleged poor representation and marginalisation of the latter.
ASUSS had on this year’s World Teachers Day demanded to be separated from the state chapter of NUT. ASUSS added its fusion with NUT in the state has not been mutually beneficial, saying it has been a marriage of inconvenience.
The union alleged that NUT had continued not to let ASUSS stand on its own because of the monthly check-off dues from ASUSS members.
The state ASUSS Chairman Mallam Mohammed Daodu said: “NUT cannot shoulder our problems. When some of our teachers were sacked some years back for spending eight years on the same grade level, due to no fault of theirs, NUT did not do anything then as it did not affect teachers in primary schools.
“The fusion of secondary school teachers to NUT is a marriage of inconvenience. ASUSS belongs to the state government, while NUT belongs to local and Federal Governments.
“Over the years, primary school teachers have been producing the leadership of NUT in the state. That is why demands of secondary school teachers are not being met.”
But NUT 1st Vice Chairman in the state Adigun Gabriel told reporters at the weekend in Ilorin, the state capital that secondary school teachers in the state are adequately represented.
He described those behind the call for separation from NUT as retired teachers.
Gabriel, who said he is a secondary school teacher, said that “we want to inform the general public and the entire secondary school teachers in the state belong to NUT.
“We are appealing to all security agencies in the state to call the so-called leaders of ASUSS to order so as not to disrupt the industrial peace in the state. We are also appealing to all secondary school teachers in the state not to allow frustrated retirees to cause confusion in the union and in the state in general.”
Kwara President of All Nigerian Convention of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) Alhaji Toyin Abdullahi said: “In fairness, NUT has been so accommodating to teachers in secondary schools in the state in terms of distribution of positions at local and at state levels. This has equally made the leadership of ANCOPSS to be recognized at both at the state and national levels.
“The composition of those agitating for separation from NUT is made up of retired teachers. Then who are they now going to serve. They have their ulterior motive for bringing out newly recruited teachers. NUT is one in the state. Teachers in secondary schools are united and we are one.”
