Abuja owes service-extension teachers. Payslips state payments but bank accounts not credited
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
At least 600 teachers under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Defence who benefited from Abuja’s service elongation package for teachers are owed 23 months’ salaries.
Teachers’ service elongation was introduced by the Muhammadu Buhari administration and the beneficiaries are Unity Schools and schools owned by military and paramilitary agencies.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a bill on 20 January 2021 that sought to increase the retirement age and the service years of teachers.
Then-Education Minister Adamu Adamu explained the bill was to give legal backing for the approval of the retirement age from 60 to 65 years for teachers and extend their period of service from 35 to 40 years.
The bill also introduced bursary awards, special rural posting allowances, and other incentives to encourage Nigerians to take up teaching
Buhari signed the bill into law in April 2022 and backdated the implementation to January 2021.
The Ministry of Education in a memo dated 26 January 2021 told teachers in Unity Schools (formerly Federal Government Colleges) not to retire but to continue in service ahead of the presidential assent.
“This is to inform you that the Federal Executive Council at its meeting of Wednesday, 20 January 2021 approved 65 years and 40 years as retirement age and years of service, respectively, for the teaching profession,” the memo, referenced FME/HRM/S234/1, said.
“Implementation of this new scheme is with effect from 1st January 2021.”
“It should be noted that the new retirement, years of service is not automatic, as officers will be required to demonstrate fitness after medical examination and those found to be unfit will be advised to retire.”
The Ministry of Defence also directed teachers who retired from its schools but have applied for elongation of service to remain in their jobs pending the determination of their applications.
The directive was contained in a circular dated 17 January 2022, marked MOD/HRM/AP/S.I/1 and signed by the ministry’s Human Resources Manager, K. M. Ojirobe.
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Payslips state payments but bank accounts not credited
Some of the teachers told The PUNCH that despite remaining in service since January 2021, they were not paid salaries until November 2022 and their arrears are still being withheld.
“We are over 400 Education Officers who are beneficiaries of the elongation policy which extended the retirement period of teachers to 65 years or 40 years in service, effective January 2021,” recounted one of the teachers, who spoke anonymously.
“We were asked to continue with our jobs but weren’t paid a dime till November 2022 with arrears of over 23 months outstanding.
“Our salaries were reinstated in December 2022 but when we got our payslips, we discovered they included the total arrears owed but our accounts weren’t credited.
“We asked questions but up till now no acceptable answer from IPPIS. We mobilised ourselves all over Nigeria, collated our information with a copy of some payslips and submitted.”
A representative of the teachers under the Ministry of Defence who works in one of the military schools in Oyo State said: “Our salaries were reinstated in April 2023. Our arrears were not paid despite the fact that we have been working since we retired.
“The government should do something. We are hungry. They should please pay us our arrears.”
Teachers seek Education Minister Tahir Mamman’s intervention
Some of the teachers on 13 October 2023 jointly wrote a letter to Education Minister Tahir Mamman, himself a professor.
The letter – titled, “An appeal for intervention on payment of salary arrears of pioneer education officers of the harmonised retirement age for teachers” – said:
“Sequel to the non-payment of our various accumulated salary arrears, we wish to state that we complied with the directive in the Circular FME/HRM/S234/1 dated 26th January 2021, and continued to discharge our duties loyally and efficiently. Notwithstanding, our salaries were stopped on attainment of 60 years or 35 years in service.
“The salaries were reinstated for most of us in December with payments of the month’s salaries but without the accumulated arrears. We later discovered that the payments of the arrears were reflected in our pay slips, whereas they were not paid into our various bank accounts.
“In our quest to know the cause of the staggering discrepancies between the amount of money on the pay slips and the actual amount paid into our accounts, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Education, in April, 2022 requested us to submit the said payslips and the respective bank account statements to the IPPIS unit of the ministry in order to facilitate the payments of the arrears.
“The arrears were not paid despite the submission of the documents requested.”
Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) Secretary General Mike Ene disclosed “We are aware of the development. We are already interfacing with the ministries involved. This initiative was brought forth by the NUT.
“We started it before the Ministry of Education came along and keyed into the idea.
“The reason we came up with the initiative was because we noticed that since the government was not employing new hands, it would not be wise to let go of old hands.
“Remember that President Muhammadu Buhari made it a law in April 2022. The whole situation is unfortunate but we are working towards it to ensure that everything is resolved and the teachers are paid.”
Defence Ministry verifying teachers
The Ministry of Defence has commenced verification of all teachers in Armed Forces Schools, according to a memo by the ministry’s Director of Education, A. O. Taiwo.
“I am directed to convey the Permanent Secretary’s approval for the verification of all categories of Ministry of Defence teachers who were employed primarily to teach in the Armed Forces Primary and Secondary Schools across the country. This exercise is intended to aid proper planning and for administrative purposes,” the memo explained.
“Sequel to the above, I am directed to request that relevant authorities in the various primary and secondary schools across the services (the Commandants, Vice Principals, and the Head Teachers) use the attached template for the verification exercise and return the same (in hard and soft copies to the undersigned.”