No fewer than 50 secondary school teachers in Ogun State have died within the last one year over alleged failure by the state government to remit their cooperative deductions and bank loans. The state Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools of Nigeria (ASUSS), Comrade Akeem Lasisi, disclosed this in Abeokuta during the celebration of this year’s World Teachers Day.
The event, with the theme “Valuing teachers, improving their status,” featured special anniversary lecture and conferment of awards on outstanding personalities. Lasisi said the non-pay-ment of statutory benefits to the teachers running into several months had become worrisome, urging the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led administration to release the “trapped funds.”
He also appealed to the government to make available more teaching personnel, noting that deaths, retirement, change in job and duty posts had drastically reduced the number of teachers in the state public schools,saying that the situation had further threatened productivity, efficiency, output, quality and lives of teachers. According to him, the unremitted cooperative societies’ funds, bank loans, unions’ check off dues and sundry deductions had reduced the lifespan of many teachers.
Lasisi said: “Ogun State secondary school sector of teaching has lost as many as 50 of its workforce to the cold hands of death and unfortunately, we are still counting. “Many of our colleagues whose lives were cut short in active service to their dear state might not have died if their cooperative societies had had their deductions released as and when due by the government.
“What is more worrisome is the fact that these funds have long since been trapped or unnecessarily saved in government’s coffers ever before Nigeria strolled into economic recession. “Today, teachers are practically being forced to beg for their possession kept in the hands of their employers.”
