MORE WOES FOR NIGERIA'S PUBLIC EDUCATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001651

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2018
TAGS: PGOV ELAB PREL KISL EAID NI
SUBJECT: MORE WOES FOR NIGERIA'S PUBLIC EDUCATION

REF: ABUJA 1645

Classified By: Political Counselor James P. McAnulty for reasons 1.4. (
b & d).

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BROKEN AGREEMENTS
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1. (C) On September 4, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) General
Secretary John Odah told LabOff that NUT (an NLC affiliated
union) was on the verge of shutting down the public primary
and secondary education system over GON failure to honor its
2008 agreement on a 27.5 percent salary increase for all of
Nigeria's teachers. The agreement stipulated that the
governors of all 36 states, as well as the Federal Capital
Territory, would immediately implement the wage increase.
However, the GON reneged on the agreement, leading to a
five-week nationwide strike by teachers in August 2008. At
the intervention of the Governors' Forum, teachers halted the
2008 strike, as all 36 governors agreed to meet with them and
set a September 1, 2009, deadline to begin implementing the
TSS increase.

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STATES NOT HELPFUL
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2. (C) According to the NLC, only 17 of 36 states had
implemented the agreement as of August 31, 2009. States
failing to honor the deadline are Abia, Anambra, Bauchi,
Bayelsa, Benue, Edo, Delta, Enugu, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kogi, Imo,
Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba. ASUU
Chairman Ademola Aremu told LabOff on September 4 that many
of Nigeria's wealthy and political elite either send their
children to expensive private schools outside the country or
own many of country's private schools. "This," he declared,
"combined with strong evidence of state level corruption,
makes it obvious that there is no incentive to improve the
quality of education for Nigeria's poor." According to U.N.
and national statistics, more than 60 per cent of Nigerian
parents cannot afford to send their children to private
schools, and instead their children attend public primary and
secondary schools where teachers go for months without pay
and proper resources.

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TEACHERS NOT HOPEFUL
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3. (C) Benue State Treasurer of NUT, Christiana Nongoatse,
claimed the Federal government made budget provisions to
cover the wage increase in its state funding allocations, and
blamed the states for not honoring the agreement. She also
said government failure to honor agreements and the dwindling
purchasing power of NUT members have produced most labor
disputes. Nongoatse admitted that the on-going strike by the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a major
inspiration for NUT. Veronica Hinga, a teacher with the
Government Special Science School in Makurdi and a member of
the local NUT chapter, expressed doubt to PolSpecialist about
state governor sincerity after only four showed up for an
emergency meeting in late August convened by Minister of
Labor and Productivity Adetokunbo Kayode.

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COMMENT
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4. (C) Nigeria's creaky public education system could ill
afford nationwide strikes shutting down primary and secondary
schools as well as universities. In mid-July, at the peak of
the "Boko Haram" crisis in northern Nigeria, Chairman of
Nigeria's House Committee on Education Farouk Lawan stated
that "poverty and the lack of education are the cause of the
sectarian crisis ravaging the northern part of the country."

ABUJA 00001651 002 OF 002


Leaving hundreds of thousand of students out on the streets
would be a poignant reminder of the GON,s inability to
provide basic essential services to its citizenry. END
COMMENT.


5. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Lagos.

MCCULLOUGH