The Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, has said the Federal Government lacks funds to pay teachers the outstanding allowance of N1.44 billion owed them for the 2011 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) training programme.
Speaking in Abuja at a meeting between the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Teachers Institute (NTI) on Tuesday, Wike said that the meeting was part of efforts to resolve the dispute between the two groups.
NTI, in 2011, trained 125,000 teachers under the 2011 Federal Government MDGs teachers? training.
The NUT leadership accused the institute of paying each trainee only N2,500 as stipend for transportation and accommodation for the six-day training, instead of the approved N14,000 per participant.
However, Wike said that he had personally written to the Ministry of Finance for the balance of the money.
“The reply I got indicated that Federal Ministry of Finance has no fund now to pay the outstanding balance. I just want to make it clear that the funds were not withheld by NTI as teachers have alleged, but I advised NTI not to repeat similar mistake by involving in a programme without adequate cash-backing,” he said.
Wike appealed to the teachers for understanding and urged them to participate in this year?s programme, while efforts would be made to pay the 2011 balance.
The minister also said that he had written to President Goodluck Jonathan on the issue, as directed by the Ministry of Finance, because last year?s budget had been mopped up.
He noted that budgeting had been one of the problems in Nigeria due to the slow release of funds.
“I want to assure all teachers that this year, training will be based on the available resources,” the minister said.
NUT president, Michael Olukoya, in his remark, said unless the arrears were paid, teachers would boycott the 2012 training programme.
He said the mandate of the NUT National Executive Council was clear that the N11,500 balance owed each teacher must be paid for teachers to participate in the 2012 training programme.
