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NUT’s endwell deduction brouhaha: TESCOM wades in, as party tenders apology
Khalid ABRAHAM
Friday morning turned rowdy at Baptist Grammar School, Sunsun area, Ogbomoso, Oyo state, during the visit of the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Ogbomoso South local government led by its chairperson Comrade (Mrs.) Adeyemi, to clear air on the matter of wrongful deduction made in the salaries of some teachers in the school who are non-subscribers to the union’s welfare scheme, tagged “endwell” The NUT team also included the secretary of the branch Comrade Oluwaseun Adewuyi and Endwell coordinator, Comrade Gabriel Adeyanju.
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The endwell, a savings scheme introduced and coordinated by the NUT in the state, is popular among teachers and its purpose is to create a monetary pool for teachers to fall back on immediately after retirement before they start to receive pension and receive other entitlement – gratuity – from the government they had served for 35 unbroken years. The scheme is structured in such a way that subscribers while in service have certain amounts deducted periodically, and this lump sum with over 200 percent interest rate is received at retirement. It is a scheme willingly subscribed to.
However, as stated, only interested teachers subscribe to the scheme with deductions usually made four times in a year – February, April, July and October. Meanwhile, trouble started in the school earlier this year when some teachers in the school who are not subscribers discovered deductions were made in their salaries, that was in the February salary. “We promptly approached our account clerk, Mr. Bamidele Oladeji, who showed us the voucher that he never made the deduction on the voucher,” a teacher in the school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity told ogbomosoinsightonline.com.
The agitated teachers through their account clerk made further enquiries at the Oyo State Post Primary School Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) zonal office Ogbomoso, with the officials there also showing evidence that the deduction was not made at their end. The TESCOM zonal office receives monthly vouchers from all secondary schools in the zone, vets and sends to the headquarters in Ibadan, the state capital, for onward transmission to the Ministry of Finance, which disburses the salaries.
There was a promise to look into it, but the same error was committed in April and again repeated when the July salary came in few days ago. This stirred the agitation of the affected teachers further and so, they vented their anger again on their school’s account clerk, Mr. Oladeji, who in turn contacted the necessary quarters according to him during a phone interview with ogbomosoinsightonline.com. He was harassed by the affected teachers but he continued to explain it was not his doing. This fueled his anger too making him to react negatively and without decorum on the social media, alleging NUT officials of being behind the supposed heist, describing NUT exco as “419” in a social media group. “I was being alleged of what was not my doing,” he retorted in the interview with Ogbomoso Insight.
His sweeping accusation was what brought NUT leadership to the school Friday morning to express displeasure and to caution the account clerk but “anger met anger” provoking the little commotion, which temporarily disrupted activities in the school as the aggrieved teachers derided the NUT officials. But the matter was quickly brought under control.
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In the meantime, the matter had been settled with the account clerk, Oladeji apologizing for his “lack of decorum.” It is learnt that the issue got to the ears of the Head of Zone, TESCOM, Ogbomoso, Mr. Subomi Adedoyin, a former NUT unionist himself, who summoned a meeting inviting all the parties, including the immediate past chairman of NUT in the state, Prince Tojuade Adedoyin. Prince Adedoyin had also visited the school after the earlier altercation to calm tension, it was learnt, a move he confirmed.
Now, it had been found neither party was responsible for the “illegal deduction” of the endwell dues of non-subscribers. Perhaps it is an oversight or a mistake committed at the point of salary disbursement.
Further investigations revealed such wrongful deductions of endwell dues had happened to some other teachers including non-teaching staff members in some schools in the past but which was later refunded after complaints were made. “But the refund was not effected in time,” it was discovered.
Meanwhile, Mr. Oladeji had issued a statement made available to Ogbomoso Insight in which he retracted his accusation against the NUT and tendered an apology to the union.
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“I retract the accusation I made against the NUT, it was done in a fit of anger and in a moment of indiscretion. I was provoked to make such allegation because I was being alleged too of something I did not do and the NUT was not forthcoming. I have now known better that it was not actually the fault of NUT. And so, I retract my accusation and I apologize to the union wholeheartedly,” Oladeji stated in the release signed by him.
He regretted his action had “caused inconvenience and embarrassment to the great union,” adding, “It is a misrepresentation and an unfounded maligning of executive committee members of the NUT committed in a moment of anger. I apologize.”
Prince Tojuade Adedoyin informed Ogbomoso Insight that such mistakes do occur, pointing out, “It is never our fault and that the money is never refunded in time is also not out fault. Before government (which assists us to make the deduction at source), remits the monthly dues paid by teachers and endwell subscriptions to the union it takes time and it is after such is remitted that NUT can now make the refund, after ascertaining its veracity, to the staff, whose salaries were wrongly deducted.”
But the matter had now been amicably resolved with the assurance the mistaken deductions would be addressed and the monies refunded in due course.
