The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Edo says the 19-day-old strike it recently suspended in the state was not politically motivated to derail the government’s educational programmes.

The union said this in a communiqué jointly signed by its Chairman, Pius Okhueleigbe; the Assistant Secretary General, Moni Mike, and three others.

The union said it was reacting to remarks credited to Governor Godwin Obaseki at a recent public function in Benin.

Mr. Obaseki had, on Monday during the launch of ‘Let’s Go to School’ and ‘Parents First’ campaigns in Benin, blamed the industrial action by the NUT on a section of its leadership that wanted to continue to politicise education.

“Let me make it clear that we do not have any problem or challenge with our teachers. The 11,000 teachers trained for the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme are amazing.

“We have worked together and grown together in the last few years. They have been very supportive, but unfortunately, what you saw the last time was not the teachers.

“It was a part of the leadership of their union that has become political. The union wants to play politics with the lives of our children; we have no problem with our teachers in Edo.

“We have a problem with a section of the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) that wants to continue to politicise education.

“They want to derail what we have started with EdoBEST in the name of politics, and I have said that as the governor of Edo, who was popularly elected by Edo people, I am ready to fight with anybody that wants to joke with the lives of the school children.

“We are not going to negotiate lawlessness. We are not going to be intimated. We are ready to fight as long as you want to derail EdoBEST,” Mr. Obaseki had said.

Refuting the governor’s claim, the union said, “At the end of the enlarged meeting SWEC-in-session, the union re-affirmed that the state leadership of the union is never in any way being used politically to derail the programmes of Edo state government as claimed in some quarters.

The union urged Mr. Obaseki not to use the suspended strike to victimise its members.