Facilitators of the National Teachers Institute (NTI) across the country have lamented the reluctance of the Federal Government of Nigeria to pay them their salaries for over a year.

FIJ learned that the last time the federal government paid the NTI facilitators was in 2020, shortly after the federal government eased the coronavirus lockdown.

Oloyede Famodimu (not real name), an NTI facilitator in Lagos, told FIJ that this year marked the fourth semester that NTI facilitators would be owed salaries by the federal government.

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“They did not pay us at all in 2021. They owe us our honorarium for 2021 and part of our honorarium for 2020. They owe us three semesters’ honorarium now, and this one will be the fourth semester,” Famodimu told FIJ.

He said he wondered why the federal government owed them when the students paid their school, exams, and project fees in full.

“Any student that fails to pay their school fees will not write exams, so why do they owe us. They should just pay us our money,” he said.

Famodimu said lecturers were entitled to a certain amount of money based on the units of courses they teach and the number of students and that he wondered why facilitators were owed salaries.

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Another facilitator from Ogun State, who asked not to be named, said their salary was overdue. He said the federal government had refused to pay despite their students paying all their fees.

“It is, in fact, a reality that the federal government has owed us for more than a year,” he told FIJ. “Since 2020, they have withheld our money. We continue to teach because we believe someday they will pay.”

When FIJ called the NTI via a phone number on their website, it rang but was unanswered. At press time, they had not responded to a text sent to them.

FIJ also placed several calls to the Federal Ministry of Education via the phone number displayed on their website, but it was switched off. They are yet to respond to a text message sent to them.

The NTI is a single-mode distance learning institution focused on teacher education. Headquartered in Kaduna, the NTI is the number one training and certification institute for teachers in Nigeria.