By Yusinyu Omer
In a statement issued on May 6th 2022, the Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atang Nji said they have been reliably informed that a group of unscrupulous guys have ganged themselves under the canopy of OTS and OTA to continue with what government has already been solving through the prime Minister and the ministries concerned with education.
In the statement, he said the prime Minister so far have been having consultative talks with the ministries involved as well as the various recognized groups as instructed by the Head of State Mr Paul Biya to take urgent actions to the concerns raised by these teachers. He therefore instructed Regional Governors on how to handle the situation on the field.
As at now, minister Atanga Nji said, it appears that OTS and OTA movements have over a hundred representatives, coupled with the fact that at each moment, government has to meet new intercessors with additional grievances.
The press release also stated that the measures prescribed by the HEAD OF STATE are already perceptible for many teachers through the salaries of March and April 2022 which is a demonstration of Government’s firm will to progressively resolve the problems raised in this sensitive sector, despite their considerable financial impact on the State budget.
“We can also mention, among other things, the considerable reduction in the processing time of integration files and the advancement of teachers, an innovation that deserves to be commended”, he added.
The document also carried that the Government had in good faith associated teachers who claimed to be OTS or OTA movements to the consultations which, in principle concerned only legally education sector unions that had a legal existence. This according to the Minister was undoubtedly a posture of appeasement and openness which is not synonymous with weakness.
Minister Atanga Nji also stated that some of the teachers claiming to be part of the “OTS’ and ‘OTA’ movements were caught in the middle of a meeting with leaders of political parties and NGOs. That the subject of the exchanges they had, had nothing to do with the teachers’ grievances, but rather with political plans of an insurrectionary nature. Those who participated in the political meeting are currently being tracked and will face the law squarely