Nigeria, May 19 -- In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, right in the heart of Nigeria's seat of power, pupils in public primary schools have remained at home with public primary schools shut as a result of the industrial action embarked upon by primary school teachers over wages.

What this means is that for more than two months now, human capital development in children from low-income households has completely ground to a halt, stalled by the strike of their teachers.

As is customary with industrial actions, there was surely a flurry of engagements between the teachers and the government and a series of warnings and interventions. If none of these worked, the only reasonable conclusion is that someone did not do enough to prevent w...