Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sack threat: El-Rufai only witch-hunting Kaduna teachers – NUT president

The Nigeria Union of Teachers has accused the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, of witch-hunting teachers in the state.
NUT National President, Mr. Michael Alogba, said this in a chat with our correspondent against the backdrop of threats by Governor El-Rufai to sack 21,000 teachers in the state for failing competency test.
Alogba said that the Teachers Registration Council, rather than the governor, had the power to dismiss teachers from service, urging the Kaduna governor to follow due legal procedure in relieving the teachers of their jobs.
“Let us follow the legal way. That he is a governor doesn’t mean he knows how to conduct test. Conducting a test is not under his legal powers as a governor. The law makes it clear that the body known as the Teachers Registration Council is the only statutory body that can administer tests to teachers,” he said.
The NUT president noted that although it was very embarrassing to learn that teachers could not pass examinations meant for the students they had taught at one time or the other, El-Rufai should be asked about the nature of the questions that were set for the teachers during the test.
Alogba said, “We went through the questions and found out that most of them were irrelevant questions. The question you should ask is: What was the nature of the questions that were set for the teachers? We have gone through the questions he was asking our teachers, there are many irrelevant questions like ‘who is the Bayelsa State chairman of SUBEB? Who is the commissioner of police in Bayelsa State? Another thing you should ask is: How did these teachers secure employment in Kaduna State?
“We are not surprised by El-Rufai’s conduct. He did a similar thing when he was the Federal Capital Territory minister a few years ago. People are still suffering from his maladministration. So, my candid advice is that if it is true that he is an advocate of positive change, he should know that sacking en masse for whatever reason is wrong.”
Olukoya said that if the governor actually wanted to make any positive impact on the state’s education sector, he should set up an education committee, made up of leaders and technocrats that would prescribe and recommend strategies on revamping the sector in his state.
“El-rufai should see education as a problem in his own state rather than making an unnecessary noise everywhere. The civil service rules are very clear; he claims he will put them off and recruit new teachers, but is this payment in the budget? Is he paying regular salaries? Are the local government councils in Kaduna paying? So, for us, this is nothing but a witch hunt,” he said.
Alogba, therefore, called on stakeholders and the appropriate authorities to intervene in the matter so as to forestall any problem that the governor’s action might cause in future.
”I want to appeal to all Nigerians to prevail on Governor El-Rufai to change his approach. His plan to send 21,000 people into the labour market in one fell swoop is not the best solution to the problems he claims to have in Kaduna,” he said.

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