Over 30,000 sacked civil servants in the state on a protest in Kaduna today
Police would not leave anything to chances
Kaduna government say they are making public primary schools better for the sake of citizens
By AbdulRaheem Aodu, Kaduna, and Moses John, Abuja
Between the Kaduna state government, led by Governor Nasir El-Rufai on the one hand, and the Ayuba Wabba-led Nigeria Labour Congress on the other, it is going to be a battle royale.
While Wabba will lead the over 30,000 sacked civil servants in the state on a protest in Kaduna today, the state capital, government has obtained an arrest warrant to pick up any individual or group that threatens the peace of the state.
Further to the above, the state police command has warned that it would not tolerate any lawlessness, saying it never granted permit for the planned protest.
Specifically, the police said giving the experience of a similar rally late last year during which public utilities were destroyed; they would not leave anything to chances.
But the organised labour is insisting that there is no going back, stressing that the warrant was only meant to intimidate its members to chicken out of the planned rally.
Today’s peaceful protest is the climax of the controversy that had greeted the sack of of 21,780 primary school teachers who failed competence test, and other classes of workers in the state employ.
Cautioning the workers, the state government noted that there is no guarantee that the rally will be peaceful.
To avert any untoward development, government said it had obtained arrest warrants against those that perpetrated the violence at the State House of Assembly last November.
Sounding the warning through his media aide, Samuel Aruwan, the governor told journalists in Kaduna that his government was encouraged by the overwhelming support of parents for its education reforms.
According to him, ordinary people clearly understood that the government was making public primary schools better for the sake of citizens and over 2 million pupils.
Aruwan said: “The last time the NLC and NUT organised what they called a peaceful rally, they attacked the Kaduna state House of Assembly and destroyed public property in addition to engaging in unlawful assembly and other violations of the Penal Code of Kaduna state. “The Attorney General of Kaduna state has filed criminal complaints and has obtained bench warrants for the arrest of those involved in fomenting the chaos of Wednesday, 8th November, 2017.
“The citizens have seen failed teachers and NUT-disrupted schools as they try to force others to join the strike, and they know that it is the government that is standing for their interests. The state government believes in the equality of opportunity, and is devoted to promoting social mobility through education and skills. It is the children of the poor that attend public primary schools, and public schools must not offer inferior education.
“The government’s programmes since 2015 have been propelled by a need to improve the learning environment and the quality of teaching. It has guaranteed nine years of free basic education in its public schools, and is determined that only qualified teachers will be allowed to mould the minds of the 2 million pupils currently in public primary schools.”
The governor reiterated that “no amount of sentiments will result in subjugating the future of these two million children to the caprices of poor teachers, not strikes, not blackmail, not even indulgence in tired clichés.
“The urgency of serving our people does not permit us to retain unqualified or redundant workers just because they were able to sneak in. Perhaps, the labour unions are unable to identify or grapple with the great issues of the day if they are not prompted by external actors, but not every social actor shares that affliction.”
“There is no way to even contemplate retaining teachers who have failed badly, and who are actually in need of adult education classes in literacy and numeracy. The Kaduna state has disengaged failing teachers. 25,000 new teachers will replace the almost 22,000 that have proven unsuitable. The recruitment process will continue until we find the right calibre of teachers. The scripts of the 43,000 applicants who sat for teacher recruitment exams have been marked, and are being collated. The next phase is to interview and screen the candidates that passed the recruitment test,” Aruwan said.
…Police too warn
Speaking in similar vein, the state Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh, said there was no police permit for the rally.
He said considering the sensitive nature of the state and the fact that it was just coming out of one crisis, the rally could be hijacked by criminals and miscreants to cause breakdown of law and order and hold the state to ransoms, which he said the police will not condone.
No going back –Labour
However, both the state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Titus Amba, and the NLC president, insisted nothing would stop the rally.
According to Amba, “Governor el-Rufai’s plan to sack almost 22,000 teachers out of the 31,000 workforce, was purely a means of cutting cost to the detriment of the teachers, some of whom have put over 30 years into the job. Some of these teachers had produced medical doctors, lawyers, professors and you say they are incompetent.”
…Wabba too
Speaking in a statement yesterday, Comrade Wabba said, the union has “credible information that the Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has mobilised thugs to disrupt workers peaceful protest tomorrow.
He said: “We also have information that the Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State Command, has said all protests in the state remain banned.”
“We wish to use this opportunity to let the governor and his cohorts know that our members from across the country are fully mobilised in Kaduna, and nothing, absolutely nothing, will stop them from peacefully protesting against his mindless policies on Thursday, November 11, 2018.
“We also wish to let the world know that he (governor) has made this peaceful protest inevitable by his refusal to fully submit himself to the conciliation process by the Federal Ministry of Labour.
“We are in a democracy governed by the rule of law and not the caprice of a vindictive mind out to satisfy only the whims of the World Bank and the IMF.
“Finally, we also wish to call upon the Inspector General of Police and the leaderships of other relevant security agencies to caution,” he added.
Corroborating Wabba’s position, NLC General Secretary, Dr Peter Ezo Eson, said, “we are here and the governor and his thugs cannot stop the workers. So, I am assuming you we are going ahead with protest as scheduled to commence tomorrow morning (today).”
