The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has raised the alarm over an alleged plan by northern governors to sack teachers and other workers in their states, warning that the oppressed workers would vote out hostile political leaders in 2019.
It warned the governors against retrenching workers, and flayed Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State for allegedly stating that other northern governors would replicate his policy and retrench teachers and other cadres of workers.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, in a statement in Abuja on Monday, said the governors should not emulate el-Rufai who he said was “bent on marketing his profound proclivity for mischief to his fellow governors.”
Wabba said, “It has been brought to our attention, statements credited to the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Nasir El-Rufai, over plans by other northern governors’ to follow his ruinous path of sacking teachers in their state employment.”
“The organised labour wishes to remind El-Rufai that he is not God, after all. He and other northern governors possess a voter card each. Citizens at the receiving end of their unpopular and de-humanising policies are in the majority. In 2019, we will ensure that the votes of the oppressed and victimised count all over Nigeria,” he added.
By announcing that his fellow northern governors would replicate his policy, the NLC President said el-Rufai had already declared his own election and those of the governors he was purportedly speaking for, “a fait accompli.”
The congress called on the governors to disown El-Rufai and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to caution El-Rufai.
