The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Kaduna State on Wednesday tackled the state Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, over the sacking of over 21,000 teachers in the state.
While the teachers accused the governor of a desperate move to frustrate the court injunction restraining him from sacking the teachers, El-Rufai argued that the state had sacked the teachers before the National Industrial Court judgment.
The union and the state government had drawn a battle line over the sacking of the over 21,000 teachers that failed a Primary Four competency test conducted by the government.
The government later advertised for vacant positions of the sacked teachers. To prevent this, the NUT hurriedly dragged the state to the National Industrial Court for arbitration.
The Kaduna Division of the NIC on December 14, 2017 stopped the planned sacking of 21,780 primary schoolteachers who failed a competency test conducted by the state government.
However, in a radio interview on the state-owned Kaduna Media Corporation, the governor said the issue of the sacked teachers was sealed before the judgment of the NIC.
He said the state had sacked the affected teachers who failed the competency test set by the government before the court judgment.
The governor even went ahead to lash out at the leadership of the NUT for patronising private primary schools, allowing public primary schools to rot away.
He said an investigation carried out indicated that no children of the NUT leaders in the state was attending public primary schools.
He also vowed to enrol his son Abubakar Sadique when he clocks six in the public school.
El-Rufai had said, ”My son, Abubakar Sadiq, is four years old now. In the next two years when he is six, whether or not I am the governor of Kaduna State, I will enrol him in a public primary school and I urge other public officials in Kaduna to do the same.”
But, the NUT at a press conference on Wednesday in Kaduna, said El-Rufai was making desperate efforts to frustrate the interlocutory injunction stopping the sacking of the teachers pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
The state NUT chairman, Mr. Audu Amba and the state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Ango Adamu, said they were surprised to hear from the governor that the court was wrong in restraining him from sacking the teachers.
Amba, who spoke at the media briefing, called on the governor to obey the court order
He said, “Our attention has also been drawn to the fact that the Kaduna State Government despite the service of the order of interlocutory injunction on it, is now making frantic and desperate efforts to frustrate the outcome of the suit in court by directing the education secretaries in all local government areas to come over to SUBEB and collect back-dated letters of disengagement from service for onward distribution to teachers in their respective local governments.
“We are appalled by the pronouncement of the governor as aforesaid. Our belief is that the accepted norm in all civilised societies is for the Kaduna State Government to appeal against the decision of the National Industrial Court instead of resorting to an unfounded criticism of same.
“We believe that the rule of law is the bedrock of democracy and any government or institution that refuses to bow to the dictates of the rule of law automatically loses its legitimacy to superintend the affairs of its citizenry.
“We therefore implore and appeal to the conscience of the Kaduna State governor and all its institutions to subordinate themselves to the judicial powers of our law courts as enshrined under section 6a of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which is our organic law from which government at all levels exist and draw their legitimacy.”
