…Threatens showdown with him
From: Magnus Eze, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to call Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State to order by persuading him to rescind the sack of 5,000 local government workers in the state.
The NLC strongly condemned the purported sack, stressing that aside contradicting the APC manifesto, it also violated the provisions of all known labour laws and industrial relations practice as well as processes.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, in a statement, in Abuja, on Thursday, said the reasons adduced by the Kafuna State Government were spurious, unfounded and the process patently faulty and unlawful.
The labour leader also disclosed that the labour would not hesitate to mobilise Nigerian workers nationwide and their civil society allies to ground the state if the Kaduna State Government failed to rescind the sack.
According to Wabba, “When the Government of Kaduna State announced to the whole world its plan to lay off about 25,000 teachers for failing a competency test for Primary Four Class, we not only expressed our misgivings, we said the so-called competency test was a subterfuge and part of a premeditated plan to drastically cut down the workforce in furtherance of dangerous neoliberal policies.
“The latest illegal mass sack of workers lends credence to our assertions or fears. We would want to warn of the consequences of the reckless actions of the government of Kaduna State and will call for caution and restraint on the part of the government.
“It is evident that the government has not given sufficient consideration to the social consequences of laying off en masse 5,000 workers.
“We also find it necessary to remind the Governor here that Mr President’s support for a reform in the education sector is not synonymous with mindless and conscienceless retrenchment. Some states in the federation have carried out far-reaching reforms in the education sector with impressive results without causing this level of social violence.”