01-11-2018, 10:27 AM
The police have warned the organised labour against holding any solidarity rally in Kaduna in support of the 20,000 primary schoolteachers that the state government plans to sack.
The President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, had said the Nigerian workers would observe Thursday (today) as a day of solidarity with the Kaduna workers, especially teachers, currently on an indefinite strike in the state.
The solidarity rally was aimed at forcing the state government to reverse its plan to sack the teachers that it considered unqualified to teach in its schools.
But the Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Mr. Agyole Abbe, while briefing journalists at the state command’s headquarters in Kaduna, warned that the police in the state could not guarantee the security of the labour union because the state was just coming out of a crisis.
The police boss said, “We wish to remind them that the last incident relating to the same issues of teachers where the organised labour union staged what was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned out to be a breach of the public peace in the state which resulted in chaos and destruction of some property of government especially at the Kaduna State House of Assembly.
“It is also in the interest of the good people of Kaduna State to note that those who might be contemplating to come to Kaduna to foment trouble are strictly advised to stay away from the state as the command is prepared to deal decisively with any such person or group.”
But Wabba has described the police threat as undemocratic, stating that his union wrote to the Inspector-General, Ibrahim Idris, about the planned protest.
“Nobody has told us, we wrote to the IG, secondly, this is undemocratic, what the law says is that the police should provide security, protest is a constitutional provision,” he noted.
Asked if the union would defy the police and go ahead with the protest, Wabba simply said, “They have not communicated to us, we communicated to them in writing that we are going to protest, it is a fundamental human rights globally.”
However, Governor Nasir el-Rufai said his administration must serve the ordinary people of the state and not only trade union members.
He noted that no amount of sentiments or strike would make him mortgage the future of the over two million schoolchildren in the state.
El-Rufai’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, stated this at a press conference which held at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna.
He said, “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 craven 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.”
He added, “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.”http://punchng.com/teachers-strike-dont-...-warn-nlc/