HURIWA carpets Kaduna government over sack of 2,357 teachers
Emmanuel Onwubiko
Makes case for Supreme Court justices’ welfare
Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has taken the Kaduna State Government to the cleaners over “vindictive, illegal and wicked dismissal” of 2,357 teachers, including the President of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Audu Amba, for allegedly failing or refusing to sit for the competency test organised by the State Universal Basic Education Board (KADSUBEB).
The civil rights advocacy group described the development as a self-help measure by Governor Nasir el-Rufai, for political reasons, to get back on the workers for protesting against his inhuman policies.
According to HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the position of the Kaduna chairman of NUT, Ibrahim Dalhatu, that the competency test and dismissal of the teachers are illegal, is the correct position of the employment law because, ab initio, the teachers’ conditions of service do not include the competency test, which contravenes Section 42 of the Constitution.
It noted that the governor, being an employee of Kaduna voters, and his appointees were not subjected to such competency test, thereby making the policy discriminatory.
HURIWA recalled that KADSUBEB had stated on Sunday that it conducted a competency test for over 30,000 teachers in December 2021.
In another development, he rights group recalled a letter leaked by the justices, in which members of Nigeria’s judiciary expressed concern over their budgetary allocation, which had reportedly not been increased in the last four years.
“We are serving this country diligently and to the best of our ability. We resolve disputes between the executive and the legislature, between governments and individuals. It would be a tragedy if the Nigerian public were to know that we are unable to resolve our own problems internally without going public.
“The decision to write to you formally must be seen by Your Lordship as an effort on our part to preserve the dignity of the judiciary and the respect accorded to us by governments and people of Nigeria,” the letter reads.
The issues raised by the justices in the letter include the failure to replace old vehicles, accommodation problems, poor healthcare services at the Supreme Court clinic and poor electricity supply to the apex court.
The justices also lamented the increase in electricity tariffs, no modified allowances to reflect the increase in diesel prices and lack of Internet services in their chambers.
Calling the attention of the Chief Justice to an internal memo served by the Chief Registrar, which notified judges that electricity would be supplied to the court between 08:00a.m. and 04:00p.m. daily, due to the lack of diesel, the letter added: “The implication of this memo is that the Justices must finish their work and close before 04:00p.m. Your Lordship, with all due respect, this is the peak of the degeneration of the court; it is the height of decadence, and clear evidence of the absence of probity and moral rectitude.”
