Nasir El Rufai threatens to sack 20,000 teachers

Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El Rufai has vowed that no amount of threat from labour union would make his government back down from sacking the 22,000 teachers who failed competence tests and replace them with 25,000 new qualified ones.

But reacting to the threat in a network radio interview in Kaduna, governor El Rufai said rather than threaten to go on strike, the NUT should be embarrassed by the incompetence of its members adding that “there is no bigger evidence of the crisis in our society than that a union whose members failed a Primary 4 examination thinks it can create problems over the issue rather than be a part of the solution.

“Everybody knows that we will not be deterred in doing what is right for the future of our children. The NUT thinks this is about politics, making a public show of opposing what they know to be right. Shouldn’t everybody be embarrassed by the test results? Where is the sense of shame? I hear some people say the pass mark for a Primary Four exam should be 60%; the same people say the state government has no right to test the competence of its employees. There is no bigger evidence of the crisis in our society than that a union whose members failed a Primary 4 examination thinks it can create problems over the issue rather than be a part of the solution.