Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi may have thrown his weight behind the threat by the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai to sack teachers that joined the ongoing strike in the State.
He also reiterated that teachers competency test remained one of the major policies of the All Progressives Congress (APC) aimed at reviving education in the country.
Dr Fayemi, who met El-Rufai in Abuja on Monday night was said to have saluted the Kaduna State governor for “being a man” and standing firm on his decision to revive education in the State through Teachers Competency Test.
Teachers in public secondary and primary schools in Kaduna State began an indefinite strike action on Monday, over the sack of more than 22,000 of their colleagues. The strike was called by the state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT). The government however threatened to sack any teacher that joined the strike.
A group of youths in the north, under the auspices of Northern Youths Movement (NYM), had fingered Dr Fayemi as the brain behind the Competency Test organized for teachers in Kaduna State last year, which led to the sack of over 22,000 teachers in the State.
The youths said it was Dr Fayemi who brought the consultant that conducted the competency test, which they said was done purposely to reduce the number of teachers in Kaduna State and also raise money for his (Fayemi) governorship election.
Sources very close to Governor El-Rufai told our reporter he met with Dr Fayemi for over one hour on Monday night to review the ongoing teachers strike and assured the governor that “heaven will not fall if the policy of no work, no pay is enforced on the striking teachers.”
Dr Fayemi, a former governor of Ekiti State was said to have lamented that he could have also insisted on the Competency Test when he was governor, vowing that the policy will be implemented if APC returns to power in Ekiti State.
Credit: Oluwole Ogunlola
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