El-Rufai plans to sack 4,180 LG workers – NULGE

The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) yesterday took on the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on his plan to sack teachers in the state for failing a competency test.

The national president of the union, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleed, while addressing newsmen in Abeokuta, Ogun State, faulted the competency test, alleging that dead and retired teachers were among those who passed the test. Khaleed, who also doubles as the National Treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) insisted that there is nowhere in the world where 75 per cent is used as pass-mark.

“The governor is all out to downsize, he was never concerned about teachers’ competency in the state because we learnt reliably that he is trying to get loan from the World Bank and one of the conditions for the loan is that he must downsize.

“We also learnt that even dead people and people that retired long before he became governor passed the competency test,” he said.

Khaleed also alleged that Governor El-Rufai was planning to sack 4,180 local government workers.

“Immediately we got the news about the plan to sack 21,780 teachers for allegedly failing the competency test and 4,180 local government workers, we went to Kaduna and staged a protest. We stated our position clearly and our position is that the Kaduna State government must reverse the decision,” he said.

Khaleed expressed his satisfaction with the National Assembly’s constitutional reform which supports local government autonomy.