Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports.
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State, has threatened to fire lecturers at Kaduna State University (KASU) and declare their positions vacant if they do not return to the classrooms.
The lecturers are participating in the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ ongoing strike (ASUU).
El-Rufai stated on Wednesday night during a live Hausa program on local radio stations in Kaduna that the state government has no issues with lecturers at the state-owned university and that they should not participate in the ASUU strike.
“ASUU has a problem with the federal government, not the state government,” he claims.
He claimed that the Acting Vice Chancellor of KASU had assured him that the lectures would resume, and he had inquired as to whether they had done so “because I initially instructed that their salary be stopped.”
“Whoever joined the strike will not be paid,” the governor stated. We have told the KASU lecturers that they have no issues with the state government.
“Because ASUU’s issue is with the federal government, why will our employees, who have no issues with us, join the strike?”
“If this continues,” El-Rufai warned, “I swear to God, I will wake up one day to sack them all!”
We will fire them all and fill their positions on the front pages of the newspapers.
“They did the same thing before and we warned them; now they’ve done it again.”
“I’m just waiting for the Commissioner of Education’s report.” I swear to God, if the strikers refuse to return to work, we will fire them.”
In response to the outcome of the APC presidential primary, the governor stated that he and other APC governors were fully behind the Tinubu-Shettima ticket and would work tirelessly to ensure their success in 2023, “because they have proven to be good leaders as governors in their respective states.”
He also denied rumors that he was appointed as the Director General of the Presidential campaign, saying that he was given an assignment on campaign processes and would soon meet with the APC party chairman and colleagues to discuss the 2023 election.
He urged Nigerians not to vote for the opposition PDP again, claiming that the PDP men embezzled and bought houses in foreign countries.
In response to rumors that he intends to leave the APC, El-Rufai stated that he was among those who founded the party and that he would never leave it.
“How could a father abandon his daughter?” “I will never abandon the APC,” he stated emphatically.
He also dismissed the idea of becoming a minister after leaving office as governor, stating that he was a minister at the age of 43 and would not want to be one again at the age of 63.
He also claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari was unaware of the terrorist threat to kidnap both of them.
He claimed that for the past five years, he has been advocating for the bombing of terrorist training camps, claiming that it is the only solution to the security challenges.
“Insecurity is a major issue, and what’s troubling is that, despite our efforts at the state level, the situation is deteriorating.”
“It’s affecting our efforts to bring investors into the state, and even those who have invested aren’t seeing the expected results,” he said.
Meanwhile, an APC chieftain, Chief Sam Nkire, has stated that the country cannot afford to shut down all sectors of the economy due to the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) solidarity strike with university workers who are on strike.
Nkire stated this in a statement issued yesterday, in which he also urged the federal government to act quickly to avert the looming solidarity strike in the interest of national peace and unity.
“The country could not afford to shut down all labor activities in the country at this point in time, when political, economic, and social situations are boiling at very high temperatures,” Nkire stated.
He urged both parties in the dispute to consider the nation’s current economic and security situations, as well as the plight of the idle student population, and to resolve the issues in a spirit of give and take.
He accused ASUU of being insensitive to Nigerian students’ suffering and academic losses.
