Many govs are delaying sacking teachers until after 2019 because they aren’t as ‘reckless’ as me- El-Rufai

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State claims that many governors of northern states have told him that they were impressed with his education reforms which have led to the controversial mass sacking of teachers, attributing their delay in following suit to lack of courage because of the political cost.

El-Rufai made this disclosure this while speaking at the 4th distinguished guest lecture of the University of Medical Science, Ondo state.

Earlier in the year, the governor sacked over 21,000 teachers after failing competency test.

El-Rufai said after he took the action, many of his colleagues in the north told him that what he did was right.

He said they could not however summon the courage to do the same before the election.

“We have different governors’ fora in the country. We also have the Northern Governors’ Forum, where we share experiences. I can tell you that many of my colleagues from the northern states told me that what I was doing was right,” he said.

“They told me that they had more serious cases in their states, but they couldn’t do anything about the problems. So I think after the next election, you will see a lot of the reforms happening because many of the governors will decide to do the same thing.

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“It is just that they are not as reckless as I am. We took a collective decision because it was the right thing to do. If you don’t do this, why not walk away from the governor’s seat? What is more important to me is education. Many of my colleagues have talked to me in private that they would do the same thing (sack teachers) after the election.”

El-Rufai said he knew his administration was making the right decision when they started receiving support from “top Nigerians”.

“I am very grateful to Mr President. He came out clearly and supported what we did in Kaduna. No professor of education supported us,” he said.

“We had to ask ourselves questions repeatedly, if we were doing the right thing or not. But the moment we started receiving support from top Nigerians, we were convinced that we were on the right track.”

 

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