Former Governor of Ekiti State and incumbent Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi has been fingered as the brain behind the Competency Test organized for teachers in Kaduna State, which has put the jobs of over 20,000 teachers in the State on the line.
Northern Youths Movement (NYM), which made this known in a release issued after its meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, warned the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai against going ahead with his threat to sack over 20,000 teachers that purportedly failed the competency test.
NYM Chairman, Mallam Ishaya Jato, said in a communique he signed on behalf the youths that it was Dr Kayode 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.
Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna state had expressed his resolve to go ahead with the planned sack of over 20,000 teachers who failed a controversial competency test organised by the government. He said his administration will not be blackmailed by threats from the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) that vowed to down tools if the government sacked its members.
The governor went further to say that recruitment plans for new
teachers had already been put in motion.
In their reaction, youths under the umbrella of NYM said it was
Fayemi, who is a close ally of Governor El-Rufai that sold the idea of the competency test to the governor and went on to provide the consultant that conducted the test.
They alleged that over N500 million was made from the competency test deal, which they said was also aimed at raising fund for Fayemi’s electioneering campaign in 2018.
The NYM also raised the alarm that idea of the competency test was already being sold to other northern states, accusing Fayemi of trying to destroy the educational system in the north, with Teachers Competency Test that they said Ekiti State Teachers resisted when Fayemi tried to impose it on them when he was governor.
They vowed to report the Minister of Mines and Steel Development to President Muhammadu Buhari and other notable northern leaders.
Calling on teachers in Kaduna State to resist Governor El-Rufai’s plan to sack over 20,000 of them, the youths pledged their support for the teachers, vowing to join in the fight against the governor’s plan to destroy the lives of over 20,000 families by throwing their bread-winners into the labour market.