El-Rufai Threatens to Sack KASU Lecturers over ASUU Strike

*Insists solution to insecurity is to bomb terrorists’ camps 

John Shiklam in Kaduna and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has threatened to sack lecturers of the Kaduna State University (KASU) and declare their positions vacant if they don’t return to the classrooms.

The lecturers are part of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
El-Rufai who spoke during a live Hausa programme on local radio stations in Kaduna on Wednesday night, said the state government has no issues with lecturers in the state own university and so they should not be part of the ASUU strike.

According to him, “ASUU has problem with the federal government, not the state government.”
He said the Acting Vice Chancellor of KASU had assured him that the lectures would resume work and he had asked to find out if they actually resumed work “because I initially instructed that their salary be stopped.”
The governor said, “whoever joined the strike will not be paid salary. We have been telling the KASU lecturers that they have no problem with the state government.

“ASUU’s problem is with the federal government, therefore why will our staff who have no problems with us join the strike?”
El-Rufai warned that, “If this continues, I will wake up one day to sack them all, I swear to God!
“We will sack them all and declare their positions vacant on the pages of newspaper.
“They once did same thing and we gave them warning, now they have repeated it.
“I’m only waiting to receive the report from the Commissioner for Education. I swear to God, we will sack all those that joined the strike if they refuse to resume work.”

Also commenting on the outcome of the APC presidential primary, the governor said he and other APC governors were fully in support of the Tinubu-Shettima ticket and would work assiduously for their success in 2023, “because they have proven to be good leaders as governors in their respective states.”

He also dismissed speculations that he was appointed as the Director General of the Presidential campaign, saying however that he was saddled with an assignment on the campaign processes and would soon meet the APC party chairman with colleagues to deliberate on the 2023 election.
He called on Nigerians never to vote for the opposition PDP again, alleging that the PDP men embezzled and bought houses overseas.
Reacting to rumours that he plans to leave the APC, El-Rufai said he was among those that created the APC, saying he would never leave the party.
“How can a father leave his daughter? I will never abandon the APC,” he said.

He also debunked the idea of becoming a minister after leaving office as governor, saying he was minister at age 43 and would not like to be minister again at 63.
He also said President Muhammadu Buhari was not aware of the threat by terrorists to abduct both of them as the president was not aware of the threat.
He said he had been advocating for the bombing of terrorists’ camps in the past five years, insisting that it was the only solution to the security challenges.
“Insecurity is a major challenge and the disturbing thing is that, despite our efforts at the state level, the situation is getting worse.

“It is affecting our efforts to bring investors into the state and even those that have invested, their business is not moving as expected,” he said.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the APC, Chief Sam Nkire has said the country cannot afford to shut down all sectors of the economy due to the solidarity strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) with university workers who are on strike.
Nkire stated this in a statement issued yesterday, where he also called on the federal government to urgently take action to avert the looming solidarity strike in the interest of peace and unity of the country.
Nkire stated: “The country could not afford to shut down all labour activities in the country at this point in time, when political, economic and social situations are boiling at very high temperatures.”

He appealed to both parties in the dispute to consider the present economic and security situations in the nation, as well as the plight of the idle student population and apply the spirit of give and take in resolving the issues involved.
He described ASUU as being insensitive towards the suffering and academic losses of the Nigerian students.