El-Rufai To KASU Lecturers: “Stop Strike or Get Sacked”

BY: Mohammed Oluwatimileyin Taoheed reports,

Nasir el-Rufai, the incumbent Governor of Kaduna State and a major stakeholder of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has issued a threat of dismissal to the striking lecturers of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of Kaduna State University (KASU) if they refused to return to lecture rooms.

El-Rufai made this known during a live radio programme on Thursday night.

He said: “ASUU has problem with the Federal Government, not the state government. The Acting Vice Chancellor has assured me that they will resume and I have asked them to find out if they actually resumed work because I initially instructed that their salary be stopped.

“But I was later told they didn’t join the strike; so I asked that it should be investigated and those that collected salary and joined the strike will be asked to refund the salary. This is because Nigeria’s law says ‘no work, no pay’. This is the law. So whoever joined the strike will not be paid salary. We have been telling the KASU lecturers that they have no problem with state government. ASUU’s problem is with the Federal Government; therefore, why will our staff who have no problems with us join the strike?

“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 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.”

Meanwhile, when asked about the eventual occurrences after the conclusion of the APC presidential primaries, he explained that he and other APC governors were fully in support of the Tinubu-Shettima ticket and would work relentlessly for their success in 2023 because they have proven to be good leaders as governos in their respective states.

BUT, El-Rufai clarified that he was not appointed Director-General D-G of the Tinubu campaign as was insinuated, but assigned with a duty on the campaign processes of which he and his other allies would later meet together with the party chairman to deliberate upon.

He urged the people of Kaduna State and Nigerians as a whole never to vote for PDP again, accusing PDP members of embezzlement and owning houses overseas.

Speaking on the speculations that he had threatened to leave the APC, the Kaduna State Governor said he was among those who midwifed the birth of APC, the party he now considered as his 20th child. “How can a father leave his daughter? I will never abandon the APC,” he said.

He also disclaimed the step 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.

In his words, President Buhari was not aware of the move by terrorists to kidnap him. The governor said he was the one who told the president of the threats to his life. He said that for the past five years, he has been advocating for the bombing of terrorists camps wherever they are, saying it’s the only solution to the problem. The governor also said he also had been warned to be careful, including his family members.

He noted: “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.

For example, there is a company that is mining iron ore and turning it into iron here in Kagarko Local Government; they were supposed to finish building the company last month, but due the security challenges, especially since the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, their expatriates that were supposed to come from abroad to install their machines said they cannot come. That is even taking about those that have already invested, not to talk about those we are trying to bring in.”

“The insecurity is really setting us back. Our hope is that, the Federal Government will use its military night and other security apparatus to deal with these terrorists, because I have always said it and people of Kaduna State know that, I have been saying it since about five years ago that, we should use the land and air army to bomb these people out of existence. There is no way to end this challenge, except we do that.

“Now, it has gotten to a level where terrorists will go to Kuje prison and free their people. And they even did a video where they were threatening to abduct President Muhammadu Buhari and myself and take us to their jungle.

“People have always told me that me and my family should be careful. But, how come we would be a nation where we have the military, the police but some terrorists will come out and threaten to abduct verge President.

“If before now, people thought it is a problem that is only affecting states like Zamfara, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna, now it has come home. We must rise up and deal with these people .”

He explained: “What happened within this week is what made me to seek to see the President and I called him that I needed to see him. So, he gave me appointment for Sunday and I went to see him. Then, I told him about the recent developments, particularly the video released by the terrorists. In fact, up till that moment, he was not even aware. So, I told and the following day, that is on Monday, the Zamfara State Governor, Bello Mattawalle confirmed to him, that he even saw the video, so we need to take action.

“The President told me that, he met with the Service Chiefs the previous week before I met him, like three or four days before I met him and that, he gave them very clear directive that they must carry out comprehensive military operation to finish these people. By God’s grace, we will see the end of these challenges. Our hope is that, the military and police that were given this directive will hurry up and carry out the operation.

“Waiting for them to attack before we respond is not what will bring an end to these challenges. It is compulsory that we take the battle to their door step and deal with them. May God bring an end to it, but truly the challenge is disturbing and our hope is that, the Federal Government will do the needful.

“So, we are calling on the religious leaders to continue to pray for the country and our security operatives. May God continue to protect them and give them the strength to win the battle.”