By Augustine E. Aghoghovwia
The
forty-one (41) teachers in both primary and secondary schools in Edo
State, who were recently sacked by the State Governor, Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole, have petitioned the State House of Assembly seeking the
mediation of the legislators with a view to making the governor rescind
his decision and give them back their jobs.
Though
the sacking of the teachers was clearly without recourse to the rules
guiding civil servants and teachers, a cross section of Edo people who
spoke with The Navigator expressed doubts “if the House leadership, as presently constituted, could help the teachers.”
Said
a Benin-based Civil Rights campaigner, Mr. Apam Kelechi, “Apart from
the military and reckless nature of the sack, it was equally an arrogant
way to deal with people who have all their lives done their jobs
without any official blemish or reproach from their supervisors. The
manner in which the sack came is old-fashioned and archaic. If anyone
lays in waiting or lays ambush for another, with a view to finding
faults, it is not exceptional intelligence. No one, not even the
governor, himself, would survive in the hands of someone, higher in rank
and official status, who is out looking for faults by all means!”
Kelechi
maintained that a situation in which a governor, with a labour
background, goes sacking people for lateness and absenteeism, without
any form of investigation or issuance of official queries, is
antithetical to good labour relations.
He
said further, “If the leadership of the State House of Assembly wants
to be remembered for good, that they did not align with undemocratic and
anti - human rights forces, they should consider the petition of the
sacked teachers and prevail on the governor to reinstate them to their
duty posts. However, if they say they do not want to annoy or offend
the governor, by kicking against this obvious impropriety, then,
posterity will not be lenient with them.”
TheNavigator
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