El-Rufai vs NLC: Kaduna Governor Comes Under Scrutiny in Aftermath of Faceoff With Labour

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai has more and more being within the information currently, as Nigerians proceed to scrutinise his claims of being a democrat.

Although Kaduna has at all times been within the information largely resulting from insecurity that pervades the State, leading to mass abduction of scholars and killings particularly within the Southern a part of the State, the occasions of final week, appear to have greater than ever, put the previous FCT Minister underneath the highlight.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had mobilized staff in Kaduna State for a five-day warning strike to protest the mass sacking of staff by the el-Rufai administration, particularly the deliberate sacking of seven thousand staff from the state’s native authorities areas workforce.

Although deliberate by labour to be a complete strike that can fully lock down each social and financial actions within the State, Governor el-Rufai didn’t know the way efficient and crippling the strike may very well be till it took off.

True to labour’s plan, Kaduna was shut down! Electrical energy was gone, banking stopped, transportation each by air and rail halted whereas staff from each different sector, together with well being and training stayed away from work, each within the personal and public establishments.

Alarmed by the crippling impact of the strike, Governor el-Rufai, although pretending to be unruffled, tagged the NLC and its leaders financial saboteurs and declaring them wished. He went a step additional to order the blanket sack of all nurses within the state from grade stage 13 downwards and in addition threatened to sack lecturers of the state college in the event that they failed to indicate up for work, amongst different staff within the state.

For a lot of Nigerians, el-Rufai was merely power-drunk and behaving like an emperor over a conquered territory in a democracy. His actions and utterances earlier than and through the strike, many believed, delivered to the fore, his actual nature and disposition to governance, questioning how a governor can unilaterally declare leaders of the NLC, particularly its President, Ayuba Wabba wished, and declaring that he can be tried underneath the Miscellaneous Offences Act.

The Socio-Financial Rights and Accountability Challenge (SERAP) was particularly piqued by the assault on the protesting staff by hoodlums, who wielded weapons to disrupt a peaceable protest embarked upon by the employees.

SERAP, in a press release on Tuesday by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, known as for a direct finish to the rising crackdown on the protesting staff.

“Kaduna authorities should respect the human rights of Nigerian staff, and make sure the security and safety of the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress.

“Declaring NLC leaders ‘wished’ merely for peacefully exercising their human rights is antithetical to the Nigerian Structure of 1999 [as amended] and the nation’s worldwide obligations.

“Authorities ought to guard staff from assaults by thugs. Permitting thugs to disrupt peaceable protest by staff is illegitimate and unconstitutional.

“Utilizing thugs to assault peaceable protesters is a criminal offense towards humanity. Authorities want to search out out who was answerable for the assaults and punish them appropriately.

“Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai ought to instantly reinstate Kaduna State College lecturers and nurses unlawfully dismissed for allegedly becoming a member of the strike within the State.

“We’ll maintain Governor Nasir El-Rufai and Kaduna authorities to account for the blatant violations of human rights.

“We’ll see in courtroom if the lecturers and nurses aren’t instantly reinstated.

“We urge the UN human rights special rapporteurs to put pressure on Governor Nasir El-Rufai and Kaduna State to right away finish brutal crackdown on peaceable protesters.”

For the previous Chairman of the Nationwide Human Rights Fee, Chidi Odinkalu, the Kaduna State Governor doesn’t have the facility he presupposed to have exercised in declaring labour leaders wished.

Odinkalu additional said that the actions and lack of ability of the Governor to control Kaduna peacefully, has proven that he can not rule Nigeria, including that el-Rufai has failed in his primary responsibility of protecting the people of Kaduna, declaring that he has been working as a lawless entity.

He stated: “The regulation that offers with financial sabotage is a federal regulation, state governors don’t implement federal legal guidelines besides they’ve the permission of the Federal Lawyer Common to take action.

“Secondly, governors don’t have the facility to declare folks wished, solely safety brokers can try this. Thirdly, normally, to declare folks wished, you want courtroom authorization. The courts have been on strike for nearly two months.

“It takes a lawless individual to take legal guidelines into their palms and declare folks wished. The NLC president is in Kaduna and he’s not hiding.

“El-Rufai is just not the army, he can not rule by edict. He can not function as a lawless entity. He’s endangering Kaduna and all the nation.

“The true tragedy is that he has the ambition to rule Nigeria. El-Rufai can not handle this nation. Woes beget Nigeria if El-Rufai has the chance to rule this nation.

“His occupying public workplace ought to finish in Kaduna State. We’re going to be sure that his presidential ambition fails.”

Additionally, in his response, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, mocked el-Rufai, describing as laughable declaring the labour leaders wished and saying he would strive them underneath the Miscellaneous Offences Act.

Based on Falana, Wabba and different labour leaders have the best underneath the Nigerian Structure and the Commerce Union Act to take part within the peaceable warning strike and mass protests.

Declaring that the Governor lacks the facility to declare any alleged offender wished underneath the Act or some other regulation by any means, Falana known as on the Nigeria Police Pressure and different safety companies to disregard El-Rufai’s declaration as it isn’t tenable in regulation.

In his response, a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, faulted Governor el-Rufai for not partaking labour constructively earlier than issues degenerated. He additionally frowned on the assaults on staff and known as on different labour unions within the nation to hitch palms with labour as a way to present the folks of Kaduna solidarity.

He stated: “Now that it’s turning violent, that is the time for different related labour unions to become involved to indicate solidarity to the labour folks in Kaduna such that the federal government will now be pressured to interact labour in a way that’s constructive.

“Sending thugs to begin harassing labour unions’ leaders and their members is totally unacceptable. It reveals that we’re not really within the twenty first century. As leaders, typically now we have to take tasks, we even have to indicate restraint within the face of provocation, that’s what management is all about.

“We shouldn’t be behaving like thugs or sending thugs to go and dispatch people who are protesting, particularly when it isn’t violent.”

For the Medical and Well being Staff’ Union of Nigeria, Governor el-Rufai is nothing however an anarchist for allegedly sending thugs after protesting staff.

In a press release issued on Tuesday by the Nationwide President of the MHWU, Dr Biobelemoye Josiah, the union known as for the reinstatement of the sacked nurses and a public apology to labour. It additionally known as on the folks of Kaduna State to notice that day, Tuesday as a black day within the historical past of the State in order to disclaim Governor el-Rufai any additional alternative to carry an elective publish.

The union stated: “So, for Mal. El-Rufai to sack staff whose solely offence is that they selected to serve their fatherland faithfully and diligently with all man-made inconveniences is most unlucky. We’re, due to this fact, angered that even within the face of this deprivation, we’re being provoked and humiliated.

“Let or not it’s recognized to members of the general public that peaceable picketing is assured underneath part 43 of Commerce Union ACT CAP T14 LFN 2004. This place of the regulation has been affirmed severally by the superior courts of record up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

“We significantly name on all staff and residents of Kaduna State to tag Tuesday, 18th Could, 2021 as a tragic day for democracy and a day of mourning when an elected governor threw away the structure he swore to uphold and embraced thuggery.

“We name on all the residents of Kaduna State to significantly bear in mind at the present time in order that when this similar man comes calling to beg for votes to go to the retirement residence of former governors – the senate or for some other elective place, he needs to be rejected outrightly as there isn’t any room for anarchist in a democratic society.”

From a number of reactions, Nigerians tend to agree that the Kaduna State Governor has behaved extra like a dictator than he has proven any democratic qualities. For a lot of, even his dealing with of the security situation places him out as a person set solely in his methods that can’t be bothered by anything.

A Lagos based mostly Public Affairs Commentator, Chidi John, believes that no matter traits the governor has proven through the now suspended warning strike, has at all times been his nature since his days because the FCT Minister. Based on John, el-Rufai has at all times proven his tendencies for dictatorship, simply as he believes solely his personal views are proper!

“Governor el-Rufai has remained fixed, he has not modified. What has solely occurred is that he has come full circle by exhibiting his true colors. He has displayed his individual, which many people have at all times recognized, particularly those that adopted his actions throughout his days on the FCT.

“Nigerians should additionally keep in mind that in 2008, the Nigerian Senate declared him unfit to hold public workplace, however someway, the identical man is in his second time period as governor and even aspiring to be President. Think about if he’s President and labour and even ASUU decides to go on strike and shut down the nation the best way Oshiomhole did as NLC President underneath former President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Think about the sort of movement of blood we might have. Think about how the prisons shall be crammed to the brim. Think about the highhandedness he’ll show. However for a few of us, it won’t be new, he has at all times been like that,”, John stated.