By Jimoh Sulyman
The chances of the Kwara state Governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s reelection take yet another hit as he was accused of treachery by the 2,414 disengaged teachers also known as ‘Sunset’ teacher who also vowed to vote him out of office in the 2023 gubernatorial election.
The group who accused the Governor of breaking his promises, said this through their coordinator, Comrade Saheed Olayinka during a press conference over the weekend.
They noted that the Governor has reneged on his promise to reabsorb them into the service if they pass the 2021 teaching service qualification examination, a pledge he failed to live up to despite sizable number of them performing well in the exam.
The Governor, “urged us to reapply for the SUBEB job advertised in January 2021 and promised that those qualified among us would be reabsorbed.
“To prove our competence and qualification, we applied. Over 70% of our members passed the examination and the interview, yet, less than 2% among us were engaged.”
The group also accused the Government of hypocrisy in the 2021 recruitment exercise by recruiting those who didn’t write the examination nor attend the interview.
“We have on good authority, that applicants who neither wrote the examinations nor participated in the interview were even considered for appointment by this government in its January 2021 recruitment. This is hypocrisy” the group said.
While lamenting the difficulties the members of the group have been facing after they were relieved of their jobs by the AbdulRazaq led administration, the group accused the Governor of being cruel against them due to his hatred for the previous administration who employed them.
“In the last two years, our lives didn’t remain the same. We’ve lost our colleagues to death, some bedridden while significant number of others are battling with serious depression for losing their source of livelihood and stagnation of their beloved career.
“We can say that as Kwarans, we were the first set of people to experience the cruelty of His Excellency, Mall. AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq, simply because we were employed by his predecessor,” they said.
The group also accused the Government of trying to truncate their efforts to challenge their injustice by attempting to sow seeds of discord among their members,they however assured that they remain resolute in their strive.
“We have gone ahead to challenge this injustice at the National Industrial Court, Akure, even though the government is using all political antics to compromise our leadership and divide us in its habitual manner, we shall not waver in demand for Justice,”they assured.
The group urged its members to obtain their voters card to elect a new government that will have empathy for the common man.
“We indulge our members to ensure they get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to ensure we elect right candidates, that would have empathy for the common man.
“We must ensure we elected politicians that place a premium on legality, fairness and justice. Candidates that would listen to the plight of ‘sunset’ and Kwarans entirely must be the ones to emerge, come 2023.” the group stated.
