Students Passes Vote Of No Confidence On Governor el-Rufai

By Israel Bulus, Kaduna

Students under the auspices of concerned Kaduna state Students Forum have pass a no confidence vote on Governor Nasir el-Rufai.

A statement jointly signed and issued to Journalists in Kaduna on Thursday by Comrade Tobias Aboki and Comrade Victor Duniya said, “the coming of governor Nasir El-Rufai into Kaduna political landscape and his subsequent election into office as governor came with tremendous promise for the downtrodden persons in the state.”

According to them, “a little journey into the administration showed a sharp deviation from the campaign promises the government made before it was elected.”

“While the governor is professing education reforms in the media with many political actors outside the state clapping for him, we in Kaduna and the beneficiaries or otherwise of his reforms have deduced that the negativity of his reforms out weights it positivity,” he added.

According to them, “Since the inception of this administration, no single student in our Tertiary institution both at home and abroad has benefitted from any scholarship scheme. The governor has failed to pay old beneficiaries of the State Scholarship that the ousted PDP administration shortlisted. This is a man that grew up as an orphan but benefitted from a functional system to become who he is today. Why is he destroying the ladder that took him to his exalted position today?

“While scholarship can be considered as a privilege not a right, it is our right to have access to portable water and electricity in our schools. For weeks now virtually all the state owned tertiary institutions have been kept in total darkness owing to the state’s inability to settle light bills, the spill over effect of this government’s negligence and insensitivity has led to lack of water supply from the state Water Board since they have equally been disconnected from the National power grid,” The students added.

They further disclosed that, “the Kaduna State University (KASU) that is considered the highest institution of learning lacks internet. The University management is said to be suffering from acute shortage of funds, this has made them to forgo internet subscription for both students and staff for several months now.

“Who will ever imagine that a whole University under the internet savvy Governor El-Rufai will be disconnected from the rest of the world like an isolated Island during his reign as Governor. This  embarrassment has gotten to an unbearable level, we can’t take it anymore,” The students maintained.

Also, “Consequently, most of our colleagues that are doing their final year projects and are relying on water and light sources for their research have suffered serious setbacks with corresponding financial losses, these have equally affected out lecturers doing research in numerous field of science. What a way of making Kaduna Great again.

“Life in our campuses is now unbearable, we struggle to read at night, this will have adverse effect on the quality of graduates that will be churn out from the State institutions. The governor should note that his today’s action is a sure breeding ground for tomorrow’s “incompetent” teachers, doctors and what have you.

“Following the mass sack of teachers in our state numbering over 21,500 our primary schools have so far been reduced to school feeding centres, no serious education business is taking place there, as the few remnant teachers are grossly inadequate to man out schools. While welcoming the belated release of the names of newly recruited teachers, we have observed many applicants that didn’t participate in the recruitment process made the final list. The final list is far from the initial promised 25,000 persons.

 The Students call on governor el-Rufai to expedite actions to settle all outstanding bills to enable them benefit from quality education the way government of yesterday offered him without passing through avoidable stress.

“Equally call on the governor to either sack or redeploy all staff of the Kaduna State Scholarship Board, since they are of no use, owing to the obvious abolition of Scholarship scheme by his government. This task will make his public service reform complete as the Scholarship Board are largely redundant.

“Call on SUBEB to make the list of the shortlisted teachers public to enable the public to compare note with the list of those that were invited for interview. This will make the process transparent and clear the doubts of Thomases who believed that the said reform is about cutting cost of governance than genuine concern for quality delivery of knowledge.

“Call on all Kaduna State Students that are of voting age without Permanent Voters Card to ensure that they rush to any available Continuous Voters Registration point to get their PVC, this will enable us to vote out those occupying positions that don’t care about our welfare.

“We want el-Rufai not to play politics with the destiny of our teaming students by hoodwinking the outside world with hypocrisy that he cares about our future. Contrary to his promise, non of el-Rufai’s children and those of his aides are in any public schools.

“We wish to pass a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE on governor Nasir El-Rufai for making the welfare of students Tertiary in the scheme of things in his administration. This is the first time in the history of our state government can’t settle light bill and pay indigent students scholarship.” The students declared.