SERAP drags Amosun to UN over sacked workers

A civil society group, Socio-Economic and Accountability Project, has urged the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Mr. Kishore Singh, to ask the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, to rescind his decision as regards the sacking of some education workers in the state.

Also, a former Chairman of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Monday Ubani, described the sacking of the workers as an unlawful breach of their contract, and called on the governor to recall them and apologise to them.

Amosun had, last week, reportedly ordered the sacking of six officials in the Ogun State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology following an exam where pupils were asked to summarise a comprehension passage on a policy defect in education.

It was alleged that the governor, who considered the passage to be too critical of his administration, had ordered the sacking and compulsory retirement of six workers in the state.

But Ubani, who spoke with newsmen on Sunday, said Amosun was being intolerant.

“That for me was the height of intolerance on the part of the governor. It is clearly an unlawful breach of the contract of the workers’ contact with the government. The governor had no right to terminate their appointment just because they set examination questions that he considered to be critical of his administration. We are not in a military era and in a democracy the constitution guarantees freedom of expression.

“The Nigerian Union of Teachers has to intervene. The governor should recall the sacked workers and apologise to them otherwise the Nigeria Union of Teachers should go to court to challenge the unlawful sacking of the workers,” Ubani said.

Also SERAP, in a petition sent to Singh and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr. David Kaye, described Amosun’s decision as “unlawful, unfair, and a serious violation of internationally recognised human right to academic freedom and freedom to hold opinion.”

In the petition, signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, the organisation argued that all citizens, including students taking examinations, had the right to have access to information that would enable them to participate in political affairs.

He noted that by sacking the workers, Ogun State government had “posed insurmountable barriers to the right to access information and the right to quality education.”

SERAP, which argued that the right to education could only be enjoyed, both by the workers in the education sector and students, if it was accompanied by academic freedom, said sacking the workers had removed an important tool for combating impunity and corruption.

“By dismissing those involved in setting the examination questions, SERAP believes that the government of Ogun State of Nigeria is invariably undermining the ability of the examiners and the students to take decisions; exercise their human rights; challenge or influence public policies; monitor the quality of public spending; and promote accountability. This, in turn, has seriously undermined established control to prevent abuse of power,” it said.