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The Democratic Teachers Alliance, the Oyo State Wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers on Wednesday demonstrated against the purported plan of the union’s national body to elongate the tenure of the incumbent state chairman, Comrade Oluniyi Akano.
The teachers had a peaceful protests at the DTA secretariat, Inalende, Ibadan.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards the angry teachers displayed read: “NUT National should stop imposition of illegality in Oyo state wing”, “The National head office of NUT should stop this meddlesomeness , says Oyo teachers”, “NUT constitution is against elongation of the tenure of the incumbent in any form” and “Oyo Teachers say ‘No’ to elongation of office of the incumbent chairman”
Comrade Akano became chairman in November, 2014 following the death of the former elected chairman, Comrade Kolawole Kayode.
According to the protesters, Akano was expected to vacate office on September 30, 2017 because he was appointed to complete Late Kayode’s tenure.
They argued further that Akano was due for retirement from service on September 30, 2017 and retaining him or elongating his tenure as the chairman would amount to an insult on the generality of the teachers in the state.
Bedore the protest, top leaders of the union from all the local government areas in the state met and issued a communique signed by Comrade Surajudeen Hamzat and Comrade Nathaniel Olajide.
The communique referred to a 2014 gazette which stated that Comrade Akano would retire by the end of September.
Part of the communique reads: “It has come to our notice from very reliable sources that planning and a kind of scheming is ongoing, as the current state chairman of the NUT Oyo state wing and his cohorts are working assiduously to retain him in the office, as the union chairman beyond his normal service year using the instrument of the National headquarters.
“In the Oyo state gazzettee issued in the year 2014, the state chairman in question is suppose to retire on the 30th of September, 2017 from the teaching service of Oyo state, hence should ceased to be the state Chairman afterwards.
“Though it is human nature to be anti pathetic to change while change in itself is inevitable and constant. So, for the incumbent state chairman to remain as the NUT state chairman in Oyo wing by any trick implied beyond his retirement year will contravene the article 4 section II and IIIc of the Nigerian Union of Teachers constitution and would also be an aberration to the rule of law.
“The incumbent state chairman, the moment he ceases to be in the service of TESCOM, is not suppose to be the state chairman and even a member of our formidable union, NUT. It will amount to impunity on the part of both the state and National office and in contravention to the article II Section 7 of the NUT constitution.
“Please note that the emergence of the present state chairman was illegal, hence we are no longer comfortable with this illegality. In view of this, we wish to humbly request that the National office should give approval to the emergence of a new chairman in the state as the current one bows out”.