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The case of reinstated teachers of Anambra
EMMOBI ODIMEGWU
FOR the first time
since the birth of this messianic dispensation, about a year ago, a particular
group of very aggrieved, heart-bleeding citizens of Anambra State is going to
the press. This group is made up of responsible men and women, graduates and
professionals belonging to various fields of study whose intellectual prowess is
indubitable. These men and women were so maltreated, maligned, dehumanised and
neglected that they were even made to regret having ever gone to school. They
were victims of unimaginable injustice in the hands of those who swore to
obliterate poverty, ignorance and disease among the citizenry. This group was a
victim of a repressive and insensitive administration that blared to high
heavens the trumpet of poverty alleviation but went ahead instead to
institutionalise poverty emancipation. This group of over two hundred Anambrans
(‘Anambrarians’ does not go well with me) passed through untold hardship, and
suffered be-witching injustice. The perpetrators claimed to be experts and
wizards in civil service rules and policy engineering but ended up dragging that
government in the mud of disrepute and notoriety.
The same people, most of whom are still
part and parcel of this very administration, made that dispensation a laughing
stock and its head a caricature. Some of them are still very much around whose
misadvise caused some members of the group to meet their untimely demise while
struggling to see that justice triumphed. This group, having been pushed to the
wall, was compelled to form a pressure group through which it fought its cause.
This group, prior to the advent of this people-oriented Ngige administration,
had to seek both legal and legislative redress. This group goes by the name of
Anambra State Association of Year 2000 Reinstated Teachers (ANSART).
The then Executive Governor of Anambra
State, Dr. C.C. Mbadinuju, appointed one Barrister Chuks Nsobundu the Executive
Chairman of the Anambra State Education Commission (ANSEC). This pragmatic and
dynamic ANSEC boss immediately undertook a tour of secondary schools in the
state and wept at what he saw. He wept at the perennial dearth of teachers,
especially male teachers, in our post-primary schools where more than ninety per
cent of them were women. This situation was glaring even to the governor and the
entire people of Anambra State both at home and abroad. Standard of education
had nose-dived while discipline in schools had gone back to the archives. To
make matters worse, there was population explosion in our secondary schools
consequent upon the Odera government’s free and compulsory secondary school
education programme.
As a result of the scenario painted above,
the visionary ANSEC chairman, who meant well for the people of the state, sought
and obtained the permission of the governor to arrest the near-intractable
problem of secondary education at the time. Thus in February 2000, the ANSEC
made publications in the National Light Newspaper, inserted several radio
announcements on the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) radio, pasted notices on
the notice boards at the Commission at Ifite-Dunu (the then ANSEC headquarters),
pleaded with people to make announcements in churches and other public places.
The government pleaded and invited those teachers who previously left the state
teaching service, for whatever reason, and who were willing to come back, to
report at the commission’s headquarters for interview and immediate
redeployment. It was really a plea; a passionate one at that. It was like, ‘Come
over to Macedonia (Anambra State) and help us’.
This invitation was a clarion call; a
solemn call to duty, to salvage the education system in coma. And this call was
heeded. To answer the clarion call, those men and women left their various
places of work and business- in the East, West, North, and South - for the sake
of patriotism and love for the welfare of their home state. They heeded that
call to duty; most of them being men, real men! An interview panel was
constituted by the ANSEC - a commission gazetted and duly constituted by the
government. The panel was made up of some senior staff of the commission,
members representing the various education zones in the state and, in fact, the
ANSEC chairman himself.
Interviews and postings were carried out
between March and September, 2000 with about 245 successful candidates posted to
various secondary schools in Anambra State. They were, thereafter, issued with
reinstatement letters, posting letters as well as assumption of duty
certificates by the principals of their schools of posting. These teachers, with
togas of zeal and dedication, returned to the classrooms and started work in
earnest. Quality education and discipline returned to our schools. Academic
excellence once more took the centre-stage in the state due, mainly, to the
efforts of these Year 2000 Reinstated Teachers who, nevertheless, were not paid
their salaries to this day. This was positively felt in the 1999/2000 SSCE/NECO
examinations. The governor himself was so impressed with what Barrister
Nsobundu’s effort and ingenuity fetched the people of the state that he gave him
a pat on the back and openly confessed in these words: "I am satisfied with your
work and efforts to restore sanity to our secondary schools. I will reassign you
to a more elevated post..."
And precisely on Wednesday October 25,
2000, Barrister Chuks Nsobundu was dropped as the ANSEC boss and elevated to the
position of Honourable Commissioner for Works. But not long after, the saint on
whom much praises and encomiums were heaped became a villain, in the eyes of the
powers that be and was terribly condemned and vilified. By mid-February 2001,
when he was booted out of office, those reinstated teachers were callously sent
packing. They were relieved of their duty without any kobo to go with it. Some
of the perpetrators of that atrocious act are still part and parcel of this
administration. But thanks be to God that Dr. Chris Ngige, today’s Executive
Governor, has no room for sycophants in the state.
Those behind the cancellation of the
reinstatement exercise felt they were doing a service to the state, didn’t they?
What prompted their mis-guided action is now beside the point. A popular and
veritable biblical saying says that "a worker deserves his wage". Do they not
know that? Or, are they not paid for their own labour? Do they not know about
the law of retributive justice? They want their own families to prosper while
others must famish and starve to death. A labourer deserves his pay. What sin
did those reinstated teachers commit? They answered the call to serve their home
state. Was it their transgression? They have experience, having diligently
previously served. Was it their sin? Afterall, they did not lobby anyone to be
invited. They bribed no one. They were rather begged to come and serve because
of the prevalent brain-drain. They passed through rigorous screening and
interviews. It was no walkover. They proved their mettle as experienced and
qualified people. They went back to the classrooms, chalk in one hand and cane
in the other. While it lasted, the state saw ten months of restoration,
rehabilitation and regeneration of the state’s lost academic glory in its
post-primary schools. Was that their sin? There was, educationally, a state of
emergency. Like gallant, battle-ready soldiers, the Year 2000 Reinstated
Teachers of Anambra State came with their properly-serviced and tested weapons
of valour. They came, they saw, they conquered. And instead of a nice pat on
their backs, they were thrown out by the soi-disant icons of civil service rules
in the Odera’s government. It is terrible! Very terrible.
But thanks goodness that we now have in
place a listening, result-oriented and justice-hungry government headed by His
Excellency, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige (OON). He has been divinely sent to right
all the wrongs of the immediate past administration. He has come to wipe the
tears off the eyes of the wounded persons whose hearts have been bleeding. He
has come to bring back smiles to the faces of the heart-broken and the
down-trodden.
We are all living witnesses to the joy and
happiness that now radiate on the faces of the pensioners in Anambra State.
Those who were tagged "dead woods" have, since the inception of the Ngige
Administration, bounced back to life. The ‘bones’ which were hitherto ‘dead’ are
speedily rising again. Alleluia! Our Senior Citizens now look many years younger
who hitherto looked haggard, famished, sickly and utterly despondent. Smiles and
radiance that had long disappeared from their faces are back again. Thanks to
the present humanitarian and people-oriented government of Dr. Chris Ngige.
Only recently this administration directed
the Provost of Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, to recall and pay the
arrears of salaries to all the staff of the institution that were laid off in
2001. I can imagine the tears of joy that must be flowing from the eyes of the
beneficiaries of this wonderful gesture. They are to be paid their full salaries
from the time of retrenchment in 2001 to the day the announcement was aired on
radio and television a few weeks ago. Our dear justice-loving governor, may the
Almighty God shower His blessings and ensure a permanently protective halo on
you. This onerous gesture, if implemented to the letter, adds yet another
beautiful feather to your plumage. Please, ensure that your directives are
carried out.
May I, at this juncture, my dear governor,
sir, passionately plead with you to do likewise to the Year 2000 Reinstated
Teachers of Anambra State origin. Since the day they were reinstated in March
2000 to the day their reinstatement was repealed in February 2001, no salary was
paid to them. They, and their dependants, were plunged into the deep abyss of
poverty and despondency. These are heads of families who have mouths to feed.
Our dear governor, members of this group
look up to you for justice and succour. Since the cry of the victimised and
victims of circumstance get to you, this group of people is on its knees
pleading that you do for the gander what you did for the goose. They are saying
that what you did to bring back smiles on the faces of some aggrieved and
unfairly-treated groups of people in your state - pensioners, servicing civil
servants/teachers, College of Education staff, etc - you can also do for them.
This group of Year 2000 Reinstated Teachers is made up of men and women who can
and do contribute immensely and positively to the affairs of the state in
diverse ways - some of them you may even have met.
This writer was physically present when
you and members of your dignifying entourage came visiting at Grundtvig
International Secondary School, Oba, Anambra State, on October 11, 2003.
The august gathering included Dr. Alex
Ekwueme, former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and his wife,
Professor Barth Nnaji, former Minister for Science and Technology of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, some Danish representatives of the Grundtvig government
from Denmark and a host of other dignitaries. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji of Radio
Nigeria, Abuja was the Master of Ceremony. The M.C aptly described you, the
governor of Anambra State, as the most popular governor in Nigeria. Yes, I
agreed with him in toto. That means that you are both known, loved, acceptable
and appreciated by all well-meaning, peace-loving, justice-loving, patriotic and
democratically-minded Nigerians.
Your call to steer the ship of state in
Anambra State is a divine one. You are here to clean the augean stable. The
injustice done to the Year 2000 Reinstated Teachers of Anambra State
constitutes, unquestionably, a significant part of this augean stable. Like the
centurion in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 8 of the Holy Bible, when you say ‘go’
to your servants, they go, and when you say ‘come’, they come. And when you say,
‘do this’, they do it. So, please, our dear governor, if you say to them,
‘recall and pay’, they’ll do so without delay.
Congratulations, in advance, on your 365
days in office.
• Odimegwu wrote from Onitsha.
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