Niger LG chair orders teacher to remove PDP candidate's shirt in classroom video
- A video shows Katcha LGA chairman Isah Baba Bida telling a teacher to remove a shirt bearing a PDP candidate's image.
- The teacher, Yahaya Mohammed Sakiwa, says the chairman later apologised and that over 200 pupils were enrolled.
- The PDP candidate condemned the incident, while the teachers' union warned against partisan politics in schools.
A local government chairman in Niger State has been criticised after a video showed him ordering a teacher to take off a T-shirt carrying the photograph of an opposition politician.
The chairman of Katcha Local Government Area, Isah Baba Bida, is seen in the footage confronting Yahaya Mohammed Sakiwa inside a classroom at Kafa Primary School. The shirt showed Mohammed Nami, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for governor in the state.
According to the video, Bida visited the school on Monday morning. He told the teacher to remove the shirt and to write down his name and those of staff who were absent. Bida said he had come to check reports that teachers were wearing shirts promoting the PDP candidate.
“A teacher wearing an opposition uniform,” the chairman said in the footage, before asking the teacher where he was from.
The classroom shown in the video had damaged ceilings, missing windows and no desks or chairs. Bida also complained about the condition of the school and the number of pupils he met, saying he found only one teacher and two pupils who could not say the name of their school.
Teacher disputes pupil count
Sakiwa, a casual teacher at the school, disputed that account. He told Daily Trust that more than 200 pupils attend the school, but that many children in the rural area go to the farm early in the morning before coming to class.
He said the chairman had since reached out to him and his uncles to ask for forgiveness, and that the local government education secretary was also involved in resolving the matter.
Nami, the PDP governorship candidate, condemned the confrontation in a statement from his media office. He called it an abuse of public office and said no teacher or public servant should be victimised for their political choice. He also criticised the state of the school and blamed Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago's administration for what he described as poor funding of education.
The Niger State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) said teachers have a constitutional right to hold political views, but warned them against taking part in partisan politics. The union's state secretary, Umaru Musa Kuta, said such rights should be exercised responsibly.
The video has drawn attention to the condition of basic schools in parts of Niger State, where many pupils learn in buildings that need repair.
