By PHILIP YATAI

School-Based Management Committee, Doka Branch, Kaduna, has petitioned Gov. Nasir El-Rufai over alleged plans by the Kaduna North Local Government to sell four public primary schools.

The schools, according to a copy of the petition obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Friday, are Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School Gwari Road and LEA primary school Muri Road.

Others are LEA Girls Primary School, Lagos Street, and LEA Primary School, Ahmadu Bello Stadium 1, all in Kaduna North Local Government Area.

The petition was jointly signed by Alhaji Hamza Usman, SBMC Chairman, Primary School Gwari Road, Alhaji Abdulhakeem Adeyemi, SBMC Chairman, Primary School, Muri Road, and Malam Magaji Alkasin, SBMC Chairman, Primary School Lagos Street.

The committees said that the affected primary schools not only served the less privileged but served the communities of Ungwan Shaba, Kabala, Ungwan Liman and Ungwan Maiburuji.

They argued that selling the schools to unspecified buyers, would deprive poor pupils access to primary education, adding that the development would also increase the level of out of school children in the affected communities.

“The development will also lead to an upsurge in the number of street children and child hawkers due to termination of learning.

“We, therefore, implore your Excellency to order the Chairman of the council to refrain from his decision to sell the schools.

“We have tried to engage the Chairman to advise him against the ill decision with no success.

“This has forced us to appeal to you, Your Excellency, as a father and number one Chief Security Officer of our dear state, to prevail on the Chairman to not sell the said schools,” they pleaded.

When contacted, the Education Secretary of the local government, Mr Mamuda Suleiman simply said, “I have nothing to say about that.

“If you want any information, just contact the Local Government. You can’t get anything from me”.

However, the Council Chairman, Mr Muktar Baloni, told NAN that the plans had not been concluded as erroneously perceived by the SBMCs and other members of the public.

Baloni dismissed the allegation, describing it as a mere “political blackmail” to smear the work of the APC-led government in the eyes of the public to score some political points.

He said what the Council was considering but not concluded, was to merge and relocate some schools to where they would be most needed.

He said that Kaduna North Local Government had been the epicenter of Kaduna metropolis which over time, had experienced population explosion and a shift in the concentration of the public.

“We are only trying to see how we can further reposition our schools, to meet the needs of communities with high concentrations of the population.

“It is not the case of selling a school, but there are some primary schools that we will propose to convert to secondary schools based on the needs of the people in the area.

“Some, we will recommend conversion to public utilities, while we may consider moving some schools to bigger spaces.

“It is quite a robust plan that is at the thinking stage, but we have not gotten there yet because there are a lot of processes involved,” he said.

The chairman said there would be stakeholders’ engagement, the governor’s consent, and the consent of the community members before concluding on the issue.

“So, this is our side of the story, and it is not happening anytime soon, contrary to what people have been saying.

“With the electioneering period, there is bound to be political propaganda – negative or positive – on both sides of the political divide.

“This happened to be one of them,” Baloni said. (NAN)

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