Southern Kaduna Indigenes, under the
umbrella of Southern Kaduna Peoples
Union (SOKAPU), have called on
Governor Nasir El-Rufai, to order the
re-opening of the Kaduna State
University (KASU), Kafanchan, and
College of Education, Gidan Waya,
following the return of peace to the
troubled area.
According to them, it has become
imperative to speak against the
continued, deliberate and unwarranted
closure of the institutions, since the
reason for their closure was security
concerns, especially against the
background that all schools in
Kafanchan (both public and private),
including the School of Nursing, and the
Kafanchan campus of the College of
Education, have been re-opened and
academic activities going on peacefully.
A statement signed by the National
Public Relations Officer of SOKAPU, Mr.
Yakubu Kuzamani, said any further
delay in re-opening the two institutions
in the areas would lend credence to the
agenda of marginalisation by the state
government against the people of
Southern Kaduna.
He queried: “On what basis are the two
schools still closed? Is there anything
being planned that we don’t know
about? If nothing is done quickly to
open the schools so that thousands of
students of the schools continue with
their normal academic activities, we
would be left with no option, but to
deduce that the continued closure is
another form of educational genocide,
coming after the attempted economic
emasculation of the area, through the
strange, unnecessary and punitive 24-
hour curfew that the governor has been
slamming on Jema, Zangon Kataf and
Kaura Local Councils at his leisure.
“Why would students in other schools be
in session while those of these two
schools are at home? We are, however,
not too surprised by what is going on
because of the governor’s antecedents.
“This is a Governor who on February 9,
2017 appeared on a Channels TV
programme and gleefully relapsed into
his favourite pastime-demonising the
people of Southern Kaduna. This
governor so loves denigrating the people
of the zone, that he overreached himself
on that programme by saying that
church leaders in Southern Kaduna are
fueling the crisis because they are
getting foreign dollars to bury
Christians and rebuild thousands of
burnt churches. This coming from a
governor that is expected to personify
decorum, statesmanship, impartiality
and propriety in public office is, to say
the least, difficult to rationalise…”
