Kebbi Govt Must Reverse Teacher’s ‘Palliative’ Suspension, Activists Demand

The Kebbi State Government, acting through the Dandi Local Government Area Primary Education Authority, has come under fierce criticism for imposing an arbitrary three-month suspension on teacher Abduljalal Usman, simply for voicing his dismay over a miserly “palliative” of one portion of rice and a sachet of cooking oil distributed to him and his colleagues amid Nigeria’s biting economic hardship.

The suspension letter, a copy of which has been obtained by our correspondent, not only bars the educator from duty but cynically withholds his salary for the entire period, a move decried as punitive overkill that smacks of official pettiness and insensitivity to the daily struggles of public servants.

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In a nation where teachers are already scraping by on meagre and irregularly paid salaries, this incident underscores the systemic rot in basic education, where decades of government neglect have consigned millions of educators to lives of abject poverty, compounded by dilapidated schools, lack of teaching aids, and a service condition that mocks their noble calling.

What befell Abduljalal Usman is no isolated lapse but a calculated ploy to cow teachers into silence, stifle legitimate civic engagement, and perpetuate an authoritarian grip on power in Kebbi State, where recent attacks on freedom of expression signal a broader clampdown on dissent across Nigeria’s North-West.

Lamenting the tokenism of the so-called palliative, barely enough to feed a family for a day, cannot and should not be criminalised, as it falls squarely within the ambit of free speech guaranteed under Section 39 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended) and reinforced by international human rights instruments like the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Rather than wielding the machinery of state to punish critics, the Kebbi government would do well to heed their voices, addressing the root causes of teacher unrest through meaningful welfare reforms, prompt salary payments, and investment in education infrastructure that has long been abandoned to ruin.