Kwara: Guber candidates harp on teachers’ welfare at Labour joint debate

By Saka Laaro,Ilorin.

Four among the 14 governorship candidates for the 2023 general elections in Kwara State have identified teachers’ welfare as their priority programme to be pursued if they are elected into power.

Speaking differently at a debate organised by the Joint Kwara Labour Congress in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, the governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Labour Party (LP) and the Action Alliance (AA) said that teachers are key stakeholders in education development of the state.

The PDP governorship candidate, Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdullahi, who spoke about salary disparity between teachers in the employment of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the state Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), pledged that his administration would ensure resolution of the matter if elected.

The governorship candidate of the AA, Barrister Dauda Salman, in his own submission, said that Kwara State teachers would be treated fairly and justly if he is elected into office as state Governor.

Also, Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem of the NNPP, who was a former vice chancellor of the University of Ilorin, said that his administration would make education a priority if elected.

The NNPP flag bearer also said that he would fight corruption in all sectors, saying that, “we can’t be free from corruption unless the head itself is free. We will create infrastructures through investment especially investment from outside.”

The Labour Party gubernatorial candidate, Abubakar Basambo, said that if elected as the Governor of Kwara state, his administration would invest over N1billion in local government to fight poverty.

“I assure you that we will move 30,000 minimum wages to 100,000,” he said.

In his speech at the event, the NLC Chairman, Comrde Issa Ore, said that the debate was organised to enable Kwara State workers decide on who to vote for in the next general elections.

“It has been our practice in Labour circle that when it is time for election, we call all the aspirants irrespective of the status. We invite all the gubernatorial candidates so that workers will be able to know who they are voting for. They will be able to know the concept and all what the aspirants have for them.

“We believe all of them are major candidates in as much as we invite all of them. Whether they come or not, the workers in the State have heard from those that are present,” he said.