The Anambra State Commissioner for Education, Prof Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, has attracted condemnation from the public for calling applicant teachers “idiots” and “hooligans.”
She made the statement while responding to a phone call by one of the applicants seeking clarification about the recently concluded teacher’s recruitment exercise in the state.
She was reacting to a report that there was a rush in one of the examination centres where the recruitment exercise was held.
In a voice note which has gone rival, the commissioner, while speaking on phone to an unknown applicant seeking information, expressed her anger that there was a rush in one of the examination centres where the recruitment exercise was held.
The commissioner dismissed and described the female applicant as a hooligan and idiot who would have no place in the education sector.
She said, “Madam, you’re an idiot. You mean the computers are doing what? I received a report by 12 noon that you people refused to stand in line, you refused to be identified; you mobbed.
“You people were trying to get into the hall at the same time; you refused to be disciplined, and you have the effrontery… You stupid woman to call me on the phone and talk rubbish.
“Get out of my phone you filthy thing. You really want to be a teacher? How will you tell your students to conform to instructions, when you cannot stand in line and move line in line, and you want to be a teacher when you are behaving like hooligans.
“I have nothing for you and I have nothing to say to you. We have already examined up to 1,400 candidates and …you are all hooligans. I hope you understand me. Thank you.”
The commissioner’s outburst elicited condemnations from the public.
Jude Obiora, a community leader said, “Too uncouth and unbecoming of a public servant. She owes an apology to the Anambra people. She goofed big time. A huge embarrassment to the government she serves.”
For Eze Onwuji, the commissioner could have made her point without the uncouth language, adding “her anger went to the extreme in the public domain. Managing any public is not easy.”
In his reaction, Paul Aniaso, said, “Her recommendation, support or approval of the sack of those 1,000 teachers employed by former Governor Willie Obiano will haunt her for a long time. She wants to bring in her own persons; that is why she is attacking everybody as a defence mechanism.”
Meanwhile, the governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, said the commissioner had apologised for her inappropriate choice of words used in the said voice note.
Soludo, in a statement issued by his press secretary, Christian Aburime, said commissioners, as public officers, ought not to react in a rash manner.
“However, it is pertinent to reiterate that Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo remains committed to the wellbeing of Ndi Anambra and will not be distracted in availing deserving qualified teachers the opportunity to serve Anambra State and contribute to shaping the future of our children,” he said.
