Parents of Nigerian-Turkish International College students decry call to close schools


Date posted: July 31, 2016

The Parents Teachers Association of the Nigerian-Turkish International Colleges (NTIC), has called on the Nigerian Government to disregard any request for the closure of the schools in the country.

The parents, who made the call on Saturday in Abuja at meeting, said the accusation that the schools were a training ground for terrorist was baseless and unsustainable.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Turkish Government recently asked the Nigerian Government to close down all the Nigerian-Turkish International Colleges (NTIC) in the country.

According to the Turkish Government, the Nigerian-Turkish International Colleges belonged to Fetullah Gulen, accused of sponsoring the July 15 failed military coup in that country.

The country’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Hakan Cakil, said this while hosting the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Shehu Sani of the APC, who represents Kaduna Central in the house.

Mr. Cakil alleged that the schools belonged to Gulen`s movement, a cult of personality that runs a secretive transitional network aiming to overthrow the Turkish government.

“The accusation is baseless and a slight on us parents and the Nigerian Government,” Hauwa Abubakar, a parent, who has three children in the school, said.

She maintained that the parents know the operators of the schools to their homes and families, adding that they could not have been involved in such practices.

Sani Balogun, Vice Chairperson NTIC primary, added that there was something unique in the school and called on the Federal Government to react to the Ambassador`s call.

Shehu Abudulahi, also a parent, however, said that if the school was doing anything wrong, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should investigate.

He urged parents not to be too emotional about the call made by the Ambassador to the extent of dropping names.

He stressed that there was, however, a need to carry along all the 17 NTIC in the country in the fight to ensure that the schools were not closed.

Mr. Abudulahi, a professor, added that the schools were playing very significant role in the development of education in Nigeria and should not be closed unless it was found wanting and culpable.

He said that the school was one of the most secured in the country, adding that even in the hit of Boko Haram activities in the North east, it remained open in Yobe.

He further added that so long as the NTIC had operated within the laws of Nigeria, it should be allowed to remain in operation.

He, therefore, urged the parents to remain resolute in their struggle to ensure that the institutions were not closed.

He also urged the operators of the school to continue preparing for the new school year, saying “there is no shaking.’’

Awulu Awulu, first Education Secretary of the FCT also a parent at the meeting, appreciated the NTIC management, and urged parents to stand by the school in its trying period.

According to him, the call by the Turkish Ambassador for the closure of the NTIC was targeted at parents and not the institution.

He, however, advised that regardless the anger in the parents, they should follow due process in their struggle.

The parents at the meeting were unanimous in saying that they would stand by the NTIC to the end to ensure that it was not closed down as requested by the Ambassador.

The NTIC had been operating in the country in the past 18 years. Some of its old students at the meeting said they would join their parents in backing the institution.

Source: Premium Times , July 30, 2016


Related News

Belgian minister presents Turkish schools as example of high quality education

Joëlle Milquet, the minister of lower education for the French government, attended the opening ceremony of the Liege branch of the “Écoles Des Étoiles” (Schools of the Stars), which were founded by Turkish entrepreneurs in Belgium 10 years ago.

‘Portraying Hizmet against settlement process groundless’

In an interview with the Zaman daily last week, GYV vice president Cemal Uşak categorically denied the aspersions that have been cast on the Hizmet movement on social media for a couple of years and in conventional media for the last three months that claim that the Hizmet movement has been against the settlement process.

Comments on Turkey coup attempt by Prof. John Whyte

Prof. John Whyte’s comments on recent coup attemtp in Turkey.

Turkey Concedes: No Evidence Linking Gulen to Coup Sent to Washington

Turkey is conceding it has not sent any evidence to Washington linking Fethullah Gulen to the failed July 15 coup attempt, despite increasingly angry calls by Ankara for the United States to extradite the Pennsylvania-based cleric or suffer a severe downgrade in diplomatic relations.

Twitter user apologizes for Gülen ‘traitor’ insult, blames politicians

Nuray A., who called Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen a “traitor” in a Twitter post, told a court on Tuesday that she only used the expression after first hearing politicians use the word against Gülen, and apologized for imitating them.

Over 30 Turkish diplomats, families seek asylum in Germany

Nearly three dozen Turkish diplomats and family members have claimed asylum in Germany over alleged affiliation to the network of US-based opposition leader Fethullah Gulen, whom the government in Ankara claims to have masterminded the failed July 15 coup attempt.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

German state minister: Persecuted Turks can apply for asylum in Germany

Strange alignment of PKK and government against Hizmet

Ahmet Şık’s book and Ergenekon’s media campaign (3)

US State Department ‘Can’t Imagine’ Accepting Erdogan Offer to Trade Hostage Pastor for Gulen

Fethullah Gulen in 2 minutes

Pakistan’s Sindh High Court restrains Turkish teachers’ deportation

4 Turkish charity organizations on OCHA’s Nepal list

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News