By Ifeanyi Maduako
The governor of Abia State, Alex Chioma Otti came to office in May 2023. Within three years, he has recruited almost 10,000 teachers for the state’s public secondary and primary schools. These recruitments were done in two batches.
First, he recruited about 5,000 teachers in the first batch when he was barely one year in office. Recently, he made the second recruitment of nearly 5,000 teachers as well. All these teachers have been posted to various places of service.
In Enugu State, the governor was also elected at the same time as his colleague in Abia State. A visit to Enugu State will confirm that the governor has changed the landscape of the public secondary and primary schools with his smart schools model.
In Anambra State, the governor also did teachers’ recruitments within his first four years. It’s almost certain that he will also do the same in his second and last term now.
In unfortunate sharp contrast, the last teachers’ recruitment here in Imo State was in 2016, that’s 10 years ago. The public secondary and primary schools in the state are in the most derelict and dilapidated form.
Governor Hope Uzodimma has been in office for almost seven years now. He started his own brand of teachers’ recruitment in 2022, two years after he came to office.
Applications were advertised in various media platforms. Qualified and unemployed teachers from Imo State all over Nigeria applied. About 6,000 candidates were finally shortlisted.
Most of these shortlisted candidates were residents outside the state even though they are indigenes of the state.
Exactly this time last year, they were all summoned for the final screening at Ihitte Uboma LGA in the state. With the firm belief that they would be posted immediately after the screening, most of these shortlisted candidates resigned from their former jobs. Those of them outside the state relocated fully back to the state.
Every expectation was that they would be posted last September which was the beginning of a new academic session. That didn’t happen even after all the training.
One year later, this government of the state led by Senator Hope Uzodimma has kept them waiting. In the WhatsApp platform which the group created for themselves,a few of these shortlisted teachers have died perhaps out of frustration for a job requirement that started four years ago.
Governor Uzodimma has roughly over a year to be in office. With his senatorial ambition, he’s definitely not going to exhaust his entire tenure since he must proceed to the senate by June should he win the election.
That means that the governor has about 10 months to be in charge of the state before handing over to whoever must be his successor, which must definitely be his deputy ( whether the current one or another) in line with constitutional statutory compliance.
We are in September ( which is the beginning of another academic session) and yet, the state government is yet to conclude the teachers’ recruitment it started four years ago. Many had expected that the government would use the just concluded holiday period to conclude the documentation of the new teachers and post them so that they would head straight to their various schools next week when schools formally resume.
To be fair, the governor has done very well in terms of infrastructure, especially federal roads. He has surpassed the combined achievements of his three or four predecessors in this Fourth Republic. However, he has performed woefully in the educational sector.
He has a few months to go, why is he prevaricating on the issue of payment of the new teachers? Granted that the salaries of the new teachers will increase the wage bill of the government, but why didn’t other states also consider that? Why is everything Imo State always different from the other states for negative reasons? Why has the teachers’ recruitment remain inconclusive?
Maduako,writes from Owerri via ifeanyimaduako2017@gmail.com.
