The governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has disclosed that almost 80% of the state’s unlawfully hired secondary school instructors are incapable of writing an acceptance letter.
He made this declaration at a meeting held at Government House with a coalition of Christian faiths who are members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
CAN’s Nasarawa State Chairman, the Very Reverend Dr. Sunday Emma, requested that the illegally recruited teachers be taken on as teachers, but Governor Sule forcefully refused, pointing out that the majority of them lacked the required credentials.
“You are asking me to absorb them. Reverend, look at it two ways. I am not saying that I want to cause some people problems. I was told some of these people who paid money are not even qualified to teach. I was told some of them have given as much as 700, 600 thousand naira.
“These are people who would be paid less than 100,000. I was told 80 percent of them could not even write acceptance letters. If you are the Governor Sir, and you are being told all these. If we are helping them, we are not helping our educational system. That means we can completely forget about our desire to reform the educational system,” he remarked.
The governor clarified that when he took office in 2019, he hired education specialists to carry out a baseline survey of all the state’s schools. The report emphasised, among other reforms, the dire need for competent teachers and the appalling state of the educational system.
“They returned and said they needed curriculum, which we have provided, and they required buildings, which we have provided, among other things. They stated we needed teachers, too. Let’s start with 1,000 teachers, they said. Therefore, we gave our approval to hire 1,000 teachers,” he said.
But Governor Sule revealed that the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), which he just suspended, had hired more than 1000 more teachers without permission, exceeding the permitted amount.
He said, “They brought to me among the 1000, 50 slots because they know there are a lot of people that would approach me to ask for slots. I said no, don’t give me any fifty. Go ahead and employ all of them based on merit. I don’t even have a single slot.
“The reason is that our educational system in the state is grossly decayed and we need to bring it up. If we don’t have qualified teachers if we employ teachers based on this-one-knows-this-one, we may not have the kind of good teachers that we are looking for.
Governor Sule also took issue with the fact that many of the hired instructors were reluctant to work in rural areas, preferring to stay in cities.
“You cannot bring people who cannot teach, who will refuse to go to the villages where we need teachers, choosing to remain in the cities.
“They have to remain in Lafia, Akwanga, Keffi, Karu. Some of them don’t even want to go to Toto to talk less of Gudi. These are the problems we are facing.
He said, “I don’t want you to feel that you have pleaded with me, and I have refused to help,” emphasising the significance of upholding educational standards and making sure that only certified teachers are hired.
Actually, I have no difficulty lending a hand to anyone, but I don’t want to denigrate our educational system.
To be sure that only the best applicants would be kept, the governor declared plans to conduct a new interview process for all of the hired instructors, including the 1000 who were first accepted.
“Let our selection of competent teachers come from there so that they can be given equal opportunity.
“This time around, we will not allow these types of people to engage them.
“We cannot get it right if we fail to do the right thing.
“My dream is to get it right in Nasarawa State. That is the dream of my colleague.
“But we can’t get it right except if we are honest to ourselves,” he said.