Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has expressed deep concern over massive corruption in the recent teachers’ recruitment exercise conducted by the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), revealing that 80 percent of the recruited candidates could not write basic acceptance letters.
Speaking during a meeting with the Nasarawa State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Sunday Emma, who had appealed for the absorption of the 1,000 recruited teachers, Governor Sule stressed that proceeding with the appointments would undermine the state’s educational reforms.
“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,” the governor said.
He further disclosed shocking revelations about the recruitment process: “I was told some of them have given as much as ₦700,000 or ₦600,000. 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 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.”
Recruitment Process Marred by Nepotism
Governor Sule revealed that his administration had initially directed the recruitment of 1,000 teachers to improve the state’s education sector, but the process was compromised.
“They brought to me among the 1,000, 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,” he said.
The governor condemned the practice of employing unqualified candidates based on personal connections, noting that such actions harm the education system. “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,” he added.
Fresh Recruitment Exercise on the Horizon
Governor Sule assured stakeholders that his administration is committed to revamping the education sector. He stated that a committee had been set up to make recommendations for improving education infrastructure, learning equipment, and recruitment processes.
“We implemented all recommendations concerning infrastructure and learning equipment. I decided to hand over the recruitment of teachers to the TSC, but unfortunately, the process was hijacked by corruption and nepotism,” he lamented.
He also emphasized the need for a fresh recruitment exercise to ensure that only qualified and competent teachers are employed.
