Nasarawa Governor Reveals Teachers Paid ₦700,000 For ₦100,000 Salary Job

Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has expressed concern over widespread corruption in the state’s teachers’ recruitment process conducted by the Teacher’s Service Commission (TSC).....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

Governor Sule revealed that 80% of the teachers recruited were unable to write acceptance letters.

He made these comments on Wednesday while hosting the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Lafia.

In response to a request from CAN’s Chairman, Sunday Emma, to absorb 1,000 recruited teachers, the Governor highlighted the potential risks of compromising the state’s educational system.

“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 informed some of them have given as much as ₦700, 600. These are individuals who would be paid less than ₦100, 000,” he said.

Governor Sule emphasized that 80% of the teachers could not even compose 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,” he added.

New Recruitment Exercise to Be Conducted

Governor Sule explained that his administration has formed a committee to revamp the state’s education sector. He highlighted that his government has implemented all recommendations related to infrastructure and learning equipment, and decided to delegate the recruitment of teachers to TSC.

He pointed out that while he initially directed for 1,000 teachers to be recruited, TSC brought only 1,050 slots. Most of the teachers were employed based on connections, not merit.

“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. 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,” he explained.

The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum emphasized that most of the teachers recruited have also declined to teach in villages.

“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 noted.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Governor urged CAN to support his policy for standard education in the state. He maintained that a new recruitment exercise will be organized.

“I don’t want you to feel that you have pleaded with me, and I have refused to help. In reality, I don’t have any problem helping whomever, but I don’t want to bastardize our education system,”

“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 added.