By Amos Aar
NEWLY employed civil servants in Benue State have expressed worry over their recruitment at the twilight of Governor Samuel Ortom’s administration.
Some new employees who spoke with National Record Thursday, but pleaded anonymity, are jittery that their jobs may be terminated by the next administration.
A civil servant who was posted to the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs just two weeks ago said about 10 of them were employed under Suswam’s administration in 2015 but were sacked by the incumbent Governor Samuel Ortom and the same administration has employed them again barely five months to its exit.
They pointed out that the same Governor Ortom who viewed Suswam’s last minute recruitment as a burden tactically placed on him has adopted the same style by recently employing two thousand, five hundred (2,500) Basic Education teachers, one thousand, five hundred (1,500) secondary school teachers while four thousand (4,000) local government staff who were declared ‘ghost workers’ in 2017 have been reinstated in less than a year to the exit of the current administration.
The recruitment of 1,500 secondary school teachers under the Teaching Service Board (TSB) and the 2,500 Basic Education teachers under the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) is in addition to other state civil servants employed earlier in 2022 but are yet to receive salaries.
While the fresh employees appealed to the next administration not to sack them since government is said to be a continuum, they strongly condemned the last minute recruitment which according to them is gradually becoming an administrative policy by Benue governors on their way out of office.
They lamented that when such recruitments are made few months before the exit of the government from power, the succeeding administration quashes it on assumption of office.
They recalled that the last-minute recruitment of civil servants started at the end of Governor George Akume’s administration in 2007 when a host of workers both at the state and local government levels were employed without collecting even a month’s salary before he exited office.
A victim of the 2017 mass sack who said he has dragged Ortom to Court stated that although Akume’s successor, Gabriel Suswam, who came on board in 2007 viewed the last-minute recruitment made by his predecessor as a yoke placed on him to pay salaries, he bore the burden without sacking any staff. But the incumbent Governor Samuel Ortom did not tolerate the last-minute recruitment made by his predecessor, Suswam, and he sacked the workers.
“Ortom who assumed office in 2015 sacked all civil servants employed towards the end of Suswam’s administration and converted others to casual staff. I was one of the workers dismissed by Ortom and I sued him for the illegal termination of my appointment. Unfortunately, the National Industrial Court, Makurdi Division is delaying the litigation by making constant adjournments without proceedings.
“I wonder why the same governor who tagged our employment as a burden is also recruiting thousands of civil servants at the exit of his administration,” he pondered.
Others went public to bare their minds on posts made on social media to announce the recruitment of 2,500 Basic Education teachers.
Commenting, a Facebook User, Benjamin Atsue wrote: “…there is no need for all these things. After seven years, [it] is now less than five months to go that he wants to employ, I really pity those that will be attending such”.
Another commentator wrote, “Gov. Adeleke revoked this last-minute goodwill in his state”.
Rodney Uwouku commented, “but why at the eleventh hour?”.
