It’s pleasing to hear that Governor Siminalayi Fubara has directed that the 1,000 teachers whose recruitment in 2023 was halted by the governor can now be formally absorbed into the teaching service of Rivers State.
I want to thank the governor for this magnanimous gesture. It shows that the effort to restore peace between the governor and his political traducers is actually yielding fruit. Apart from the fact that the young graduates will start work now and begin to earn their salaries after a long wait, the schools that have been starved of qualified teaching will now benefit from the injection of fresh blood into the system. The school system will be better for it, the families of the affected teachers will have a sight of relief and the society will benefit from this gesture.
It is also in this spirit that I appeal to the governor to revisit the recruitment of 10,000 young graduates, whose documentation had been completed before he cancelled it following the political crises in the state.
It’s was bad enough that the state was thrown into unnecessary crisis because of a disagreement among friends in a political family. But the worst of it was that the aggression was transferred to innocent job seekers, who had taken time to go through the processes of recruitment and documentation.
Just as they were set to start work, the hammer fell on them. Many of them did not recover from the shock and died after the sad news was broken on air. Many others became impaired. Hopes that were built up towards their absorption into government service were dashed. But then government was suffering from a shortfall of workers and fresh intakes into the system.
The governor should do well to carry the unfortunate youths and revisit their recruitment. Taking off 10,000 youths from the streets will boost the welfare of the citizenry and reduce tension and crimes in the state.
That should be the governor’s Christmas present to them just as he has announced a Christmas bonus for current workers.
Onungwe Wuwu,
Alesa, Eleme, Rivers State
