By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi Friday announced the employment into the state civil service of 5, 669 applicants as against the planned intake of 10, 000 in this outgoing year, 2025.
This figure is a shortfall of 4, 331 to the 10, 000 prospective citizens the governor had early this year announced the the state government’s resolve to engage into the state civil service.
Governor Bala Mohammed at a stakeholders engagement in Bauchi Friday over the recruitment drive however attributed the shortfall in the planned 10, 000 employment to other militating factors.
According to him, the state head of service has came up with a template of 214 jobs with 5, 669 vacancies that are available in 18 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the state.
He told the stakeholders, “I invited you here today because the Head of Service has come up with a template and he has given us the gist of the employment of 10, 000 so far, and the portal was opened with our BICT and so many people applied, there 214 jobs with 5, 669 vacancies that are available in 18 MDAs”.
Governor Bala explained that the advert for the employment of 10, 000 has generated alot of interest to the extent he doesn’t even know how to navigate the matter, hence the resolve to sought for the stakeholders resourcefulness during the meeting
“I must get your contributions so that together we do it and there would be justice and equity, not just to allocate anything for political expediency or the so-called people on the hightable to share the vacancies or any civil servant to use it for commercial purposes”.
Such unbecoming act, the governor pointed out, has always been the suspicion among the hierarchy of public officers, stressing “I say suspicion because it has not been probed”.
The Governor maintained, “So we are here to look at all the vacancies, the availability of the jobs, the Local Governments, and of course what to do to ensure justice and equity in the employment and to make sure that the four components of the stakeholders run down any perceived problem”.
He further stated that the stakeholders meeting would scrutinize the employment distribution so that at the end of the day nobody would say he is cheated, and urged the stakeholders to be just and equitable, eschew personal interest so as not to Jeopardize my official of the government.
Governor added, “The fact that we are privilege to be stakeholders does mean that we would monopolize everything. We have wards, we have people who don’t have any opportunity to get in touch with me or you, these are the people we want to touch”.
“These jobs seeking people are graduates of various tertiary institutions, they are intelligence. At the moment the Head of Service say we are going to get only 5, 669 vacancies, then we would start, and we promised 10, 000, may be next we do the rest, we have done the financial analysis, we can accommodate these by the grace of God”.
Governor Bala further remarked, “And of course we even have suspicion that the Head of Service has done some of them, he said with my approval, but we are here to look at them, because this is a continuing exercise. And I must thank him because it has always been his responsibility to do employment”.
It is however gathered that the remaining envisioned 4, 331 have already been on the government’s payroll based on the saying by the Governor that the Head of Service has done some of the appointments upon his approval to that effect, invariably the recruitment exercise is now completed with cronies.
