Examining Governor Udom Emmanuel’s Passion For Job Creation In A Dwindling Economy

Examining Governor Udom Emmanuel’s Passion For Job Creation In A Dwindling Economy

By Edet Okpo

The recent recruitment of 3000 holders of the Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE) into the State Civil Service by the Akwa Ibom State Government and subsequent postings of successful candidates to respective public primary schools after a rigorous screening exercise certainly deserve some words of gratitude and commendation both from the direct beneficiaries and other Akwa Ibom citizens.

First and foremost, such tremendous undertaking by the State Government at a time other States in the Federation are laying off workers or are owing them huge backlog of salaries on spurious claims of lack of resources clearly points to the integrity, accountability, thoughtfulness, benevolence, inclusive disposition and distinctive capacity of His Excellency, Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, in judiciously utilizing available lean resources to give Akwa Ibom indigenes a sense of belonging in his administration. The employment of these teachers further marks out the Governor as a man of his words because job creation and capacity-building towards self-sustenance were amongst the critical aspects of his 5-point campaign agenda in the subsisting leadership template.

The second reason why this comparatively great and rare feat by the Governor must be widely commended is in special connection with the hitherto status and expectations of NCE graduates from the Akwa State College of Education, Afaha Nsit in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area, who since may have lost interest in their professional relevance in the scheme of things, but who today have been given a cause to smile. Established in 1991 by the military administration of Air Captain Idongesit Nkanga, it might be expedient to recall that one of the principal mandates of the College of Education was to train professional teachers and allied intellectuals who would form the bedrock and feeder platform of personnel for primary education.

It is therefore gladdening to observe that over 90 per cent of the 3000 recently recruited primary school teachers are graduates of the College of Education and proud members of the Alumni Association. Available record has shown that this is the first time in the history of the State and the 27 years existence of the institution that a Governor would call for the employment of this quantum of teachers from a specified section. This therefore marks a turning point in the history of teachers’ engagement by a single administration in the State and serves as a manifest expression of pragmatic concern for teachers and a landmark achievement of His Excellency in the education sector.

The over 28, 000 Members of the Alumni therefore use this medium to register their special and profound appreciation to His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel, for giving personalized attention to trained teachers of this College. The exercise which is aimed at rijiging the State’s education machinery for efficiency and higher productivity is a textbook case that the governor is fully aware of the observable needs of manpower in the sector.

Moreover, with increase in the enrollment of pupils as a spill-over of the Free and Compulsory Education Policy of the State, the recruitment of this huge number of teachers is a further proof that, against the cynicism of fifth columnists, the government has no reservations in its unwavering determination to sustain the policy. No gainsaying the fact that the recruitment of these thoroughbred and vibrant teachers will also scare away quacks and charlatans in the sector.

It is worth stating that besides the 3000 NCE teachers, the government has also engaged about 200 academic and non-academic staff to strength the personnel structure of the College, committedly engaged itself in ensuring that more courses are accredited as well as infrastructural transformation of the institution through renovation of age-long dilapidated structures and construction of intra-campus roads network, phase one of which has already been commissioned. 

It is of note that beyond the College of Education, the government has also employed about 150 comprising of teaching and non-teaching staff into Akwa Ibom Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua and additional 1,500 teachers into the state public secondary schools. Also, a recruitment exercise into the health and affiliated sectors is on-going. How the Governor has made this possible in the present circumstances is, of course, a serious matter of public discourse and conjectures amongst analysts and public commentators.

The employment of well-trained and certified teachers predisposes the cyclical and cumulative benefits to the orientation and quality of pupils and students in our school system. Again, with the new employment, lives will have changed positively, dependency ratio will drop and productivity enhanced - all on account of the people-oriented policies of Governor Udom Emmanuel.

It is the hope of the founding fathers of the ALUMNI Association of the College of Education that their members, having gone through the rubrics of training as teachers in the College and equally undergone the rigours of selection for employment, they will take their newly offered jobs seriously as a reciprocal way of showing gratitude to the government. 

They must know that each and every one of them have a share in the intellectual destiny of the children under their care viz-a-viz what they will become for themselves, their parents and the state in the future.

Elder Edet Okpo, an Uyo-based Journalist is a former President of College of Education Afaha Nsit Alumni association