Last minute workers’ recruitment plot to cripple incoming government – Adeleke

The Osun State Governor,  Adegboyega Oyetola, has approved the recruitment of additional 1,500 teachers.

A statement by the state Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, after the State’s Executive Council Meeting, on Monday, said the move was to fill the existing gap in the education sector of the state.

Recall that the Oyetola administration has initially recruited 1000 teachers earlier in the year.

Egbemode disclosed that the new approval brings the total number of teachers recruited by the administration to 2,500.

She added that priority will be given to rural areas in the distribution of manpower, adding that a special committee has been constituted to work with the Ministry of Education in implementing the approval.

Reacting to this development, the transition committee set up by Ademola Adeleke, the Osun State governor-elect has described the last minute recruitment embarked upon by the Governor Adegboyega Oyetola administration as a deliberate plot to expand payroll and financially cripple the incoming government.

The Committee, which expressed shock at the plans for worker’s recruitment, added that the action was a disguised push by the outgoing administration to complicate the State’s economy.

In a statement signed by Olawale Rasheed, Chairman, Media Sub-Committee, Ademola Adeleke Transition Committee on Tuesday in Osogbo, the Committee noted that in the last two months, the Oyetola administration had illegally employed thousands of personnel without consideration for the State’s capacity to pay and without any workforce planning, leading to governance driven by vendetta and desire to run the State aground.

The Committee stated, “As a freshly elected Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke has a well studied plan to fill the manpower gap within the educational sector and other areas of needs within the state without further complicating the already troubled workforce and over-bloated remuneration space. A tested scheme is already in place to bridge the workforce gap within the educational sector and a proper financial analysis has been concluded to address the knotty question of workers’ pay and entitlements.

“The plan to illegally recruit thousands of teachers and OYES personnel is, therefore, another evil agenda designed to disrupt the incoming Governor’s agenda to normalize Osun finances and restore dignity of labour through regular payment of salaries, gratuities and pensions. This move is neither altruistic nor a patriotic rendering of service.

“The goal is to deepen financing gridlock, plunge Osun workers into another era of pain and hardship and perpetually place the workforce in poverty and the state in under-development. As an incoming Governor with a popular mandate, Senator Ademola Adeleke will not allow the inhuman agenda of Governor Oyetola to prevail on Osun people.

“It is on this note that we call on Osun people to beware of involvement in politically motivated employment processes that won’t stand the test of time. We urge job seekers and all other stakeholders to distance themselves from this desperate ploy as any illegal recruitment won’t be recognised by the incoming government.

“As we have noted in several statements, any bureaucrat who aids and abets the several illegalities being cooked up and executed by the outgoing government will be held to account. Illegal disposal of government assets, fraudulent contract payments, scamming disposal of government’s assets, illegal recruitment, unconstitutional conduct of council elections and others will also be sternly revisited after November 28th. His Excellency’s vow to Osun people to deliver on good governance remains sacrosanct.”