Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has disclosed that corrupt officials within the state’s Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) sold job appointment letters to at least 2,277 applicants, misleading them into believing they had secured teaching positions.
This fraudulent act came to light after an investigative committee was tasked with examining irregularities in the state’s recent recruitment process for teachers. Governor Sule expressed outrage over the exploitation, vowing to report the implicated officials to security agencies for further investigation and action.
The Governor outlined how the TSC had not only flouted his directive to recruit only 1,000 teachers but also exceeded this number, hiring a staggering 3,277 individuals without proper approval. The scale of this misconduct was further aggravated by the fact that money, ranging from N500,000 to N700,000, was extorted from applicants in exchange for appointment letters, an illegal act that Sule argued is beyond administrative control and must be dealt with by law enforcement agencies.
Governor Sule lamented the disastrous implications of this widespread malpractice, highlighting the overwhelming strain it would place on the state’s resources. He questioned how the government would be able to accommodate over 3,000 teachers, especially when there is no budget for such a large workforce. More concerning, however, was the fact that many of the recruited individuals were not even qualified to teach, further undermining the quality of education in the state.
Further complicating the matter, the recruitment process itself lacked transparency and fairness. The investigative committee revealed that the exercise failed to meet the educational system’s needs, bypassed merit-based selection, and resulted in a non-representative distribution of teachers across local government areas. This raised serious concerns about the integrity of the entire process, with the recruitment described as a “racketeering venture” that benefitted only those willing to pay exorbitant amounts for employment.
As a result of the findings, Governor Sule vowed to terminate the appointments of all those recruited outside the official 1,000 sanctioned teachers, though he promised to honorably compensate those who had already been posted to schools. The Governor emphasized that, despite these payouts, there was no way the state could afford to keep teachers in excess of the approved numbers, especially when many were unqualified for the role.
Governor Sule emphasized the need for a fresh recruitment exercise to properly select 1,000 qualified teachers for the state’s schools. He reiterated that the priority must always be the quality of education and the well-being of the children, and that this issue was far beyond political interests.
