From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Amid criticism surrounding recent sacking of public civil servants by Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, 10,000 staff have been hired to work in various ministries.
Government said it will continue to hire skilled and essential personnel to fill critical gaps in the public service even as it proceeds with the rightsizing the workforce.
In a statement issued by Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye on Monday, the government argued that ‘’despite the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, the government has permitted its agencies offering the most essential services to refresh their teams with new staff.’’
“The recruitment will be made from candidates that partook in the suspended recruitment exercise for the core civil service or any agency that requires additional manpower when the need arises”.
The statement recalled that ‘’several agencies of the Kaduna State Government have since 2020 conducted various recruitment exercises for 10,000 staff. These include officers in the health, education and regulatory sectors.’’
‘’Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital employed 283 new doctors, nurses and other essential staff in November 2020. This has allowed the teaching hospital to grow its roster of doctors to 191, from only 32 in 2015,’’ Adekeye disclosed.
The Special Adviser noted that ‘’with the 215 doctors in the Ministry of Health, Kaduna state now has 406 doctors working in its public service.’’
Besides, ‘’the Ministry of Health has also recruited 1,064 persons, including 196 technical staff and 871 non-technical staff while 1,225 new staff have been injected into the Primary Health Care system,’’ he added.
According to the statement, ‘’Kaduna State University (KASU) has also employed 159 academic staff since 2020. ‘’
‘’The College of Education, Gidan-Waya, has submitted a report on their recent recruitment process and is awaiting approval for the resumption of 388 new staff, including lecturers and other categories of personnel,’’ the statement added.
The Special Adviser further disclosed that ‘’in the regulatory sector, the Kaduna State Water Services Regulatory Commission has hired 14 more staff.’’