Delta Govt employs over 3,000 primary school teachers
****Debunks borrowing N40b loan for LGAs
By Christopher Odamah
Over 3,000 primary school teachers and non-teaching staff have been employed by the Delta State Government under the administration of Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, just as talks of the Governor arranging a N40 billion loan for local governments has been debunked.
The Chairman, Delta State Local Government Commission, Hon. Deacon Joseph Otirhue, disclosed this to Delta Revealed.
“I can tell you categorically that this present government has done well by giving approval for the employment to primary schools”.
The teachers, he said, are not able to meet up with the population of our pupils in the primary schools, making it imperative for additional manpower as a result of the shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff across public primary schools in the State.
According to him, the previous local government chairmen demanded for it. Immediately His Excellency, the Governor came onboard, he approved the recruitment of primary school teachers, non teaching jobs and from the last record, it’s about 3,000 plus.
He said, “This will go a long way in solving the problem of lack of teachers in our primary schools in the State”.
Otirhue also debunked the insinuations and provided an update on the N40 billion loan by councils.
The State Chairman, Local Government Service Commission, said it is always good for people to understand how the Government runs. The local government is a tier of government of its own, he explained, noting that they have the responsibility of paying their staff. “They are responsible for payment of primary school teachers and the local government Staff. There was a time, to pay two categories of workers; it became a problem, the local government asked for the loan.”
Administratively, he added that the State still legislates the administration of the local government. “They have no power of their own to do things without approval from the State Government. There was this dilemma of paying pensioners, they asked for loans from banks and it had to go to the State House of Assembly and of course the banks would want to secure the loan they are giving out because the laws that guide the local governments were created from the House of Assembly.”
In his words, “The role of the State Government was to facilitate the loan not that it was the State Government that borrowed it. They facilitated the loan and the loan is going to be paid by the local governments themselves and will be paying the money on a monthly basis for a period of five years.
“The State Government did not take loans but the local councils did to pay pensioners. Anybody accusing the State Governor of borrowing does not understand the dynamics. The State Government under the watch of Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori supported them, maybe if not facilitated, the banks would not have released the money, they would have been scared” he said.
