From Segun Babatunde in Bauchi
The Forum of Executive Directors of Civil Society Organizations in Bauchi state have called on the state government to lift the embargo on employment, particularly in the health and education sector, saying that it is long overdue.
The Chairman of the Forum, Sodangi Chindo who stated this during a press conference at the NUJ Press center in Bauchi said that while Civil Society Organizations in the state support the present administration efforts in sanitizing the employee payroll in the state, the government should find a way to employ to breach the gap of manpower lacking in the two sectors.
According to him, the under clinical health workers for example, the number of nurses working in health facilities in the state is 109 and what is required 1,208.
“The goverment must find a way to employ while they are cleaning the payroll.The situation is very pathetic because what we have in our health centers is that you find one person doing the work of ten persons, which is not supposed to be so”
“While we support this administration commitment in sanitizing the employee payroll, we call on his Excellency, not to use it as an excuse to continue the already overdue embargo on employment especially in the critical sectors of education, health, where life is at stake every minute every hour every day.We must find a way to employ while we clean the employee payroll” he said.
Sodangi who commended the state government for creating the enabling environment that attracts partners to the state through the peace enjoyed in the state, budgetary allocations and commitment to the payment of counterpart funds, called on the goverment to increase allocation to health sector which has dwindled from 15 percent to 10.5 percent.
.