I'm not a supporter of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. But I'm intrigued by him. His grasp of issues is near genius. His writes up on what is bedeviling our dear state give me the jitters. It is clear that this man has a first class mind but whether this is matched up with compassion for the people is yet to be seen. Edo State is blessed with the quality of people that are so far coming out to profess their desire to Occupy the Government House. This write up on Human Capital Development should be a mandatory read for those responsible for crafting our policies. It is as detailed as it is well done. Thank you sir.

The importance of human capital development in a work environment cannot be over emphasized in the face of increasing quest for rapid socio-economic and political advancement of society. Man power training and development provide the work force, the necessary knowledge and skill to function effectively, adjust to new challenges and adapt to changing situations.

According to experts, in order to develop the requisite capacity for rapid development of a country and its constituent units (such as State), development of human resources is the foremost consideration. “Human resources constitute the ultimate basis for wealth of nations. Capital and natural resources are passive factors of production; human beings are the active agents who accumulate capital, exploit natural resources, build social, economic and political organisations, and carry forward national development.

A country which is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of its people and utilise them effectively… will be unable to develop anything else”. This timeless statement made in 1973 by the renowned Professor of economics at Princeton University, Frederick H. Harbison, in his influential book Human Resources as the Wealth of Nations (New York: Oxford University Press) appears to have been totally ignored in Edo State in the past seven years.

There is no articulate policy to train and develop the man power of the State work force. Government seems to operate on the same tired assumption that having being employed into the public service, public servants are to deliver public goods to the maximum efficiency. While this expectation may appear legitimate some fifty years ago, the sad picture of underdevelopment in our beloved Edo State calls for urgency and a total change of strategy consistent with Professor Harbinson’s profound statement of truism.

What is required is to re-tool the Public Service through a deliberate and sustainable programme of training and re-training of Public Servants to equip them not only with the necessary knowledge to meet the challenges of the work environment, but to reorient them to key into the vision of rapid development of Edo State. A sustainable programme of training and retraining founded on knowledge acquisition and overall re-orientation to understand the central purpose of government and the dictates of the 21st century public service is long overdue in Edo State.

Public service must be re-energised to deliver public goods for the citizenry. When last were Public Servants sponsored for programmes on modern techniques for public sector management and administration? How many conferences and workshops have they attended in the past seven years? How many seminars, symposia and training programmes have been mounted by government for its workforce? What efforts have been made to specially harness the available highly skilled manpower in tertiary institutions across the state for the benefit of the State’s workforce?

A renewed focus on building human resources through manpower training and development is urgently required in Edo State to move the state from the current embarrassing situation of stagnation, zero economic growth and appalling social decay. More worrisome is the near absence of qualified personnel in several critical sectors of the State’s Public Service.

n the health Sector for example, many will be astonished to know that there are only two (2) general surgeons in the entire State, two (2) orthopedic surgeons, one (1) Psychiatrist and one (1) dermatologist who is actually a contract Staff. There is an acute shortage of Doctors, Nurses and other medical personnel across the State. The few personnel are poorly motivated and remunerated. There has been no training or retraining for staff since 2008 and no promotion exercise for those eligible since 2013. No wonder, Edo State Hospitals have become recruitment centers of health workers to University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Delta and other States. The State school of Nursing and Midwifery has for the past three years lost her accreditation and casual staff engaged in the health sector have not been paid their entitlements one year after their disengagement.

The education sector is no better as parents have had to resort to private tutors to complement a dysfunctional system. The governor’s political slogan of “one man one vote” appears to have affected schools in the rural areas as it has become one school one teacher. Igbode Junior Secondary School, Erhurun in Akoko Edo that has JSS1, 2, 3 has only one teacher. The secondary school has one principal and one teacher. Ikakumo Grammer School, Ikakumo has one principal and one teacher. Ikiran-ile Secondary School has one Principal and one teacher. Ugboshi Secondary School also in Akoko Edo has one principal and one teacher. Urhonigbe Grammar School (JSS) in Orhionmwon also has one principal and one teacher. Ekpon Grammar School in Igueben, both junior and secondary has one principal and one teacher.The list is endless.

The Edo State Post Primary Education Board in 2011 attempted to recruit 500 teachers in all the disciplines to augment the shortfall in the service but this exercise was truncated by the government and till date nothing has been done. Even the more recent teachers’ recruitment exercise headed by Prof. Denis Agbonlahor is yet to materialize.

While urban local government council areas like Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba/Okha are complaining of excess teachers in their schools, the rural schools are abandoned and the children left to their fate. At a time when the State government should have been thinking of how to motivate teachers and organise training courses for them, they chose to humiliate them by insisting on competency test for all of them. This ill-advised test which was overwhelmingly rejected by the teachers disrupted the school calendar and it took precious months to convince the Governor on the futility of his directive.

The Civil Service has also suffered in service delivery efficiency as a result of lack of qualified personnel in a State saturated with top class professionals. Engineers are lacking in the service and projects fail for lack of supervision. It is a known secret in the State that one private Quantity Surveyor does all the bills of quantities of projects in the State and this same Quantity Surveyor supervises the projects he costed and recommends payment. This is clearly not the best of practice and can only fuel corruption.

Political appointees have not fared better in human capital utilisation. Many of them have no designation, job description or office. It is usual on working days to see them gather under the trees that adorn the parking lot of the Governor’s office, discussing all sorts of issues rather than productivity of the State which ought to be their focus.

We are reliably informed that the Governor deliberately wants to delay staff recruitment to the electioneering period so that he can make political capital out of it and preferably at the twilight of his tenure when he would not have to worry about the wage bill. If this is true, it is unfortunate that the Governor is playing politics with a very sensitive matter that ought to be taken more seriously.

We urge the Governor to identify existing vacancies, advertise for qualified Edo Indigenes to fill them and employ on the basis of merit and competence rather than partisan considerations. Edo State is blessed with abundant human resources which we can harness and develop for the good of our State. As we mark the anniversary of our nation’s independence, we thank God for the relative peace in the land and pray for unity and progress in the years ahead.

With POI and Edebiri, PDP has the best candidate for Edo state, and will gladly support any of them

cc: moderators

lalasticlala , seun fp pls

Oshiomole is nothin but a failure, cant wait to vote pastor ize iyamu as the next executive governor of edo state come 2016