How I ended 10-year employment freeze at UNIBEN — VC

By Ozioruva Aliu BENIN CITY — The Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Prof. Edoba Omoregie, SAN, has said his administration has restored recruitment at the institution after a 10-year break, with about 500 people employed last year and a similar number expected to be recruited this year. Omoregie disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard, explaining that his administration adopted a strategy of replacing workers who retired, resigned, were dismissed, transferred or otherwise left the university.

He said the vacancies created by staff departures had remained unfilled for years because successive administrations believed there was a government embargo on employment. According to him, the government had only restricted new appointments in some universities but allowed institutions to replace workers through attrition. He said: “Even from calculating from those who were going to retire alone, we got over 400 spaces this year.

So we calculated all that, approached the appropriate approving body for those who are leaving to be replaced, for those who have left to be replaced. That was what they didn’t do for 10 years. “That was why our emolument cost plummeted significantly. UNIBEN used to have one of the highest employees.” Our employee strength plummeted too, from about 8,000 to about 5,000 when I took office.” The vice chancellor said the last major recruitment exercise at the university before his administration was in 2015, adding that the prolonged gap affected the institution’s workforce and academic operations.

“The last time any employment took place on this campus until last year was in 2015. So for 10 years the university bled. They had to start moving non-academic staff into academic staff; they started recruiting adjuncts. You don’t run a university like that. Those gaps, by the grace of God, are now being filled,” he said. Omoregie said the university recruited about 500 workers last year and planned to employ a similar number this year, covering both academic and non-academic positions.

“We did about 500 last year and by the special grace of God, this year we are still going to do an equal number,” he said.