By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja
The Kogi State Government has come under pressure to address what the Publisher of Policy and Lawmakers Magazine, Prince Ogungbemi, described as critical manpower gaps in schools and hospitals, as well as outstanding gratuities owed to retired workers.
Ogungbemi said the government could not claim meaningful development while public schools lacked sufficient teachers, hospitals struggled with inadequate medical personnel and retirees waited for their legitimate entitlements.
In a strongly-worded press statement, he challenged the administration to move beyond projects, policy announcements and official pronouncements and focus on the human beings required to make public services work.
He said the shortage of teachers in primary and secondary schools across the state had become a matter requiring urgent government intervention.
According to him, no amount of investment in school buildings and equipment can produce quality education if there are not enough qualified teachers in the classrooms.
He therefore called on the government to immediately assess the manpower needs of public schools and recruit and deploy teachers to areas with the most serious shortages.
Ogungbemi warned that continuing to build and renovate schools without addressing the teacher deficit could leave Kogi with modern facilities that are inadequately staffed.
“Education is not just about buildings. It is about the teachers who stand before pupils and students every day and give meaning to those investments,” he said.
The publisher also challenged the government to accelerate the payment of outstanding gratuities owed to pensioners.
He said retirees who spent years serving the state should not be forced to wait indefinitely for payments due to them, especially at a time when the rising cost of living was putting additional pressure on elderly citizens.
Ogungbemi said clearing the backlog would not only reduce the hardship faced by pensioners but also demonstrate that government valued the service rendered by its former workers.
“Government responsibility does not end when workers retire. Their legitimate entitlements remain an obligation that must be honoured,” he said.
On healthcare, the publisher urged the government to urgently recruit doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and other essential medical personnel.
He called for a comprehensive manpower audit of government-owned hospitals and other health facilities to identify critical vacancies and ensure immediate deployment of qualified professionals.
Ogungbemi argued that hospitals could not deliver effective healthcare simply because they had been constructed or renovated.
He said the availability of competent medical personnel was central to turning government investment in healthcare into actual benefits for residents.
The publisher said the three issues — teacher shortages, inadequate medical manpower and unpaid gratuities — had a common denominator: the welfare of the people.
He urged the government to treat them as urgent public-service challenges rather than routine administrative matters.
Ogungbemi said Kogi residents should be able to see government development in functioning schools, adequately staffed hospitals and a system that pays retirees their legitimate entitlements without unnecessary delays.
He also called for sustained action rather than temporary interventions, stressing that education, healthcare and workers’ welfare should remain central to the state’s development agenda.
He said the demands were not criticism for its own sake but a call for accountability and responsive governance.
Ogungbemi urged the government to demonstrate political will by closing the manpower gaps in schools and hospitals and clearing outstanding gratuities.
He maintained that the people would ultimately judge the administration not only by the projects it commissions but by the quality of education, healthcare and social protection available to ordinary residents.