The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Professor Edoba Omoregie, SAN, has disclosed how his administration ended a decade-long employment freeze at the institution, with plans to recruit about 500 additional workers in 2026.
Omoregie said the university had gone without a major recruitment exercise since 2015, leaving critical gaps in both its academic and non-academic workforce.
Speaking in an interview, the vice-chancellor explained that his administration adopted a strategy of replacing workers who retired, resigned, were dismissed, transferred or left the institution for other reasons.
According to him, previous administrations failed to fill vacancies because they believed the Federal Government had imposed an employment embargo on universities.
He clarified that the restrictions did not prevent institutions from replacing workers who had left through normal attrition, provided the necessary approvals were obtained.
Omoregie said the university recruited approximately 500 workers in 2025 and was preparing to employ a similar number in 2026 to address persistent manpower shortages.
He disclosed that more than 400 vacancies were expected to arise from staff retirements alone this year, prompting the university to seek approval to fill the positions.
The vice-chancellor lamented that UNIBEN’s workforce had declined from approximately 8,000 employees to about 5,000 by the time he assumed office.
He said the prolonged recruitment gap had placed considerable pressure on the institution’s operations, forcing it to redeploy some non-academic staff to academic duties and rely on adjunct lecturers to sustain teaching activities.
Omoregie described the situation as unsustainable, insisting that universities require adequate personnel to maintain academic standards and deliver quality education.
He expressed optimism that the ongoing recruitment exercise would gradually restore the institution’s workforce and improve its ability to meet the needs of students and staff.
The planned recruitment covers both academic and non-academic positions, although applicants will need to await official announcements from the university regarding vacancies and application procedures.
The development comes amid broader discussions about staffing, funding and the quality of education in Nigeria’s public universities.
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