Human capital is a major factor in any production level. Without the Human Capital, the other factors of production become epileptic.
Kogi state is one of the states created in 1991 that has its rich human resources drawn from two states namely;Kwara and Benue states aside those who deployed from some other states into the state work force. Kogi state, with a total land mass of 29,833 sq km (11,519 sq miles) and with an estimated population of about 4.5 million as of 2022. Geographically, the state is within the tropical Guinean and savanna forests with agriculture as the major economic resources of the state. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy and there are many farm products from the state.
These include,coffee, cocoa, palm oil, cashew,groundnuts, maize, cassava, yam, rice and melon amongst others.The Mineral resources available in the State include coal, limestone, iron, petroleum and tin. The active work force that took charge of the State at inception were not adequate to take control of the economic, physical and political demand of the young state.This work force went through several screening exercises to prune down to size. Presently,the total work force is estimated to be able to meet the work demand of the state. However,the workforce continued to reduce due to retirements.A visit to most offices within the state capital shows the slim work force in offices. It is against this back ground that this paper intends to see the impact of this reduction of the work force on the growth and economic development of the state,in general .There is no gainsaying that for a meaningful development of any state the work force must be adequate enough to carry out managerial and administrative duties of the state. Kogi state has not replaced those who retired either voluntarily or otherwise.And this,to say the least, has negative consequences on the people and the quality of production that the state can boast of. The few or casual replacement done in the past,are too minimal as to meet the managerial demand of the state. As at now the work force is filled with large volume of inexperienced work force. Those occupying position presently,are hardly trained as to improve their skills. . Many offices are empty without personnel.One thing is certain however,and that is that efficiency of service is gradually fading away. The commitment is gradually reducing. Man power requirement has dropped at a fast speed . The resultant effect is that we shall soon witness poor performance in the overall out put in the Civil Service. But the fact remains that the service must not be allowed to die in our time . It is on this note, that l urge the government in power to revamp the level of productivity and result driven work force by recycling the needed synergy to boost the performance level. If employment of new professionals is not forthcoming, gallant retired men and women can be recycled back to the work force to increase productivity and performance. What we are advocating for here is never new. For instance,Water Board could re-engage the services of Retirees to support the existing staff so that those sophisticated machines can work effectively while new entrants can understudy them.Also,in health sector there are doctors and nurses out there that can still be an added advantage to us to generate result. Recycling will allow easy succession plan to work. We should start to plan for any vacant position in each year to avoid creating vacuums. Already, large vacuum has been created as a result of retirements without replacements. For example, if a position will be vacant without competent hand to continue , the office should encourage the outgoing staff to train others at least four to five years preceding the officer’s retirement. This practice will ensure smooth transition in sensitive sectors. This will also Hence, we have not envision a succession plan the out gone staff in any sensitive sector. This will also facilitate easy transfer of skills, job orientation and result driven economy in our public sector. The legislative arm of government can equally come up with a bill to back up such managerial decisions in future.