Buhari’s Govt Has Been Very Eventful In Infrastructural, Agricultural Revolution’

The Buhari/Masari Agenda 2019, a Katsina-based political association, has commenced tour of the 34 local government areas in the state to sensitise the electorate on the importance of possessing permanent voter cards and re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and Gov. Aminu Masari in the 2019 general elections.

Malam Lawal Adam, the Secretary General of the group, made this known in Daura on Thursday. He said available statistics from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) indicated that there were still thousands of unclaimed voter cards at the commission’s local government offices across the state. He emphasised the need for all eligible voters to collect their voter cards ahead of the election, stressing that “the voter card is the only weapon with which one can partake in a political warfare’’.

 Adam commended INEC for being very punctual and neutral in the discharge of its constitutional responsibilities, saying: “We are happy at the recent display of names of those who applied for voter cards from the commission as their cards were ready for collection.’’ However, the scribe called on the electorate to re-elect Buhari and Masari to enable them consolidate on the gains so far recorded.

According to him, the last three years of APC administration has been very eventful, especially considering the level of infrastructural development, agricultural revolution and promotion of general security situation.


Adam described the administration of Masari as one of the best in the history of the state considering its impact on education, health, security and youth empowerment programme, noting that over 35,000 youths had been empowered through skills acquisition and provision of seed capital.

He added that the administration has also promoted the welfare of civil servants through regular payment of salaries and allowances as well as pension and gratuity of retired civil servants.

The secretary added that the administration has also abolished the hitherto eight-year tenure system for directors introduced by the PDP administration. Political alignments and realignments, meetings and solidarity visits to politicians has commenced in earnest across the state, ahead of the 2019 polls.

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Minimum Wage : You Can’t Intimidate Us With Sack Threat, Labour Tells NGF

The Organised labour on Thursday, told the Nigeria’s Governors Forum, NGF, that the threat to retrench workers should the new minimum wage of N30,000 agreed upon by the Tripartite Committee be implemented was an invitation to anarchy with grievous consequences.

The organized labour also said that the governors threat to sack workers was not new in the struggle for review of the national minimum wage in Nigeria and that the N30,000 was a product of intense and robust negotiations at the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee that lasted for one year between November 2017 to November 2018.

Minimum wage President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba in a statement in Abuja, told workers to ignore the statement credited to the Chairman of NGF and Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari who while briefing journalists after an emergency meeting of the governors on Wednesday claimed that the N30,000 minimum wage would make states bankrupt.

Governor Yari had also stated that only Lagos State can afford the new wage regime if implemented, adding that state governors were finding it difficult to pay the N18,000 already in force. But Wabba in his statement took a swipe at the NGF boss, stressing that the governors were part of the negotiation that lasted for about a year before arriving at a compromised figure of N30,000.

The statement read: “The attention of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Organized Labour, the Working Class, Pensioners and their families have been drawn to a statement credited to the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Alhaji AbdulazizYari, the Governor of Zamfara State threatening to sack workers on the account of the New National Minimum Wage of N30,000.

“It would interest Nigerians to know that the New National Minimum Wage of N30,000 was a product of intense and robust negotiations at the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee that lasted for one year between November 2017 to November 2018. “At the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee, State governments were represented by six states, one state from each of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.

A letter was sent by the Tripartite Committee to every state to send in their memorandum as their input to the national minimum wage negotiations. It is on record that 21 States responded by sending memoranda with figures. “Subsequently, public hearings were conducted in each of the geo-political zones in the country. The State governments were all represented at the zonal hearings and made their input to discussions towards a new national minimum wage.

 “The demand of organized labour was N66,500. From the memoranda submitted to the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee by State governments, there were proposals by some states to even pay higher than the negotiated national minimum wage of N30,000. “After extended and extensive negotiations by the Tripartite Committee, a final compromise figure of N30,000 was agreed by all the partners – Government, Organized Labour and Employers in the Private Sector.

“This agreement took on board prevailing economic indices and factors especially as outlined in Convention 131 and Recommendation 95 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on Criteria and Procedure for Collective Bargaining especially towards arriving at a National Minimum Wage for any country.” Continuing, it said, “It was on the basis of this agreement that the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee concluded its work and submitted its Report to Mr. President on the 6th of November, 2018. This ended the process of negotiations for a new national minimum wage for Nigerian workers. “The statement of Mr.

AbdulazizYari purportedly for the Nigeria Governors Forum, one year after the inauguration of the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee, is certainly an after-thought and has no place in the collective bargaining process. “We understand that Mr. Yari Abdulaziz’s position is at the instance of a few anti-worker governors. We are not in any doubt that many worker-friendly governors are ready to pay even higher than the negotiated N30,000 new national minimum wage.

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The Task At Hand Is Joining Hands To Offload Buhari/apc - Fayose As He Turns 58

The immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, turns 58 today

According to a press statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, Fayose will not be flying to Dubai or any fairy-tale West Indies island to throw lavish parties.

Instead, he will be in deep reflection on the parlous state of the nation and the untold suffering which has been the lot of Nigerians under the President Muhammadu Buhari/APC administration.

“It has never been this bad”, he said, adding that the task at hand is joining hands to offload Buhari/APC and put an end to the unmitigated suffering in the land.

“Nigeria spends more than 50 percent of its revenue to service debts. That is recipe for disaster.

“Most parts of the country are perpetually in darkness despite all their boasts and huge resources purportedly committed to power generation.

“Insecurity is at the highest level ever despite the huge funds they have illegally seized from the other tiers of government ostensibly to fight insurgency.

“Fuel subsidy has returned with a fury never before known in this country. 

Subsidy is now done under the counter and the mind-boggling corruption going on in that department is better imagined than said.

“Unemployment, youth restiveness and collapse of the industrial sector imperil us all and mortgage the future of the present as well as future generations.

“Our country is the laughing stock of the international community. When our President is not described as lifeless, we as a nation are described as the poverty  capital of the world.

“This is not the time to throw elaborate birthday bash. Hopefully, better days are coming when Nigeria shall be free from its present crippling emasculation brought about by the incompetence and arbitrariness of Buhari/APC”, he added.

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I Can Beat Eminem, JTEAZ Boasts

Presently, in the rich music industry where everyone is becoming a singer, finding good music is like attempting a puzzle. Fast rising Benue-born singer and rapper, Chia Orseer John, known popularly as Jteaz, is one big puzzle to unravel in the Nigerian music industry. 

Speaking with Journalist after an amazing performance in a campaign against depression ‘Katahlipsi’ recently held in Kogi state, the ‘Comot your Cap’ crooner, Jteaz reveals his songs are exceptional, compared to others. Stardom Nigeria Realty TV Show: Winners to get $30,000 each ‘’I don’t do songs for melody, I do songs that are relevant to the society, songs that people sing and can relate with, that people Want to connect with. It is easy for people these days to say they have good music. My songs are exceptional.

I think, I can beat Eminem, and those who have listened to my songs could attest to that fact’’ Jteaz, a graduate of Mass communication, Kogi state University, Anyigba, has recorded over fifty songs, his passion for rap and singing, has been since childhood, but he has not relied on his laurels, but, has been into practices, and studying the lives of good musicians, who also inspire him, so to improve himself. 

According to him ‘’I realized I have gift for singing when I was seven. Though, people who knew me since childhood said I had been singing since I was 2 years old. 

I could recall when I was in primary four, I attended a competition back then in Kogi state polytechnic and I stole the show when I rapped, sang and danced. 

Though, I know I am a gifted singer, but, that is not enough. So, to be exceptional, I do a lot of practice, I also watch and study good singers like 2Baba, Eminem and few others’ Mobile money operators exempted in SANEF programme — AMMAN Expressing his dismay over the way the musical industry is over commercialized, he said; ‘Presently, everything in the industry is money.  It is a big problem for a good upcoming artist who does not have a strong financial background to get big, because  to promote your songs, you need to spend really big money. For example, I struggle to pay bloggers and promoters, and they call high prices, because everyone wants to feel expensive. 

Also, I tried to connect with someone who would help link me up with a radio station where I can be interviewed and I was asked to bring four hundred and fifty thousand naira. 

How can a beginner pay such a huge money?. You want to place your songs on Naijaloaded or tooexclusive, you will be billed huge, you want to record a song, you pay big. In fact, the musical industry is just all about money, and it kills dream’

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I’ll Refund People’s Deposits – Eke, Calabar Ponzi Scheme Operator - Business

Founder of Micheno Micro Cooperative Society, a  Calabar-based alleged Ponzi scheme in Cross River State, arrested by the police about three weeks ago over N27 million trapped deposits by investors, Mr.

Michael Eke, weekend, cried out from a police cell in Abuja, saying he is not a swindler. Recovered Money Eke, who  is being detained at the Nigeria Police Force headquarters told our source on phone that his continued detention and freezing of his bank accounts were affecting the refund of money to his clients. His words:‘’My ordeal was not my making, and I am not a fraudster as I have been labelled or made to look by the people who took advantage of the matter.

 “They also claimed that they will make the National Assembly release money to them through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. I want the public to know that I am not on the run, I want to pay people their money but my arrest and harassment have made this impossible. “I came here on my own when I got an invitation to come to the Force Headquarters in Abuja. I was not arrested. I have also submitted my international passport.

“They told me initially that I was detained based on orders of the National Assembly for 133 days. I have been passing blood due to complicated pile issues.” “Even in detention, I am still being invited by the EFCC to come and answer questions. I want the public to know that I did not hide their money in any foreign account.

I invested in Swiss gold that changed its policy about conversion of funds and repayment. “That was what happened. Commercial banks became jittery and fought me because they felt a lot of people were pulling out funds from their accounts.

I sincerely sympathize with all those who have fallen ill because they could not take the news of the alleged crash.’’

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Breaking: Seven Parties Adopt APC For Kwara Bye-election

Seven political parties on Tuesday agreed to work for the All Progressives Congress in Saturday’s bye-election for the Ekiti/Isin/Irepodun/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency seat of Kwara State.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the seat became vacant following the death, recently, of Funke Adedoyin who had represented the constituency.

The political parties were led by their leaders to adopt the APC candidate, Mr. Raheem Olawuyi, at a ceremony in Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of the state.

The seven political parties are Peoples Progressives Party, National Action Council and New Progressives Movement.

Others are Peoples Redemption Party, National Democratic Liberty Party, National Conscience Party and the United Democratic Party.

A leader of PPP in the state, Mr. Kayode Banji, described Olawuyi as “a trusted and reliable progressive who shares the same principles and ideals” of his party.

He said that the party decided to pitch tent with the APC because of its progressive political ideology, adding that Olawuyi remains the candidate to beat.

Banji also expressed the belief that the bye-election would be free, fair and credible, promising that PPP would deliver votes for the APC in line with the alliance.

A leader of the NPM, Mr. Samson Olaitan, on his part, said that his party decided to adopt the APC candidate because of his previous outstanding record in progressive politics.

He urged all progressives to support Olawuyi, adding that the APC remained the best option in the bye-election.

Earlier, Olawuyi had commended the seven political parties for their unparalleled show of love and solidarity with the progressive movement.

“I appreciate this gesture and I believe we are all progressives that should work together to chase out our common enemy in the state,” he said.

The APC candidate promised to run an all-encompassing administration where all stakeholders would have a sense of belonging in moving the constituency forward.

(NAN).

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ASUU Wants FG To Negotiate With Union To End Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says it is ready to negotiate with government toward ending its one-week old industrial action.

Its President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who was guest on TVC News Breakfast show on Tuesday, also advised government to establish an education bank for proper funding of universities.

He regretted the attitude of government to the university lecturers’ demands, saying that letters notifying government of the strike, which were submitted to the education and labour ministries on Nov. 5, had not been replied.

“We wrote to inform the ministries that we had resumed our strike. We told them that we had resumed the strike we suspended in Sept. 2017 because government failed to implement agreements we signed.

“The ministries signed to acknowledge receipt of the copies we gave them, but none has written a reply to us,” he said.

He accused the political class of strangling primary and secondary education in Nigeria, saying that 24 states had failed to access the Universal Basic Education Commission funds for 2018.

According to him, that has left UBEC with more than N60 billion that states have yet to access.

Ogunyemi observed that the federal government, which had consistently allocated seven per cent to education in the last two years, was not sincere in the claim that it was declaring a state of emergency in the education sector.

“The Federal Government suddenly woke up from slumber and announced a state of emergency in the education sector. It also promised to allocate 15 per cent of its budget to the sector. We find this unbelievable and deceitful.

“We feel that the `sudden’ promise has more to do with the fact that we are in an election year,” he declared.

He alleged that the ruling class in Nigeria had no concern for the education of the poor.

Newsmen report that the lecturers had resolved to remain at home until their demands, which include proper funding of the universities, are met.

Other demands included the payment of full salaries by state-owned universities, payment of earned academic allowances, among others.

NAN

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