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​Adamawa state Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri has assured  that his administration shall involve women in governance.

Governor  Fintiri gave this assurance on Wednesday while playing host to  the state chapter of the  National Council of Women Affairs, National Association of Women Traders and other interest groups, who paid him Sallah visit at the Government House in Yola.

For the ladies, you won’t just have a place with the other room and the kitchen,not at all like what acquired in the prompt past government which endowed the ladies issues service to a man. “We are here and will be here for you. We have begun, and we will keep on doing our best for the general great of the state. We have guaranteed you an 11-point motivation, and that is the thing that we will represent toward the finish of our four years, the Governor stated.

The Trade Union Congress of Namibia(TUCN) has declared that the silence from both Government and labour leaders negotiating salary increases is deceitful and an indication that there is nothing for the workers.

This declaration was made by the Secretary General of the TUCN,  Mahongora Kavihuha, who insisted that his union was not part of the negotiation.

“The negotiations are a secret between the 'cahoots' unions and the government. We have observed the strategy of both recognized unions and government: whenever public servants raise their voice, they come and comfort us as if there is something in the pipeline, while there is nothing,” Kavihuha stated.

Senior government and trade union officials kept sealed lips on Wednesday night , refusing to disclose the outcome of  negotiations for salary increases.

The negotiations are coming on the heels  of threats by Namibian workers  to go on an indefinite strike, if the government does not increase their salaries.

Workers are demanding a 12 per cent increase in salaries, while government insists that there is paucity of funds.

Salary of workers waslast increased in 2016 by 5 per cent , with a promise by government to increase same by 9 per cent in 2017.

The increase came at a time, Teachers across the country embarked on an indefinite industrial action.

A former Governor of Oyo state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja has declared that his expectation is that the state Governor will ensure good governance by making a positive impact in all sectors of the state economy.

Senator Ladoja, who  is also the Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland, made this declaration on Tuesday,  in an interaction with journalists at his Ondo street residence in Bodija, Ibadan, Nigeria.

''Good government. Anything that is good government is what I expect from  the present government in Oyo state. Whether you belong to party A or party B, you are the Governor of everybody. Your focus must be on the people. You can play tricks before the election, but once you become the Governor it is your duty to protect everybody''.

''I expect him to do  better in all sectors, especially in education. Health, he should put emphasis on primary health care delivery. Agriculture, he must create more jobs through Agriculture. He should strive for self sufficiency'', Senator Ladoja  advised.

The Ibadan High Chief also assured that he would be ready to offer useful advice that would move the state forward if the the state Governor so requested.

''Has the Governor asked us any question that we did not answer ? There was cooperation between me and Ajimobi, but he became intolerant. We have to grow along with our problems and show unerstanding. I am sure that there is no past Governor that will not want to cooperate with the state Governor. He might want to create a forum of past Governors for this purpose'',  the former Governor stated.

Zamafara state Governor, Bello Matawallen-Maradun has assured that his administration shall reabsorb  about 1,400 workers who were laid off by the immediate past Govermment in the state.

Governor Matawallen-Maradun gave this assurance on Wednesday in his speech, during the swearing-in and inauguration of the Governor and his deputy in the  state capital, Gusau.

“We are going to set up a committee to verify them and put them into the state core civil service, except those who secured another job,’’ the Governor stated.

The state Governor who noted that the workers were recruited in line with civil service rules  and regulations, said ''Therefore, this administration will reinstate them.”

After been owed 60 months salary arrears the workers, who  were recurited in 2014, were relieved of their appointments.

He also promised  to ensure meaningful development of the state, while calling on the people to join hands with his adminsitration to deliver on his electoral promises.

  School children in Nigeria are looking up to the powers that be for a bright future.

Workers of the National  Lottery Regulation Commission(NLRC) have insisted that the delibrate disregard of the provisions of the Public Service Rules by the Director General of the Commission and his refusal  to put in place conditions of service for the workers among several other issues prompted them to proceed on an indefinite sit-at-home industrial action.

This disclosure was made by the Chairman of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria(ASCSN)NLRC Unit, in Ibadan, Oyo state, Comrade Austin Oseiga, in a chat with Federationews2day.

''The union highlighted in the letters, series of violation of the Public Service Rules and unfair labour practices perpetrated by the DG of the National Lottery Regulation Commission, Mr. Lanre Gbajabiamila, who has been running the Commission as his personal estate''.

''The Director General has refused to process staff conditions of service for approval. He has also refused to pay Duty Tour Allowances(DTA) to qualified officers who were invited to participate in the 2017 and 2018 promotion exercises and has continued to use a security agency to conduct staff audit against the provisions on Public Service Rules'' 

Comrade Oseiga also lamented that the Director General had abandoned staff who sustained serious injury while on official assignment, while stressing that he had embarked on an '' unwarranted incursion into the privacy of vulnerable members of staff through the vexatious installation of Close Circuit Television, right inside their offices, which is against global practices''.

''Most worrisome is the fact that the DG, has become more daring as he has gone ahead to enact and implement more anti-government and workers' policies. For example, the DG  has ordered members of staff of the Commission to submit their Curriculum Vitae and academic credentials for verification by a security outfit and that ''any staff that does not submit a copy of their Curriculm Vitae and academic qualifications will have their names removed from the Commission's payroll'', the workers concluded.

Indeed, watchers of the unfolding deveopment reveal that political appointees of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) have sysematically damaged the structure of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) in the last four years, perhaps, according to the watchers, in fulfillmnent of a sinister agenda.

Of seriuos concern, is the morale of workers in the country which has hit an all time low during the same period, as a result of the negative approach of the political appointees to administration in the affected MDAs.

The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the recently concluded Presidential elections in Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has raised the alarm over  the Federal Government's plot to implicate him in a phantom coup.

According to a statement issued  by the Media Aide of Alhaji Abubakar, Paul Ibe, the plot was to prevent the exposure of the irregularities that characterizede the elections.

“We want to know why the desperation on the part of the Muhammadu Buhari government to rope in the PDP and its Presidential candidate in phantom plots? Obviously, President Buhari wants to replay the phantom coup plot saga of his now deceased mentor, who threw former President Olusegun Obasanjo in jail after falsely accusing him of treason in order to perpetuate himself in power.''

 

“Could it be that they are now aware that the electoral fraud they perpetrated during the last presidential election is about to be exposed beyond a shadow of a doubt? 

 

“For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku Abubakar resisted the Abacha dictatorship, of which President Muhammadu Buhari was a prominent member, and it is his resistance and the sacrifice of his co-travellers, like Chief MKO Abiola and Alex Ekwueme, amongst others, that gave rise to the democracy that the current government is now trampling on'', the statement concluded.

 

 

Nigerians are not happy about the poor state of electricity supply all over the country.

They lament that lack of regular electricity supply has crippled their businesses and affected various economic activities.

The challenges confronting the power sector cuts across transmission, distribution and generation.

Nigerians buy their own transformers, cables and other relevant inputs to enjoy electricity supply, only to be told by the distribution companies to sign off same to the companies.

South Africa with a population of 56.7 million people, generates 51,000 megawatts, Nigeria with a population of about 200 million people generates below 7,000 megawatts. 

Interestingly, the distribution companies make Pre paid meters unavailable to promote their profit driven agenda.

The agitation by Nigerians presently, is for the Federal Government to take over the functions of the power distribution companies because the distribution companies have not performed up to expectation. In this interview with Federationews2day, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that the problems of the power sector are too technical for the Minister in charge, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who is a Lawyer of note, to understand and fix. Excerpts :

What do you think is the solution to the persistent lack of electricity supply in Nigeria ?

The major problem we have in Nigeria is that the common man , our leaders and decision makers do not buy and sell in the same market, otherwise a direct pulse of the nation would have informed them of the true economic situation and the very poor living conditions of a large percentage of the Nigerian population who constitute the masses and the middle economic class.

The issue of power in any nation is central and pivotal to the development in the home, community and the nation at large.

Where there is no regular supply of electricity, preservation of food for a reasonable period of time becomes impossible.

Apart from some other forms of discomfort that could make life to be unbearable, where there is a generating plant for the supply of electricity, it is usually run at a cost that would be unbearable even for the middle economic class.

What of the accompanying noise pollution that is responsible as the major causes of partial deafness for most people ?

But for the ruling class-elite and political class- most of these things are got free of charge without realizing that they are scarce commodities for the greatest population of people in the low economic class. At the community service level, development would rather be very slow in the area of road construction, transportation of people and farm produce from villages to the urban centers, resulting into another poor living condition.

At the national level economic growth is stunted, industrialization becomes a mirage, mass exodus of experts in various field of human endeavor depletes the strength of the nation.

Company relocation from Nigeria to other countries like Ghana and South Africa as had been experienced in the year 2007 to 2009, when more than 849 companies collapsed here only to resurface elsewhere, leading to Oedipus complex of unemployment.

It is unfortunate that year in year out, we churn out graduates from our higher institutions into a threatening world of unemployment due to epileptic power supply that has crippled the industrial sector.

The major problem confronting the power sector is about the people’s sincerity of purpose as a necessary condition to power our industrial sector.

Corruption of the highest order, starting at the point of contract award, riddled with insincere quotation, poor job financing due to poor quality of materials that depleted the funding package are all highlights of the present situation.

When a nation is confronted with these kind of problems and challenges, governance demands for periodical reviews to expose the weak areas and the areas of threats that are responsible for the failure of this all important sector with a view to correcting the anomalies and with the determination of purpose, re-pursue the projects to activate it from comatose state to a sustainable service level that would in effect resuscitate all dead areas of development.

Various allegations relating to the cost of N16 billion on the power project during the administration of Chief(Dr.) Olusegun Obasanjo ought to be Nigeria’s primary concern.

Furthermore, the improvement assessment of the performance level of when the power sector was functioning as a flow line and that of when it was unbundled into generating, transmission and distribution units, need to be compared.

So also, the added advantage level of when government was running it before it was privatized needs to be reviewed.

The outcome of all the results would help us to take the right decision.

However, it is my opinion that the power sector couldn’t have performed better under the present arrangement, whereby the Minister in charge is a Lawyer although of very high status and a one time Governor with records of dynamism, even though technically he is unfit to fix the power sector, most especially while working with people of doubtful character.

Equally, of importance is that he is saddled with more than what a non-professional in this specific field-Power, Works and Housing-could chew, even an angel and a professional will never be able to cope in an environment of working with people of doubtful character, who are not also patriotic.

We all know the right thing to do in sanitizing this sensitive sector of our lives, but sentiments and over politicization of the issue will never help us to resolve the mysteries around the eternal record of epileptic supply of electricity.

Government itself has never encouraged us to build our generating sets despite the number of technically biased schools or Ivory towers that could have encouraged production of generating sets here in Nigeria.

The cost of running a generating set both at the home front and, Municipal and Industrial sector, is always on the high side compared to the craziest estimated billing.

Why is government then so slow in bringing offenders thwarting the cause of Nigeria having stable supply of electricity ?

Politicians are supposed to be skill based and under inclusive government, merit is supposed to override parochial sentiments of nepotism in employment and contract awards.

There is nothing wrong in searching and looking for experts in the various fields as may be relevant to any particular political party.

In the new dispensation of the emerging transition, one expects to have new hands on the deck that must be ready to correct the anomalies of the past, so that all Ministers are accountable and should be instantly removable when records of performance are not impressive.

Unbundling the Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN) flow line is the wisest thing to have been done, contracting power generation level through privatization is to ensure that the wrong hands of inefficiency, laziness and low productivity are avoided, for the people to be well served.

We need to remember that the search outcome of vision 20–20–20 continue to lay fallow in our higher institutions as well as research institutions, with no successive government bothering to look in this direction again.

We waste energy and materials as we sacrifice them for mere political sentiments.

How do we then move to develop, when we fail to generate the minimum of 6,000 megawatts of electricity and a minimum of $900 billion as Gross Domestic Product(GDP) for Nigeria to be able to break even into an economically stable nation to be one of the first 20 nations that could be classified s environmentally stable, economically viable to accommodate project feasibility.

The new government must wake up in the areas of effective corruption control and prevention of institutional indiscipline for all ideas, initiatives to transform the fortunes of the nation into serving all Nigerians, starting from resolving the issue of Pre-Paid Meters and the bringing of offenders that sabotage the glory of dignity of labor to book without fear or favor as of when due.

Women in Rwanda have been urged to apply for various positions in the United Nations.

According to  the Human Resource Officer Standing Diversity and Outreach Section at UN, Floresha Berisha,"We want to encourage female candidates to apply. Currently, the organisations have a gender gap; for example, in peacekeeping we have 29 per cent women yet our objective is to have fifty-fifty gender party.''

Berisha who was speaking at  the outreach briefing on UN field careers that seeks to inform Rwandans of opportunities to work with UN and how to apply using its recruitment system (INSPIRA) and practical tips on how to prepare their applications or tests said ''

'The purpose of this outreach is to raise the awareness about job opportunities to work in UN missions' secretariat including peacekeeping operations, Rwanda is ranked the third country in contributing troops to peacekeeping missions and we believe that raising awareness of job opportunities among the nationals of Rwanda we give them the opportunity to apply for the jobs," Berisha said.

"Informing them about the requirements and about the recruitment process, the organisation aims at having diverse geographically and gender balance and multi-talented workforce, having that in mind we would want to raise awareness among all member states," she stated.