The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has voiced its concerns about the newly reconstituted governing councils of Federal Government-owned polytechnics.

This is as the Union kicked against the apartments lamenting the quality of individuals appointed to the board.

The list of the new Governing board members for Polytechnics was unveiled on Saturday, and was signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Didi Walson-Jack.

In a statement signed by ASUP’s President, Shammah Kpanja, the union expressed “dismay” at the new list of appointees whom it tagged as individuals with “no knowledge” of the polytechnic system.

Kpanja said, “Having carefully studied the released list of new members, we want to express our dissatisfaction and disappointment with the composition for the Polytechnics.

“Our Union has been demanding that persons with the requisite knowledge of the workings of the sector be appointed. Such persons in the category of former Rectors and other Principal Officers from the sector, former chief executives and staff of the regulatory body, retired and serving Chief Lecturers, and other staff from the sector who have displayed adequate knowledge of the workings of the sector abound in sufficient numbers.

“The current composition falls significantly short of the above as no such person(s) in the categories listed was appointed. This is a great disservice to the Polytechnics and is also different from the experience in the two other sub-sectors that make up the tertiary education sector.”

The Union noted that it was witnessed to the fact that former Executive Secretaries of regulatory bodies were appointed in the other sub-sectors but none was curiously found appointable for the Polytechnics.

Speaking further, he said, “Former Principal Officers and retired and serving staff were appointed but none was found appointable for the Polytechnics despite the retinue of former Rectors, Chief Lecturers and other Principal Officers prevalent in Nigeria’s Polytechnic System.”

“Our Union views this unwholesome trend as an extension of the age-long discrimination against Polytechnics in the country and an attempt to push the sector into crisis. The list for Polytechnics as released cannot improve the lot of the Polytechnics but rather turn them to playgrounds for businessmen.”

ASUP, however, demanded that the list for the Polytechnics be “reviewed before the inauguration to include the class of persons with requisite knowledge of the workings of Polytechnics.”

It noted that a review of the list will save the sector from a “crisis associated with poor governance which is likely to prevail if the list is not reviewed accordingly.”

The House of Representatives has accused some Federal agencies of reporting inaccurate revenue to the nation’s coffers.

The lawmakers made this accusation on Monday when out of eight agencies that were invited to appear before the Committee on Monday, only two (Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria; National Health Insurance Authority) honoured the committee invitation.

Speaking at the resumed revenue monitoring exercise of the committee on Monday, Vice Chairman of the committee, Saidu Abdullahi (APC, Niger) said, “We expected eight agencies to appear before the committee today, but only two agencies came, while two others wrote to request for another date and they were granted.”

“However, four other decided to abscond. That was the same word I used last year that did not go down well with some of the agencies. They have decided to play truancy on an assignment that is very important. If members can turn out in large numbers for this assignment, I don’t see any reason why any agency will decide not to appear before the committee.

“Let me put on record that we hope to have these agencies appear before the committee: Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, National Broadcasting Commission, National Examination Council and National Inland Waterways Authority.

“We expect them to make an appearance by tomorrow, Tuesday. If they fail to appear before this committee, we may be forced to take appropriate actions. We may write to the Office of the Accountant General to block their account

“We will not take it lightly with any agency because this is an assignment that is very important to this country. We talk about revenue and if we cannot collect the revenue accruing to his country, I think there is a big problem.”

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance also threatened to block the accounts of government agencies that have refused to tender accounts of their revenue profile or render accurate remittance to the government.

The Committee frowned at the refusal of some of the agencies to appear before the committee despite invitation extended to them.

The Director of Finance and Account with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Musa Jemaku who appeared before the committee however expressed dismay at the AGF’s comments regarding the revenue remitted by the agency.

Jemaku who said that the agency has paid about N800 million to the government this year also faulted the AGF’s claim that they have only paid about N602 million to government coffers.

He explained that there is a circular from the office of the Minister of Finance for the implementation of the Finance Act 2020, adding that the circular automated the process of paying the 50 percent deduction, adding that “the AGF should be in a better position to answer the question on why the system could not deduct the correct 50 percent for the period.

“On a lighter note, let me say that this is not the avenue for the AGF to draw our attention to the none payment or operating surplus when there is no official communication from them to the agency.”

A representative of the Office of the Accountant General however inisited that the FRC has not remitted its operating surplus for 2019 (N126 million), 2020 (N143 million) and 2021 (N26) million to the government coffers adding that the operating surplus for 2021 has not been fully calculated because the agency has not submitted its audited accounts for 2021.

…As NLC tells committee to perish offer below N615,000

The Federal Government and the Organised Labour have been scheduled to meet today to resume negotiations on the new minimum wage.

Recall that the Organised Labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) pulled out of the negotiation meeting last week Wednesday when the government offered N48,000 as the new minimum wage.

However, Chairman of the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum wage, Alhaji Bukar Goni in a letter to the organised labour for a meeting tomorrow indicated interest that the government will shift ground and asked the organised labour to also shift ground.

The letter appealed to the labour leaders to speak to their members and attend the reconvened meeting next Tuesday.

The organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have proposed a new minimum wage of N615,000, which is way higher than the N48,000 proposal by the government.

The organised private sector, on the other hand, proposed an initial offer of N54,000. After dumping the talks, the labour leaders addressed a press conference where they expressed their anger over the Federal Government’s offer.

They blamed the government and the private sector for the breakdown in negotiation.

The Federal Government had failed to present a nationally acceptable minimum wage to Nigerians before the May 1 Labour Day.

The situation has forced labour to be at loggerheads with the government. In the wake of the tussle, the NLC President Joe Ajaero insisted on the N615,000 minimum wage, arguing that the amount was arrived at after an analysis of the economic situation worsened by the hike in the cost of living and the needs of an average Nigerian family of six.

Ajaero and labour leaders have given the Federal Government a May 31 deadline to meet their demands.

Reacting, the Nigeria Labour Congress has told the committee to perish making an offer below N615,000.

Defending the proposed wage, the NLC Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, said, “Well, it will not be fair and these are the reasons. The first reason is that when we demanded for N615,000, we broke that down. In fact, we used the barest minimum.”

“For instance we put accommodation for N40,000, we also use for feeding N500, tell me where you are going to get food for N500 with a family of six. As I said, we used barest estimate but beyond that, government hiked electricity tariff by two hundred and fifty percent after we made our demand and that has introduced new cost and expenses. So if government is serious, it should not be thinking about a hundred thousand naira.”

The NLC spokesman further added that the NLC will honour the invitation but he advised the government to be serious.

He said, “Our expectations are that the government should be serious this time around. We expect them to take more seriously the issue of wages of workers.”

On January 30, Vice President Kashim Shettima inaugurated the 37-member tripartite committee to come up with a new minimum wage.

With its membership cutting across federal, and state governments, the private sector, and organised labour, the panel is to recommend a new national minimum wage for the country.

During the committee’s inauguration, the Vice President urged the members to “speedily” arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early.

“This timely submission is crucial to ensure the emergence of a new minimum wage,” Shettima said.

The 37-man committee is chaired by the former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Goni Aji.