The Senate passed a bill seeking the establishment of a National Internship and Unemployment Benefit Scheme on Wednesday.

The bill was considered and passed for a second reading after a presentation by its sponsor, Senator Shuaib Salisu (APC, Ogun Central), who explained that the piece of legislation, aims to offer unemployed graduates in Nigeria some part-time jobs where they could gain experience and earn stipends.

Senator Salisu added that the bill intends to create a database of unemployed Nigerian youths, particularly graduates, with their respective disciplines and also establish a framework that will guide the provision of part-time jobs for youths while they search for full-time jobs.

According to him, the scheme, when established, would provide hope for graduates and allow them to acquire experience before they secure full-time employment.

He argued that the scheme would help address insecurity and criminal activities that arose from unemployment.

The lawmaker also acknowledged existing agencies such as the National Directorate of Employment, NDE and the Industrial Trust Fund, ITF, but noted that they have not been targeted adequately to the beneficiaries.

Senator Salisu believes that the scheme, which will have a database, will be more effective in streamlining interventions for the beneficiaries.

Though many of the senators who contributed supported the proposed legislation, Senator Ahmed Wadada (SDP, Nasarawa West), argued that the bill may not be the solution needed to tackle unemployment.

But Senator Wadada said the focus should be on creating an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive and consequently create jobs, not thinking of benefits for the unemployed.

“If the environment is enabling enough to up to 10 Dangotes, the rate of unemployment will be reduced to the barest minimum. The emphasis at all times should be to create the needed enabling environment,” he said.

After passage for a second reading, the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, mandated the Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity to give it more legislative inputs and report back within four weeks.

Gov. Dapo Abiodun of Ogun on Wednesday in Abeokuta called for the creation of the Ogun Division of the Court of Appeal to aid quick dispensation of justice in the state.

Abiodun, while receiving the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, noted that this would ease the workload of judges in the Ibadan Division of the Court.

He commended the Appeal Court President for working tirelessly to ensure appeals were quickly taken care of in all the Court’s divisions through her “decongestion initiative”.

“This will lead to an efficient justice delivery system in the country as justice delayed is justice denied,” the governor said.

Abiodun explained that his administration had carried out several reforms aimed at repositioning the justice system in Ogun.

He appreciated members of the state judiciary led by Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu for their support, especially in setting up the special court handling cultism-related cases.

Earlier, Justice Dongban-Mensem had said her visit to the Ibadan Division was to decongest appeal cases that had been held up due to lack of time.

”This was occasioned by election and commercial appeals,” she said.

Dongban-Mensem disclosed that Ibadan Division had one of the highest workloads of all the divisions of the Court of Appeal.

”This was made worse by the depletion of judges as a result of posting, promotion, retirement or death.

“It is even regrettable that the Ibadan Division, which was two divisions in the past, was reduced to one, leading to the current workload.

”But I assure that something will be done to address the imbalance,” the Appeal Court President said.

She commended the Abiodun-led administration for the transformation taking place in Ogun and for carrying the state judiciary along in the scheme of things.

Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has said governors were not averse to the new national minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

Suke however said the implementation of the new wage will depend more on the resolutions by the tripartite committee set up by the Presidency.

He dismissed claims that state governors were not cooperating with the Federal Government in terms of payment across board.

Prior to Sule’s personal opinion on the issue, there have been concerns in some quarters over the ability of many states to agree to and be able to pay the new minimum wage to be proposed by the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage.

The concerns became heightened when reports emerged that some governors became unsettled with the decision of the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, to raise the minimum wage in his state to N70,000.

But reacting to the claims, shortly after having a private meeting with the Vice President, Kashim Shettima in his office, on Wednesday, Sule, who further explained that his comment on the matter was his personal view, also said he spoke about the security situation in Nasarawa State.

The governor who said he was unaware of any state where the government was unable to pay the old minimum wage rate, stated that Nasarawa has been paying the N30,000 minimum wage since 2019 and has also implemented promotions, gratuities, and other benefits for workers.

While he explained that governors have not disagreed on matters around plans to review workers’ pays, he explained that a committee established by the federal government is working on the minimum wage, and governors are waiting for the outcome.

“We’re concerned about the welfare of the workers. In fact, we’re paying some special allowances called hazard allowance, even to our medical workers, as I’m talking to you right now. So I don’t think governors have any problem with the payment of minimum wage. I don’t speak for the governors. Our chairman, the Governor of Kwara, actually speaks for the governors and he will do that at the right time to you.

“But it is incorrect, actually, to say that governors are not interested or are not cooperating. What the governors keep saying is that there is a committee established by the federal government to work on the minimum wage.

“We are waiting for the outcome of that committee and that committee is not just looking at federal government, it’s looking at the state government and organized private sector. So by the time they provide, we don’t want to jump the gun and that’s why we continue to do that.

“You may find one or two states make certain statements, which is okay perfectly in line. Minimum is minimum, when they say minimum wage, it doesn’t mean that somebody cannot be higher than that, dependent on your own cash flow and dependent on your own position. So, I think that’s the position”, Sule said.

Speaking on the security of the state, Sule assured that the state is safe for investment and agriculture, contrary to concerns about security, citing the example of a lithium factory built by foreign investors, which took several years to complete and is now operational.

Asserting a claim that Nasarawa is the safety state in the country for agriculture and other activities, he attributed the success to improved security in the area, thanks to the construction of major roads and the establishment of a military super-camp.

To support his claim, Sule highlighted the state’s achievements in agriculture, including being number one in sesame farming, number two in yam and cassava production, and number five in rice production nationwide. He encouraged skeptics to verify these facts for themselves.

“But now coming back to the issue of security that you have mentioned, it took us a while to be able to stabilize the area. First and foremost, they had a very bad road leading to the areas where some of the bandits, kidnappers and so on were settling down.

“We now constructed a major road in the area and the federal government also constructed the major road that comes all the way from Benue into Nasarawa state, which most of the transporters from the eastern part of the country are actually using at the moment.

“We also established what you call military super-camp in the area so there is presence of the military in the area. So all those kidnappers, bandits and others have all left, we don’t have any as far as that area is concerned.

“Nasarawa State is always considered as one of the safest states to do agriculture and others things. Now, coming back to the agriculture that you have mentioned, since the past two to three years, Nasarawa State has been leading in so many areas of agriculture.

“Today, I’m happy to tell you that we are number one in sesame farming in the whole federation, nobody does more than that. We’re number two a yam production throughout the country. We are number two in cassava throughout the country and we are number five in rice production.

“So if people are not going to farms, we’ll not be achieving these kinds of numbers. These are the realities on ground, these are things that you can go and find out on your own. So as far as we are concerned, we’re not saying that there are no kidnappings in Nasarawa, from time to time you’ll find it here and there, but in Nasarawa State there is also oil drilling going on, with the oil drilling I don’t think any of you has ever heard anything about kidnapping and things like that taking place,” he said.

Speaking on his visit to the Vice President, Sule disclosed that he had met Shettima to discuss the upcoming commissioning of a lithium factory cited in the state on Friday, expressing optimism that President Bola Tinubu would be present at the event.

“I came to see him for two major issues: we’ve been doing a lot in the area of agriculture, which he has taken upon himself to ensure that things are going well, so he’s been monitoring that on his own. So from time to time we visit and we discuss on the areas of agriculture, which is of great importance to him.

“I came also to discuss about the commissioning of the lithium factory that we’re having on Friday. As you know that this Friday we’re going to commission a 4000 metric tons per day lithium processing factory, which he has always been interested in knowing the outcome of what is happening.

“So we came to discuss that and part of the preparations. In fact we’re hoping Mr President himself will be coming to commission that factory,” he said.