News

We want full autonomy, not just financial — NULGE National VP

Published

2 years ago

September 7, 2022

By Matthew Denis, Abuja

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), in an effort to strengthen the dividends of democracy across the three tiers of government, has called for full autonomy including financial, administrative and political activities of the local councils in Nigeria.

The National Vice President of the Union Northeast zone, Comrade Emmanuel Fashe made the disclosure during an exclusive interview with Nigerian NewsDirect Correspondent shortly after a three-day workshop organised by Association of Chairmen Local Government Service Commission of Nigeria held in Abuja recently.

He said, “The bone of contention now concerning the issue of Local Government autonomy is at the States Assembly because the National Assembly has over the years passed this autonomy to them.

“But let me correct this notion that we’re not only seeking for Financial autonomy, the autonomy being sorted for is both political, financial and even administrative autonomy.

“NULGE as union being the advocate of this pursuits with the people’s voices, we felt people working in this environment are the credible voices that can actually stand for the masses of Nigeria to ensure that this autonomy becomes reality. Therefore, it is not only for fiscal policy but also for political administrative area.”

According to him about 10 states have passed the autonomy bills when the National Assembly transmitted the bill to the states Assembly.

He said, “Some of these states are Katsina, Kogi, Edo, Anambra, Enugu, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Ondo and Ogun and we’re optimistic that some states will follow soon.

“This time the states actors most especially the legislators should see the reasons why the wishes of the people should be granted because it’s this wish that the Local Governments should be liberated to perform and deliver true dividends of Democracy.”

Comrade Fashe decried that there’s disconnection between the people and the government noting that the councils are not performing like what they were known for.

He said, “These lapses in the Local Governments is owing to the fact the State Governors have shutdown the functions of these councils. Even the allocations that is going to these councils from the Federation accounts doesn’t reach to them in good shape and some of these councils Chairmen cannot even pay workers salary not to talk about delivering dividends of democracy.

“People have perception that why NULGE is at the vanguard of this autonomy agitation is because of their salaries and welfare but we’re doing it to justify why we’re being paid too as a service delivery organisation.”

On the workshop the Vice President stressed that it is timely considering the fact that part of the duties of the Commission is training and retraining of their staff to enhance effective service delivery.

“They organised this workshop solemnly to keep the Local Government workers abreast as agents of democratic challenges. This workshop wouldn’t have come in any other time than now as the theme suggests ‘ the imperativeness of local governments system and an Agent of Democratic consolidation and Grassroot Development.

“The approach they made is a sustainable approach as the programme is targeted at building the capacity of Local Government workers as critical stakeholders to bring development to grassroot people.

“Of course whatever policies of the government at the grassroot, it’s the workers that serve as engines to carry out and ensure such policies are successful. Therefore it’s natural for training and retraining to develop their capacities since they are the most closer to the rural dwellers.”

He debunked the rumors making rounds that the workshop was targeted at cajoling workers at the third tier of government towards particular political candidates in preparation for the 2023 general elections.

“This workshop like I mentioned is for capacity building for workers at councils level as agents of democratic consolidation at the grassroots. It has nothing to do with politics.”

News

2024 UTME: Stop patronising fraudsters, JAMB warns candidates

Published

3 mins ago

April 19, 2024

NewsDirect

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has advised candidates writing the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) to desist from giving their details to fraudsters.

The Board Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, gave this counsel when fielding questions from newsmen during the monitoring exercise at the JAMB Professional Centre in Bwari on Friday.

“Today’s examination is very important to us because we have done so much engineering that we have been trying to do in the last seven years and we are only successful about it today for the first time.

“Those who are fraudsters, who are doing all sorts of things, they know they are in trouble because for the first time we are able to do certain things that we have been aspiring to do.

“We have found out that some of the candidates are giving their details to fraudsters and fortunately, we thank the security agencies as they have been marvellously good to us.

“Almost all the persons that have been doing this (fraudulent activities) are already in their nets. I won’t want to mention the numbers but I’m very happy to tell you that they are in the nets.

“We thank the Inspector-General of Police, director-general of the State Secret Service (SSS), director-general of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp, and the Nigerian Police Force National CyberCrime Centre (NPF-NCC),” he said.

Oloyede, who commended the public, especially parents for their smooth conduct, said parents usually constitute problems for students in previous

exercises.

“Everything appears to be going well. We want to thank the public for heeding our advice because it appears everybody is doing what they are expected to do.

“Things will move smoothly if parents can keep away. They are the ones constituting problems for the students but you can see everything is going on well,” he said.

The registrar appealed to the candidates who experienced glitches in the course of their examinations to remain calm as they would be rescheduled to write their examinations.

He explained that so far the exams had been going on smoothly as only one centre had been reported to have had one problem or the other.

“We appeal to the public to understand this, some centres will fail. I have heard of only one centre who has failed today.

“By the end of today, I expect about 10 per cent of the centres to have one problem or the other because we know the level of development in different parts of the country.

“We are not encouraging this but when it happens, please do not disrupt others.

“It is important to note that when a session fails because of a problem, you cannot bring those candidates to do session two, they will have to step aside and the headquarters will have to be contacted.

“The earliest time they can be scheduled will be after 4:30 p.m. so that those slated for section two and three can write and these candidates can now write for session four and in some cases, they can even be scheduled for the following day,” he said.

Oloyede called on owners of CBT centres to ensure that they keep their place secure by ensuring that non-candidates and parents keep their distance from the CBT centres.

He advised candidates to be upright in their dealings, while saying that most tutorial centres were only centres of corruption and malpractices, advising students to stop patronising them.

Also, Fatimah Abba, Supervisor-in-charge of JAMB Professional Centre, Kogo in Bwari, said there had not been any technical issues as the exercise had been going on smoothly.

Some of the candidates slated for the 8 a.m. exams expressed confidence in the conduct of the exams, calling on the board to sustain the tempo.

Yusrah Umar, a first time candidate, commended the exams’ conduct, while calling on the Board to increase the timing allocated to each subject to allow for better performance.

Another candidate, Victor Ezekiel, said there were no technical glitches as the systems worked effectively all through the exams.

NAN reports that over 500,000 candidates will be expected to have written the exams by the end of the first day.

About 1.9 million candidates are expected to write the UTME scheduled to commence on April 19 and end on April 29.

News

Individuals in forced labour in current job stood at 617,503 in 2022- NBS

Published

4 hours ago

April 19, 2024

NewsDirect

The National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) says no fewer than 617,503 individuals were in forced labour in their current job in 2022.

The NBS disclosed this in its Nigeria Forced Labour Survey Report 2022 released in Abuja on Thursday.

The bureau said forced labour as described in the International Labour Organisation(ILO) Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), referred to:

“All work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”

The report said 5.2 out of every 1,000 individuals were in forced labour in their current job in 2022.

It said 36.2 per cent of individuals in forced labour in their current job were found in the agricultural sector.

“While 36.9 per cent of individuals in forced labour in their current job are found in the service sector, other than domestic work.”

The report revealed that 451,300 males and 166,203 females were in forced labour, while 270,545 were in urban areas and 346,958 were in rural areas.

“In terms of age group, 191,418 people were in forced labour in the 18 to 29 years old age group, and 317,052 people in the 30 to 49 years old age group.

“ In the 50 years old age group, 99,391 people were in forced labour,” the report said.

The NBS said overall, the prevalence of forced labour was similar across education levels for all groups except for individuals with a primary education level.

“This result shows that even highly educated individuals could be at risk of falling into situations of forced labour.

“The prevalence of forced labour is highest among individuals with primary education, for which 7.2 of every thousand individuals are in a situation of forced labour.

“This may be partially explained by the fact that individuals with only a primary education are not as well protected by their skills as the medium and highly educated individuals.”

The report revealed that married adults were slightly more likely to be in forced labour than unmarried individuals.

“With forced labour prevalence at 5.8 per every thousand individuals among married adults as compared to 4.1 per every thousand individuals among unmarried adults.”

It said out of individuals in forced labour in their current job, the most common form of coercion was withholding of payment of wages or benefits which was experienced by 35.2 per cent of individuals.

The report said among individuals in forced labour in their current job, the most common circumstance of involuntariness experienced was being made to work with no freedom or limited freedom to terminate their work contract at 29.7 per cent.

“This was followed by being made to stay at their job longer than agreed to without consent, which was experienced by 26.8 per cent of individuals in forced labour in their current job.”

News

Pipeline Vandalism: CDS, others plan security summit

Published

5 hours ago

April 19, 2024

NewsDirect

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, says plans are underway for a security summit aimed at tackling challenges associated with securing oil and gas installations in the country especially pipelines.

Musa, who disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja when he visited Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State, Petroleum Resources (Oil), was concerned about the crude oil lost to economic saboteurs but vowed to put an end to it.

The CDS said the meeting with the minister was to strategise with all relevant stakeholders including the Army, Navy and Airforce, as well as other security agencies to deal with the challenge.

He said the proposed summit being organised by the armed forces and other security agencies in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, would deliberate on ways to boost national security.

“We are looking at the possibility of having a security summit to look at the issues on ground and challenges; deliberating on how best to tackle them together.

“We all know that Nigeria relies so much on petroleum resources and it is important for the ministry of petroleum resource to be supported for him to work efficiently and effectively.

“President Bola Tinubu has given us a mandate to ensure national security and ensure that Niger Delta Region and areas where oil production is going on, are given full support, to boost production level,” he said.

Musa assured that the armed forces of Nigeria were fully in support of the ministry and would provide it with the necessary support to ensure that Nigerians benefit from the God-given resource.

The CDS, while commending the minister, said there had been a lot of improvement in the sector since his assumption of office, especially on issues bordering on illegal refineries and environmental pollution which had gone down drastically.

“This shows that you are really doing well; we want to appeal to all Nigerians to join hands together to ensure that we secure our resources for our benefit.

“We are with you day and night, we will not hesitate,” the CDS assured.

The minister, while responding, expressed commitment to work closely with the CDS to fight pipeline vandals and those engaging in illegal refining of crude oil as well as oil thieves.

“We cannot completely eliminate crime but by working together with you, we will be able to reduce the menace to the barest minimum and reap the benefit from oil and gas production.

“Our commitment is to give you all the support needed, not just the ministry alone but all the agencies in the sector will work closely with you to reduce the menace.

“Federal Government has an obligation to ensure increased production, to take care of the feedstock needed for the Dangote Refinery, Port Harcourt Refinery and others, so as to have full benefit across the entire value chain,’’ he said.

According to Lokpobiri, every country in the world prioritises security and investment in its strategic assets.

He noted that the quickest way to solve Nigeria’s economic problems was through oil and gas.

“Today, oil sells for over 90 dollars per barrel and if we ramp up production, reduce the level of oil theft and pipeline vandalism, we will be able to raise enough money to fund budgets and stabilise the economy,’’ he said.