THE federal government has paid the outstanding 45-month minimum wage arrears owed to staff of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet). Non-payment of the arrears, which date back to 2019, has often pitted NiMet management against staff of the agency and the labour unions. It would be recalled that in May this year, the unions declared industrial action over the issue but it was stalled following the intervention by the House Committee on Aviation Technology and their Senate counterpart. The unions suspended the strike action after an agreement was reached on Sunday, May 19, 2024, during a special session convened by…
Author: Maryam Garba
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THE National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has invalidated the certificates of 101 individuals mobilised for national service by the University of Calabar (UNICAL) during the 2021, 2022, and 2023 service years. According to a statement signed by the Director, Information and Public Relations of the Corp, Eddy Megwa, the organisation took this action to maintain the integrity of the national service programme and prevent unqualified individuals from participating. The statement added that the affected individuals were found to have been mobilised fraudulently, and their certificates have been canceled immediately as part of the NYSC’s strong commitment to ensuring that only…
The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye has claimed that she inherited a debt of ₦3.2bn, while ₦500m was unaccounted for upon her resumption in the office. She disclosed this on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Friday. According to Adeyeye, such debt and missing funds were enough to declare the agency bankrupt if it had happened in a developed country such as the United States. She said, “When I got to NAFDAC, I met N3.2b Debt, and N500m missing and there was no account for it before I came.…
A MEMBER of the House of Representatives Alhassan Doguwa (APC-Kano) says he has no murder case. The comment was a reply to his colleague Abdulmumini Jibrin’s (NNPP-Kano) allegations against him. In a statement he signed on Thursday, Doguwa said, “Let me say categorically as of today. I, Doguwa, am not standing before any court of law in Nigeria for an alleged murder, a culpable homicide. “I went through virtually all criminal investigations and judicial considerations at various levels and came out clean and victoriously innocent. Copies of such rigorous police investigations conducted by the highest police investigations authority in the…
THE Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has announced that Nigeria’s power sector generated 5,105 megawatts of electricity on July 27, 2024, describing it as a three-year high. Adelabu announced this at the inaugural meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Power Sector Working Group in Abuja on Wednesday. While highlighting the recent achievements and future goals for the power sector, the minister said, “Just a few days ago, on July 27, we successfully generated and transmitted 5,105MW of power, the highest in the last three years. This is an improvement from the previous capacity of around 4,000MW or below. “Our target is to…
NO fewer than 4,877 victims of human trafficking from Nigeria have voluntarily returned to the country since 2017, a report by the International Organisation for Migration has shown. The victims returned to Nigeria under the IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration programme, with women and girls constituting nearly 88 per cent (4,261) of the returnees, while men accounted for 13 per cent (616). The data showed that most victims fall within the age bracket of 18 to 39 years, with those aged 18 to 25 being particularly susceptible to recruitment by traffickers. Within the first quarter of 2024 alone, the…
THE National Youth Service Corps has warned that graduates of polytechnic and mono-technics without evidence of mandatory one-year Industrial Training will not participate in national service. NYSC Coordinator in Lagos State, Mrs Yetunde Baderinwa, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Lagos. Baderinwa said that NYSC had issued a circular to that effect. Baderinwa said, “It has been noticed in recent times that some graduates of polytechnics and mlnotechnics do not observe the mandatory one-year IT before being admitted for HND programme. “The one-year IT is a prerequisite for HND. “They must…
THE lawmaker representing FCT in the National Assembly, Senator Ireti Kingibe, has denied sponsoring the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protests in Abuja. A video had gone viral alleging that she was sponsoring the protest. But Senator Kingibe described it as “misinformation”. “I am shocked and outraged by the blatant lies and misinformation being spread by mischief-makers! The video being circulated is from over six weeks ago, during a Labour Party NWC meeting when the NLC was protesting outside the Labour Party office,” she said on X. “As stakeholders, including Senators, House of Reps members, and Mr. Peter Obi, we went out to…
THE United State Mission in Nigeria has asked some of its staff not to come to work on the first two days of the planned nationwide protests. Nigerians, many of them young people, have called for demonstrations from August 1 over soaring costs. Living costs spiked in Nigeria after President Bola Tinubu ended the fuel subsidy and eased foreign exchange controls after coming to power in May last year. Inflation hit record levels at 34.19 per cent in June, with food inflation more than 40.87 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The police, military and the Department…
THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday directed telecommunication companies to reactivate all lines blocked because they weren’t linked to the National Identification Numbers (NINs). A spokesman for the regulatory body Reuben Muoka said the order to reactivate the lines was in view of “the challenges the blockages have caused”. Millions of phone users had their lines blocked over the weekend with speculations rife that the disconnection of SIM cards was one of measures of the government to stifle a planned #EndBadGovernance protest against hunger and economic hardship widely publicised by displeased youths and scheduled for August. Human rights lawyer…
THE federal government has resumed work on dualisation of uncompleted sections of the 375.9 kilometer Abuja – Kaduna – Zaria – Kano highway. Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, stated this yesterday during the flag-off of the completion works and handover of the 38km dual carriageway section of the road to Dangote Group. Umahi in a statement by his special adviser on media, Barrister Orji Uchenna Orji, charged the three companies handling the three sections to show absolute devotion to the completion of the project. He noted that the ministry would look at the need for rate review to cushion…
THE Gombe State House of Assembly has conducted a public hearing to deliberate on two significant bills– the Gombe State Social Investment Programme Agency Bill and the Gombe State Disability Commission Bill. The session held on Monday at the House of Assembly and attended by lawmakers, stakeholders, and members of the public, underscored the state government’s commitment to enhancing social welfare and addressing the needs of persons with disabilities. The Gombe State Social Investment Programme Agency, when passed into law, will spearhead various initiatives targeted at reducing poverty and promoting economic development among the state’s residents, coordinating efforts such as…
THE embattled Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye has said that she was allegedly being victimised by some cabals in government because she refused to sign a $500 million World Bank loan request. On July 10, 2024, a near physical confrontation between Kennedy-Ohanenye, and the House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development was averted at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, where the minister had appeared to clarify the controversy surrounding her alleged diversion of N1.5 billion meant for the payment of contractors by officials of the ministry. But speaking with THISDAY through a phone interview, the minister…
THE Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has uncovored the scandal of violating age limit for admission seekers in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Oloyede revealed that some universities admit students as young as 10 years, flouting the legal age limit of 18. Speaking during JAMB’s policy meeting in Abuja, Oloyede cited examples of universities like UNILAG and OAU, with a minimum age requirement of 16 years. He also narrated a case of a candidate who applied for a master’s degree at a university in Germany, only to be discovered that she had graduated from a…
THE Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, has accepted 16 years as the admission age into tertiary institutions for the 2024/2025 academic session. Mamman who had earlier pegged the admission age of undergraduates to 18, however made a u-turn after protests from stakeholders at the 2024 policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The minister succumbed following the argument that students under the age of 18 had already registered, sat and passed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and were awaiting admission. The meeting held on Thursday in Abuja and had in attendance the JAMB Registrar,…
THE Management of Dangote Industries Limited has insisted that the international oil companies are still frustrating crude supply to its 650,000-capacity refinery. The management said this even as it commended the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission for its various interventions in the oil company’s crude supply requests from IOCs, and for publishing the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation guidelines to enshrine transparency in the oil industry. In a statement on Wednesday, the Dangote Group alleged that the IOCs insisted on selling crude oil to its refinery through their foreign agents, saying the local price of crude would continue to increase because…
A TOTAL sum of N1.354 trillion June 2024 Federation Accounts Revenue has been shared with the Federal Government, States and Local Government Councils in the country. The revenue was shared at the July 2024 meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), held in Abuja and chaired by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun. A communiqué issued by FAAC and signed by a spokesperson for the Accountant General of the Federation, Bawa Mokwa, explained that the N1,354.371 trillion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N142.514 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue…
THE Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has cancelled the aptitude test for 2024 Direct Entry candidates. A statement published on its X account on Monday, said other factors will be considered for Direct Entry admissions instead of the test. “Attention 2024 DE Candidates! This is to inform you that the Board has shelved the conduct of the aptitude test for the year. Other placement criteria shall be considered for your admission while adequate preparation goes into the exercise ahead of next year.” This is as the Board also said all processes had been put in place for the commencement…
THE federal government have announced the National Examination Council 2024 common entrance examination results for Unity schools. The Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu announced during a press briefing at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja. According to him, a total of 71,291 candidates participated in the 2024 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) conducted in 599 centres on Saturday, June 1, 2024. He said: “Out of the maximum obtainable score of 210, one candidate obtained the highest score of 203, while 13 candidates obtained the lowest score of 1” Sununu also noted that this year, 52 candidates (2 candidates…
NIGERIA’s relegated third tier of government, the Local Government administration, got a boost on Thursday when the Supreme Court made some landmark declarations, settling a decades-long debate on the financial demarcation between the 36 state governments of the Federation and 774 LG administrations across the country. Designed to be the closest to the people and recognised by Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, the efficiency of the government at the grassroots has been hampered by the weight of some overbearing governors who see the third tier of government as offshoots of their political dynasties undeserving of both financial and democratic…