Happenings

The Three tiers of Government and the Organized Private Sector(OPS) in Nigeria have been called upon to not to make the  retrenchment of workers as  a condition for the implementation of the N30, 000 new national minimum wage.

This  call was made  by the All Workers Convergence(AWC) through its   National Coordinator,  Comrade Andrew Emelieze.

''Government at all levels are called upon to come out with a policy statement, more of a commitment that no employer of labour, whether in the public sector or private sector must retrench before they can pay the new minimum wage. Workers are not begging any employer of labour and if at all they go ahead with their evil machinations, labour must pose a counter reaction, which of course must be uncompromising and that is the only way we can stop them from exploiting Nigerian workers. Any attempt by government to downsize would be vehemently resisted by workers''.

''To check any sector, government or private, from not implementing the new national minimum wage, the labour movements are called upon  to also issue a policy statement that the country risks a national strike, if any employer of labour refuses to pay the new national minimum wage or goes ahead to downsize'', Comrade Emelieze stated.

As elected representatives of the people prepare for another dispensation, beginning from May 29, 2019, Nigerians at home and abroad are hopeful that the new dispensation will bring in its stride , good governance and development.

However, presently, despondency, hopelessness and disillusion characterize the state of well being of most Nigerians.

In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that the unenviable past records of the country ought to inspire the elected representatives who will steer the ship of governance from May 29, to make up for the losses and ensure that the country celebrates its 60th independence anniversary. Excerpts :

A new dispensation shall commence on May 29, 2019, what is your message to Nigerians ?

Nigeria will witness a civilian to civilian transition, come ,May 291, 2019, that will move us into self-realization for the purpose of effective necessary changes for governance to have a positive impact, most especially in the areas of revisiting the welfare of the people.

However, we must be mindful of the fact that the elected representatives are still Nigerians, who are products of the bad past.

Worse still, the same hostile environment is still going to be confronted as barriers to development, unless they are very much determined.

Lee Kuan Yew’s experience in the history of Singapore’s development could be of help to our political office holders.

His travelling to many other nations including countries in Africa, to seek for the way out of his country’s economic challenges and the competency needs of the managers of the state, and the harnessing power of resources, coupled with the management classification of the people to work with, like the prime movers, the lackadaisical and the rebellious groups, who the leader needs to identify, to work on them, to enable acceptable values and positive mindset, to be able to move Singapore into the class of development.

On getting home, Yew reached an agreement with the lords of his political party and the people of his country, through a perfected agenda for development, with a good counsel on zero tolerance for corruption, indiscipline and impunity.

Having gained the confidence of his people, he became a role model on transparency and accountability, for others to make sacrifices.

Today in Nigeria, Political Parties are directed by their godfathers and the destiny of elected leaders are usually remote controlled, making many of them to deviate from the normal path of the promises made during their campaigns.

Worse still, appointment of people into sensitive positions of power usually lack merit, credibility, transparency and accountability, for the state Governors, the President and the people to assess their performances while in office. This gives them every opportunity to engage in corrupt practices, with all impunity, to the detriment of the peoples’ welfare, community and national development.

There is the need for the timely supervision of Commissioners and Minsters activities, to assess their performances.

Besides this, Nigerians generally, have no excuses not to perform well in office because the Swearing-in ceremony shall take place during the Ramadan fast period, which is expected to have provided and instilled the fear of God for due process in transactions, as an enabling environment to allow campaign promises tally with service delivery.

One would expect that Nigeria at 59 should look backwards and regret the failure in governance by the Military and their Civilian counterparts.

Most of our political office holders today, were either born during independence or after.

Unfortunately, these crop of people by omission, commission or inaction had in one way or the other soiled their hands in corruption, which were trailed with poor records of performances, most especially those who had always been in government or born before 1960, Nigeria’s independence day.

If only they can reflect back that till date, Nigeria’s development profile is neither bequeath able nor sustainable, their focus should therefore be on how to work assiduously to deliver, to make up for the losses so far and to meaningfully celebrate Nigeria at 60, when the time comes.

Using SWOT analysis, Nigeria still stands at the advantage of been potentially sound, in terms of the endowed natural resources.

Even when you consider the capacity building needs in terms of human resources, with globalization in mind, our high number of Universities, other components of tertiary institutions, give us the hope of having the ability to rise in terms of development, without necessarily relying on foreign experts.

The professionals in all fields of human endeavor are equally many, waiting for challenges of government patronage and societal acceptance.

Obviously, our areas of strength and opportunities are versed, while the challenges, weaknesses and threats must be faced squarely by the new government, to correct the lapses.

These are the expectation of all Nigerians, whose mandate, entrust power onto the elected and indirectly onto the appointed representatives.

Politicians must embrace the culture of internal party Democracy and the opposition must equally refrain from hate speech and personality attack, but dwell more on critiquing issue based values and desist from criticizing that which is more judgmental than proferring solutions.

The structure of Democracy is such that the Executive is always put in check, with respect to its excesses, by the Legislative arm, which is expected to regulate and midwife people oriented legislation.

The Judiciary must see Nigeria as a project that must be free of corruption.

The Ministries, Departments and Agencies must equally be alive to their responsibilities of providing a safe and secure environment for development through ethical practice that is based on global best practices.

The Houses of God through its population target theory and proliferation of sects must be checked and controlled by making them to be scripture compliant, in order that this sector would be able to produce reliable and dependable adherents, who will be raw materials for governance at all levels.

Management of the House of God must be based on piety for the religious sectors to provide good aura of divinity for necessary divine intervention in the affairs of Nigerians, most especially through their governments.

Nigerians must be made to uphold the culture of innovation, skill acquisition and productivity, we must equally see ourselves as stakeholders in ensuring that government performs its duty as expected, whistle blowing, impunity and corruption, while ensuring that errant violators are brought to book as deterrent to others, while preventing re-occurrence.

What should be of primary concern now, is that all hands must be on deck to see Nigeria as a project and to manage Nigeria in such a way as to achieve in the areas of bequeathable legacy, for our children to enjoy the dividends of sustainable development.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Liberia, Authorities of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and  the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) have organized a two day Price monitoring training programme for technicians.

The training which was held at Gbarnga, Bong County for 30 technicians was aimed  at enhancing price monitoring mainly for basic food commodities in Liberia.

The training was also aimed at  capturing and facilitating experience-sharing and equipping MoA, and LISGIS field-level staff engaged in collection, analysis and reporting of market data to better communicate,  while also ensuring that there is an improvement in the contents of the monthly market monitoring bulletins, and strengthen partnerships and networks.

WFP Liberia's Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Anderson commended  the Liberian government for its enduring partnership with the WFP on price monitoring activities.

''WFP has a global mandate to support some of the most vulnerable members of society, with different social protection interventions," Mr. Anderson stated. 

He also said that  Liberia was increasingly vulnerable to high food price shocks as has been witnessed since 2008, whilke stressing that  the government has been concerned about the rise in food prices, and as such, it has been undertaking regular joint government-WFP market monitoring exercises for which an MoU was signed between the Liberian government (MoA, LISGIS) and WFP.

It is a known fact that Law Enforcement Agencies now go about their primary functions with the able assistance of criminals.

This is a reflection of the sorry state of law enforcement in Nigeria, indeed most operatives hinge their functions on blackmail, frame ups and set ups of innocent citizens , to compensate for the absence of professionals.

In 2002, several rank and file of the Nigeria Police Force engaged in extra judicial killings. This prompted calls for psychiatric tests for serving and would be recruits to flush out drunks and criminals who had infiltrated the force. The situation remains the same in 2019.

Like the Russian roulette, the circle of corruption and inefficiency has continued to recur in the police force and usually making frantic moves to spin out every police officer that assume the position of Inspector General.

Insecurity is the order of the day all over Nigeria and Nigerians insist that the lack of political will by the government of the day to make the security agencies perform optimally has led to terrorism, kidnappings, killings and violence.

In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that workers and the security agents are not happy as a result of alck of motivation from government. Excerpts :

What do you think is the way out of the security challenges confronting Nigeria presently ?

The Nigerian Army recently submitted that the security issue most especially in the areas of where Boko Haram holds sway and others have been discovered to be sponsored by some influential people, whose identities are yet to be declared.

If the security challenges are not traced to the root, we will continue to grope in the world of darkness to achieve nothing.

Recently, also the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Immigration Service submitted that the Nigerian borders, most especially the Northern zones are very porous, making it impossible to control the movement of the areas in and outside Nigeria.

The President equally observed and admitted that the Acting Inspector General of Police is not growing fat because the security challenges are overwhelming.

In Zamfara state, government and Emirs are looking for alternatives to vigilantes for the security measures to be more effective.

The whole scenario boils down to the fact that government needs to be decisive in taking action against any form of injustice and violation of the rule of law, through the following mitigation for eradication measures :

One, There is shortage of personnel in each of the units or departments constituting our agencies, the Nigeria Army, Air Force, Navy and their likes gives us the statistics of what a dependable unit should constitute against international standards expected with regards to the ratio of the personnel/population.

Where there is deficiency , government needs to do the needful in the areas of recruitment, equipment and adequate capacity building through the modern day techniques in line with global best practices.

The issue of state police may equally be revisited to be able to stop the continued killings in almost all states of the federation, with particular emphasis on the troubled regions.

This will equally mean the need for adequate funding.

A recent revelation by Dr. Sidi Mohammed that while soldiers who are at the battle field with the Boko Haram terrorists receive N1,000 daily , the terrorists mere participation guarantees each of them $3,000 on a daily basis, although the Army did not feel good about this observation.

Generally in Nigeria, workers are not happy including the security agents because of lack motivation from government.

For Nigeria to break even in the areas of restoration of peace, there must be a downward review of the remuneration of the political class, as well as cutting down the size of the entourage and cabinet crew for the money to be diverted for the procurement of necessary equipment, prompt payment of salaries of workers, job creation and opportunities, most especially for the youth who have already become puns in the hands of politicians and as useful tools for violence and other diabolic e acts in the hands of the enemies of the state.

Once the cost of governance is reduced and merit becomes sacrosanct in the labor market, restoration of our core values based on peace, honesty and integrity will naturally return to address the issue of insecurity. This will make the concept of keeping good neighborliness become a realizable message of hope.

Once we are able to achieve attitudinal adjustment, security agents would have less to do because good citizenry would have created a conscious awareness that everybody is a stakeholder in the quest to maintain the peace.

Keeping of the justice system and equality of access for an inclusive society will accelerate the pace of development , that would be sustainable to create a conducive atmosphere for good interpersonal relationship.

The Zimbabwe Government has for the past four months withheld  the salaries of three leaders of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), who led protests against the  Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube's austerity policies in January.​

The union leaders and others who  were  arrested in Macheke and charged with criminal nuisance, appeared in court in Marondera before their case was referred to Harare.

Before they could appear in court they were again arrested in Ruwa just 40km outside the capital, however the court  ordered their release.

President of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), secretary general Robson Chere and Mashonaland West chairperson Munyaradzi Ndawana, have however, called on workers not to be deterred by the latest action of government.

"This so-called new dispensation is using every trick in the book to curtail trade unionism in Zimbabwe, the freezing of salaries is a desperate attempt to silence our membership. We will not be cowed into submission by such cowardly acts on an anti-worker establishment, we demand salaries in US dollars or market equivalent.  Austerity measures are killing the working class and benefiting the ruling elite, we call upon the working class to rise and crush austerity.

"We are surviving on handouts from well-wishers. It's a difficult situation and cannot even afford paying school fees for our children'' they said.

While other unions seem to have adopted a different tact choosing to negotiate with government, Masaraure and his group have taken the authorities head on.

The Oyo State Fire Service has insisted that even though it has all the requirements to perform its primary functions,  it is  looking  up to the incoming administration for more assistance.

The position of the the Service was made know by its Deputy Director, Mr. Moshood Adewuyi in a chat with People.

''We are  always ready in terms of safety. Everyone grows old, so does equipment, we are looking forward to the new administration to take care of our needs. We carry out routine inspection annually. My people are at First Bank premises. The objective is to assess, recommend and implement. We also visit industrial premises, petrol stations, Media houses and several others because their compliance might be 60 per cent. We have been experiencing a reduction in fire incidents, Mr. Adewuyi noted.

He advised members of the public to always be safety conscious saying, ''Keep matches out of reach of children. Making use of handsets in petrol stations should be discourage. We are friends with the public, we are here to save lives and property. We expect  maximum cooperation whenever there are incidents, not fighting''.

The All Workers Convergence(AWC) has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a qualified person with vast experience in labour matters as Minister of Labor.

The AWC gave this advice through its National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze.

‘’What is expected from authentic leadership is to put the right persons in the right positions. People who are professionals in their particular fields, who possess not just academic qualifications but also practical experiences.’’

On Wednesday, 28 September 2011, the Federal Executive Council approved N30.066 billion for the accelerated implementation of the ‘back-end’ component of the National Identity Management System(NIMS).

The delivery date of the NIMS was December, 2013.

It should be noted that the National Identity Management Commission(NIMC) was to receive a sum of N23.074 billion, in the last quarter of 2011, for the procurement of the redesigned multi-application National Identity Card.

Before this time, the National Identity Card Scheme executed by SAGEM was a failure.

The NIMC Act №23 of 2007 mandated the NIMC to establish a reliable, secure and ‘scalable’ identity management system that makes use of advance Bio-metrics technologies to identify every individual in Nigeria in unique ways.

Despite the colossal amount government has expended on the project, most Nigerians, who have registered have only laminated papers to present where necessary.

Although choice brand of papers serve the same purpose, on a condition that negotiated payments are made to the relevant officials.

The insinuation is that the laminated papers are just open cover ups for the failed project.

The expectations of Nigerians were that , upon completion of registration, physical cards would be issued. This is not the case.

At the NIMC registration center at the University College Hospital(UCH)Ibadan, Nigerians are made to pay N100.00 for the registration form, while N500.00 is the amount for the change of name after registration and other unspecified fees for the lamination of the registration slip. There are other hidden fees.

The NIMC officials also instruct people to write their Bank Verification Numbers(BVN) on the form. Nigerians want to know the reason why this is so ?

Of worry, is the rude behavior exhibited by the NIMC officials in a sizable number of centers, which over time has discouraged several Nigerians from having faith in the project.

Indeed, NIMC proudly insists that over the years, it has issued out millions of the National Identification Numbers(NIN), even though it has continuously avoided making categorical statements on the Identity Cards.

Nigerians have the impression that the project is one among several white elephant projects of government.