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[OPINION] Citadel Of Learning in Ruins: Which Way Nigeria?
By Chidiebere Nwobodo
Seven months since ASUU began striking, our universities are still under lock and key. Our active youths have been abandoned in the doldrums of hopelessness. Imagine seven months of brain drain and despondency? and the thought of losing one academic session? what of seven months of idleness? and an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
While the future of Nigerian students are in limbo, our political leaders are goose-chasing and shadow-boxing absurdities. who bewitched our leaders? where lies sense of responsibility and leadership? Presidency, Governors and National Assembly members are more interested in gaging the youths via social media bill and persecution of #ENDSARS activists. What a tomfoolery when the fledgling nation is on fire of insecurity, excruciating economy and decaying university system!
What is wrong with Nigeria as a nation? are we cursed or what? who did this to us? As parents, your kinds have been out of campus for seven months, and you’re still behaving as if they’re not losing anything? you wake up in the morning, exit the house to the office, to continue your self deceit as if all is fine in your home? you return in the evening knowing that your children idled away the day and you still sleep with your two eyes closed? Certainly, you must be an idiot!
This is exactly what our political class are doing to the fabrics of this country; deliberately destroying the youths by keeping them at home, simply because their own kids are abroad getting the best of education. And you think you and your children will have peace in the future? no way! Beyond the bone of the contention, which is the mode of payment of lecturers’ salaries cum outstanding allowances being owed by government, funding for critical infrastructure in the universities is at the all time low.
University system has been literally abandoned. Our universities have become so dilapidated and degraded to the extent that it is strangulating potentials it was meant to harness. Most of our campuses look like unkempt museums. They’re no longer glorified secondary schools but depressing dungeons of cultists, internet tricksters and raving prostitutes! creativity is zero; innovation is dead.
Human development is no longer the primary goal of the ivory tower but churning out worthless certificates of outdated courses like factories running on automated production lines. Majority of lecturers now venture into the once respected profession, not to impact knowledge but solely for economic benefits and its attendant side attraction of preying on our young ladies for lascivious satisfaction.
Huge chunk of our graduates are unemployed, underemployed and unemployable, while those currently in school are locked out because of ASUU and Government unending imbroglio, anchored on leadership cluelessness and gross incompetence. Nigeria is sitting on a time bomb. Our leaders doesn’t have the capacity to tackle present challenges bedeviling the nation while they are irresponsibly creating future monstrous problems.
The world is progressively moving at the speed of light, while Nigeria is busy snoring away its future on the bed of leadership tragedy, aided by hangover of mass docility. Whenever I take a limp into the future, juxtaposed it with landmark developmental strides around the world vis-a-vis stunted growth Nigeria is suffering, I begin to weep for this contraption masquerading as a nation.
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Badaru on Operational Tour of 82 Division, other Military Installations in Enugu and Imo States
The Honourable Minister of Defence H.E Mohammed Badaru Abubakar CON mni is currently in Enugu on operational tour of 82 Division of Nigerian Army and other military platforms in Enugu.
He was received on arrival by the General officer Commanding 82 Division of the Nigerian Army / Commander JTF SE of operation Udoka Major-General H.T Dada and other senior military officers.
The Minister is expected to meet with South East stakeholders on the way forward.
Details later…
Tinubu has granted full oversight responsibilities to Ministers of State over agencies under them amongst whom are Minister of State for Defence Dr. Bello Matawalle, Water Resources and Sanitation, Minister of State for Agriculture and others will henceforth enjoy full oversight responsibilities over such agencies.
President Bola Tinubu at FEC Meeting has approved that ministers of state be given full powers to supervise the agencies under them, the cable reported.
Until now, files pertaining to departments and agencies under their supervision were sent by their permanent secretaries to the senior ministers.
With the new dispensation, ministers of state can now grant all necessary administrative approvals on the governance process of these agencies and departments.
According to a source in the office of the head of service of the federation, “the president was not pleased with the prevailing governing framework in which ministers of states were just ministers in name”.
This, Tinubu reportedly said, led to the “underutilisation of the expertise and capabilities” of most ministers of state.
“The president believes ministers of state should have the right to make decisions and direct action within their areas of responsibility,” the official added.
According to the Cable report, the source said the idea, first mooted by Hadiza Bala Usman, special adviser to the President on policy coordination and head, central delivery coordination unit got an instant buy-in from the President.
With the new directive, the administration hopes “to unleash” the potential of all the ministers, the source added.
…It’s unprecedented to earn above minimum wage in Enugu- Labour
… We’ll commence implementation immediately- ALGON
Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, has approved N80,000 minimum wage for the state’s work force, including local government workers, effective October 2024, noting a direct link between a motivated workforce and his administration’s vision of growing the state’s economy from $4.4bn to $30bn.
The new minimum wage covers all state employees, primary school teachers, and local government workers.
Organised labour has described the wage as unprecedented, as it was the first time that Enugu workers would be earning above the national minimum wage.
Mbah announced the new minimum wage on Thursday after a meeting with the Enugu State Minimum Wage Implementation Committee headed by the Head of Service, Kenneth Ugwu and labour leaders, including the state’s labour leaders.
Mbah said, “Few weeks ago, I inaugurated a committee with the responsibility to oversee the implementation of the New National Minimum Wage in Enugu State. Today, I’m happy to announce a new minimum wage for workers in Enugu State, reflecting our fidelity to their welfare, in regard of which we have been resolutely committed.
“We have approved the sum of N80,000 as the new minimum wage in Enugu State. This underscores our commitment to bequeathing lasting legacies of improved living conditions.
“Our commitment to improved workers’ welfare runs deep, and is rooted in the firm understanding of the inextricable link between an inspired workforce and the audacious economic targets we had set our sights on.
“We clearly understood that reducing poverty to the barest minimum and achieving an unprecedented economic growth target were contingent on the output of the workforce. Therefore, for us, the best way to acknowledge that labour creates wealth is by ensuring that the workforce, which creates the wealth that oils the wheel of government, is sufficiently motivated.
“We have similarly demonstrated our commitment to workers welfare through the consistent payment of the wage awards, a gesture we had pledged to sustain until a new wage structure took effect.”
Speaking, the Chairman of the Enugu State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Fabian Nwigbo, thanked governor Mbah for always prioritising the welfare of workers, describing the new minimum wage as “a great one for Enugu workers.”
“In the past, when minimum wage is announced, it takes up to one or two years for anything to happen; and when it did, we took anything they gave us as we saw it. But today, you have even given us something much higher than national minimum wage.
“But I am not totally surprised because when other governors were paying N12,000 wage award, you were paying us N25,000. When others paid for some months and stopped, you continued paying it until the new minium wage as you promised. So, we have enjoyed wage award for 11 months and today you announced the minimum wage which is the first of its kind since my 32 years in service,” said.
Speaking to Government House correspondents, the Chairman of the Enugu State chapter of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Comrade Ben Asogwa, said, “We are so happy. The governor did not just announce ₦80,000 minium wage, but said that it cascades down to even local government workers. He said that he does not want disparity in salary implementation in Enugu State anymore because we all go to the same market.
“This is the first time in history we are seeing the implementation of minimum wage above the approved amount by the federal government. Actually, when we entered into the negotiation, we were afraid because we know quite well that we are not among the states that share in dividends of oil money. We know quite well that we are at the back when it comes to federal allocation, but His Excellency actually surprised us.
“One thing we have seen is that he understands the impact of motivation on productivity. The governor has set a pace and we know that any other person coming after him will have the challenge to meet up with the target set by His Excellency, Governor Peter Mbah.”
On his part, Chairman of the Association of Local Government Workers, ALGON, Enugu State, Hon. Okechukwu Edeh, pledged the commitment of council chairmen to implementing the new minimum wage.
“When you motivate workers, they become more productive. What I am promising on behalf of the Enugu ALGON family is that we are going to cascade the new minimum wage to the local government level. Implementation begins immediately,” he said.
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