Category: Northern Reports

The Jigawa State and Local Governments Contributory Pension Board said it has disbursed about N4 billion entitlements to 12,868 retirees in the last six years.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Alhaji Kamilu Aliyu, made the disclosure when the National President of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Mr Ambali Akeem, visited him yesterday in Dutse.

Aliyu said the amount covered the payment of retirement and death benefits, death pension balance and monthly pensions between May 2015 and February 2022.

He said the beneficiaries included retirees of state, local governments and local education authorities (LEAs).

“This shows that we are up-to-date in the payment of entitlements to retirees. This means that the board does not owe any retiree as far as 2021 is concerned,” he said.

The Emir of Nasarawa, Ibrahim Jibril, has commended the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for establishing the scheme’s Museum of National History.

The monarch said the museum would serve as a good reference on past events of the NYSC for future generations.

The Emir stated this during a visit to the NYSC Museum at the National Headquarters in Abuja where the Director-General of the NYSC, Maj. Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim tool the monarch on a tour of the museum.

The monarch, who reminisced his youth service year experiences in Kaduna State as a member of the 10th set in 1983/84 service year, was full of commendation for Major-General Shuaibu Ibrahim over his purposeful leadership, bordering on good human and material management since assuming duty.

Also, the National Association of College of Education Students has commended the Director-General for his recent promotion to the rank of Major-General.

The association praised the introduction of the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme which has been empowering corps members with skills, including loans to start their business ventures.

President of the association, Augustine Anthony who led the executives of the association on a visit to the D-G, said: “You have proven to be a competent leader and we are proud to be associated with you.”

The students promised to lend a voice to the push for the establishment of the NYSC Trust Fund.

Ibrahim said the NYSC introduced the SAED in 2012 to reduce the level of unemployment among graduate youths in the country.

He said many ex-corps members that participated in skills acquisition programmes in the course of service are business owners and employers of labour.

Ibrahim said efforts are in top gear to bring the NYSC Trust Fund to fruition which would expand the scope of the scheme’s skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development programme.

He disclosed that the Trust Fund would make funds available to corps members to start their businesses based on the skills they acquired while in camp and also aid in addressing infrastructural deficits in the scheme.

He appealed to the students to educate their colleagues on the importance of hard work and the dangers of cutting corners.

“Be focused and avoid social vices such as drug trafficking and abuse. Be committed, and with strong determination, you will reach your destination,” the D-G said.

The Chairman of Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board (ADSUBEB), Dr Salihi Ateequ, said the board has trained 4,458 teachers and provided 15,660 sets of furniture for primary and junior secondary schools.

He told reporters in Yola, the state capital, yesterday that the board has also distributed 140 mattresses and 840 chairs for early child care.

He said these were part of the measures taken by the state government to provide a good working environment for teachers in public schools with the hope of attracting new hands in the future.

He said the state government had also constructed 97 three-block of classrooms and renovated 119 schools across the 21 local government areas of the state last year.

Also, stakeholders in Bauchi, Jigawa, Gombe and Yobe had advocated the establishment of more schools and good welfare packages as measures to bridge the teacher gap in schools.

In Bauchi State, Dr Aliyu Tilde, Commissioner for Education said the state government would adopt modern teaching methods to address the problems of manpower shortage in schools.

Tilde said other measures employed by the state included recruitment of additional teachers and the introduction of online teaching programmes.

According to him, the digital passport device entails adopting information and communication technology gadgets to teach students online.

Also, Malam Musa Wadata, Chairman, Bauchi State Teachers’ Service Commission, said plans had reached an advanced stage to recruit additional teachers for secondary schools in the state.

Wadata said the gaps were more prevalent in core subjects of English language, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Physics.

According to statistics released by the commission, Bauchi State has 215 senior secondary schools, 6,110 teachers and over one million students.

To enhance teacher training, stakeholders in Jigawa State have advocated the establishment of more colleges of education and mass employment of qualified teachers to address the teacher gap in basic education nationwide.

The stakeholders identified the lack of qualified teachers as one of the factors militating against quality graduates from the basic and post-basic education sectors.

Abubakar also called for proactive measures to make the teaching profession attractive in the country.

Another respondent, Malam Tafida Aminu, urged the governments to encourage volunteer teaching services.

In the same manner, stakeholders in Gombe State advocated special incentives for teachers to effectively bridge the manpower gap in schools.

Mrs Elizabeth Ogunjobi, a primary school teacher, said the condition of service was not encouraging teachers to stay on the job.

Ogunjobi said primary school teachers in the state were not promoted for years in spite of working in public schools as civil servants.

The trend, she said, discouraged fresh graduates from becoming teachers, adding that, “salaries and other welfare packages are not prioritised by the authorities.”

Mr Ahmed Madugu, Director of School Services, Ministry of Education, Gombe State, attributed the manpower gap to the high rate of retirement of teachers in the state.

Madugu said plans were underway to recruit more teachers through the Teachers’ Service Commission in the state.

Saleh Abdu Chairman, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), Model Primary School, Damaturu Yobe called for the recruitment of more teachers to enhance access to quality education for all.

“We are experiencing a shortage of teachers, especially those teaching English language and Mathematics,” he said.

The chairman advised the state government to accord priority to the recruitment of qualified teachers under its newly-initiated Educational Revitalisation Programme.

The Katsina State Government has denied allegation of corrupt practices levelled against it by a Kaduna-based business mogul, Mahadi Shehu, describing it as baseless, false and capable of tarnishing the image of the state government.

The Secretary to the Government of the State, Dr. Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa, who made the denial on behalf of the state government while giving testimonies at a Federal High Court, Kano, as the first witness, during the court proceedings, described the entire allegations levelled against the state government and some of its officials by the petitioner as false and baseless

He further said that there was nothing like the amount of money claimed by Mahadi Shehu, to have been squandered by the state government.

The Nation recalled that Mahadi Shehu had reportedly in a series of videos, audios on social media platforms and other conventional media platforms made series of allegations against the Katsina State Government and some of its top ranking personalities of financial mismanagement and fraud to the tune of N52b.

Meanwhile the Kano State Division of the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Abdullahi Liman on Monday adjourned the trial between the office of the Inspector General of Police and the Katsina whistleblower, Mahadi Shehu until February 28 and March 1st this year for continuation of the hearing.

The adjournment was requested by the prosecution counsel to enable it tender some important documents in order to justify the evidence and submissions provided by one of the witnesses who is also the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa.

The lead Defense Counsel, Mustapha Abubakar (SAN) in an interview with a cross section of reporters, explained that the trial which was scheduled to have commenced on Monday could not continue because of the adjournment.

He revealed that the prosecution counsel had hitherto called its first witness who had started giving evidences against the defendant.

The Katsina State Attorney General and Commissioner For Justice, Barrister Ahmad Usman El-marzuq, also expressed satisfaction with all the evidences given before the court by the first witness, adding that the prosecution counsel is ready to produce another set of five additional witnesses.

Northern group Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA) on Saturday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the current security and surveillance of pipelines in the oil-rich Niger Delta in the interest of the national economy.

Specifically, the group asks Mr President to sustain the Ocean Marine Solutions Limited contract since it has been able to significantly address the issues of vandalism, illegal bunkering and oil theft, unlike the situation before it took over the security and surveillance of pipelines shortly after the 2015 election.

Addressing a press conference at Arewa House, Kawo, Kaduna on Saturday, the spokesman for the group, Aliyu Sanni Mohammed, noted that since the company took over the job of pipeline surveillance and security in the Niger Delta a few years ago; there has been a remarkable shift from the old order.

For instance, pipeline vandalism, illegal crude oil bunkering and theft, insecurity and frequent host community hostilities are now becoming history in the region, Mohammed said.

“After a thorough review of the activities of Ocean Marine Solutions Limited since they took charge of the pipeline and surveillance security jobs in some parts of the Niger Delta under the President Buhari led federal government, we of the Arewa Youth Assembly have deemed it fit to solidarise with our brothers from that important region to pass a vote of competence and confidence on the management team of the company.

“In doing that, it is also germane to thank President Muhammadu Buhari and the top management team of the NNPC for their foresight in zeroing down on Ocean Marine Solutions Limited whose efforts have given us more security, environmentally-friendly Niger Delta, especially in areas where Ocean Marine Solutions Limited operates.

“No doubt too that the barrel of crude oil and gas produced per day and their attendant revenues generated for the federal government and other tiers of government has geometrically increased. This is evident in seeing states hitherto beneath the ladder of highest producer(s) of crude oil and gas due to activities of illegal oil bunkers now on the top of the ladder.”