The Nation Newspaper

Tag: allowance

  • Okorocha okays N300m allowance for undergraduates

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has approved N300 million allowance for indigenes in tertiary institutions.

    Speaking at a breakfast meeting with the Technical Committee on Education, at the Government House, Owerri, the state capital, he  said education was the basic tool, which would equip any child to face the future.

    He said he took an oath to make Imo better than he met it and started with free education, which he noted would empower the children to take over leadership and develop the state and nation.

    Okorocha said crime had reduced since the inception of his administration.

    According to him, about 70 per cent of reported crimes were committed by students, but with the introduction of free education, they no longer indulge in crimes to meet academic demands.

    He promised a gift of I-pad software to every Imo graduating student, whose grade points (GP) came up to 4, adding that the overall best student of every tertiary institution would be rewarded.

    Okorocha said the approval of N300 million as allowance for students and other incentives would encourage them to be serious about their studies.

    He urged them to appreciate the opportunity given them by the government by shunning crime and being good ambassadors of the state.

    The governor, who reiterated that his administration was anchored on the spirit of sacrifice to make Imo better and ensure the well-being of the poor, said: “I’m not your governor for the financial profit of the job, but to make a difference in the state. I want to write my name in gold.”

    He said the forfeiture of his security vote and luxury helped him to achieve a lot, hailing his wife for sharing his philosophy, which gave birth to  “She Needs a Roof Pet Project (SNARP)”, under which the homeless are given homes.

    Mrs. Nneoma Nkechi Rochas Okorocha, the chairman of “Issuance of Check for Free Education”, said the essence of the meeting was to inform stakeholders of the issuance of cheques to students and the way forward.

    She said government had made provision for easy online assessment of the free education forms for students.

    The governor’s wife enjoined them to obtain the forms, fill and submit them to their traditional rulers for endorsement.

    Commissioner for Education (Tertiary) Prof. Uba Nnabue lauded the governor for bequeathing the greatest legacy to the state through free and qualitative education.

    The Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie; the Rector, Imo State Polytechnic, Rev. Fr. Wence Madu; and the Provost, College of Health Sciences, Princess Ngozi Duru, hailed the governor for transforming the education sector.

    Present at the meeting were the Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere; the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Anthony Anwuka; members of the Imo Executive Council; lawmakers; permanent secretaries and others.

  • Wikki Tourists to get allowance upfront

    Wikki Tourists to get allowance upfront

    In its effort to maintain the top position in the group A of the ongoing Nigeria National League (NNL) table, the management of Wikki Tourists Football Club of Bauchi, under the leadership of Sule Abdullahi Chindo, has assured that all players and technical crew match bonus will be paid before their games.

    According to the statement issued by the club’s media officer, Abbas Shehu, Chindo made the pledged after a two-hour emergency meeting of the management and technical crew on Wednesday at the multipurpose indoor sports hall Bauchi.

    SportingLife understands that the meeting was to brainstorm on the seven matches played so far and to identify areas of weakness with a view to correcting them for future matches. It was also to look at the team’s success and better ways to maintain the team’s status on the log to the end of the season.

    Chindo said: “One of the motivating encouragement to the team as agreed in our last meeting was to start paying our players and technical crew members advance match bonus both at home and away, we shall pay them their match bonus a day before the match. All we need is victory, so enjoy your match bonus and give us goals.”

    The management has also passed a vote of confidence in the technical crew headed by coach Tunde Abdurahamman for a job well done so far.

    Abdulrahaman, who was at the meeting, expressed delight with the confidence reposed in him by the management.

    “With this encouragement and concern by the management the sky will be our limit in ensuring that the team get promotion to the Premier League at the end of this season. We have done it before and this time around we will do it together,” Abdulrahaman said.

    The head coach explained that out of the 35 players recruited he has tested 21 players while the remaining players will have their own chance to play before the end of the first round.

    By the time second round started he had made his complete team that would give him Premier League ticket at the end of the season to justify the confidence repose in him by the management of Wikki Tourists and repay Bauchi State Government.

    Abdulrahaman said he has concluded all his technical strategy to win his next away match in Kaduna against his former team Ranchers Bees in week eight encounter on Saturday.

  • Minister promises review of corps members’ allowance

    The Minister of Youth Development,Inuwa Abdulkadir, has said the Federal Government would review National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members’ allowance.

    Abdulkadir was addressing corps members mobilised under the 2013 ‘Batch A’ orientation programme in Kano and Jigawa states.

    He said the welfare of corps members remains the priority of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    A statement by the minister’s Chief Press Secretary, Olusola Abiola in Abuja, said the Federal Government is committed to implementing the various multi-sectoral youth employment and empowerment programmes.

    He said: “ There are so many schemes the Federal Government has mapped out to provide jobs and economic empowerment for the increasing army of job seekers and unemployed graduates all over the country.”

  • Osun okays N10,000 allowance for the elderly

    The Osun State Government has approved a N10,000 monthly allowance for the elderly, under its social security scheme tagged: “Agba Osun”.

    The Special Adviser to Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Special Needs, Mr. Biyi Odunlade, told reporters yesterday that 1,343 of the1,602 beneficiaries have received their first two allowances.

    He said the remaining are yet to show up for the payment.

    Odunlade said the state government carried out a population survey of elderly persons between February 27 and March 10 to identify those who need medical attention.

    He said at the end of the survey, 114,814 elderly persons were identified in the 30 local governments.

    Odunlade said the government would establish a rehabilitation and transit camp for the destitute and the mentally ill.

    He said the Aregbesola administration has appointed six physically-challenged persons into political positions and given jobs to another six in the civil service.

  • ASCSN seeks special allowance for education officers

    The unit chairmen of the 104 Unity Schools and the six zonal coordinators rose from a meeting in Abuja with a 10-point communiqué seeking progress in the service of education officers and other staff of the schools across the country.

    In the communiqué signed by their union leaders, the National President and General Secretary of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrades Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Alade Bashir Lawal, the meeting endorsed the memorandum submitted to the National Public Service Negotiating Council I (NPSNC I), by the union leadership, requesting the Federal Government to approve 15 per cent of the consolidated salary as special allowance to Education Officers teaching in the Unity Colleges.

    Also, the demand contained in the memorandum for the restoration and upward review of Science Teachers Allowance and the Boarding House Master/Mistress Allowance inadvertently omitted from the salaries of affected teachers since 2007 during the transition from the manual payment system to Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and which have not been restored since then despite series of demands by the Association. We enjoin the National Leadership of the Union to pursue the demands until they are implemented.

    The meeting also commended the leadership of the association for presenting another memorandum in respect of payment of end-of-year incentives approved by the Federal Government for civil servants.

    “We support the position of the association that the payment should be extended to all civil servants at the headquarters of the ministries as well as outstation staff and that the disbursement of the incentives should be based on grade levels to ensure fairness, equity, and justice.”

    The civil servants called on the Federal Ministry of Education to convey and thereafter institutionalise a quarterly meeting as agreed with the Union more than two years ago.

    “It is surprising that the quarterly meeting has not been summoned by the Management of the Federal Ministry of Education despite constant reminders by the leadership of the association.The essence of the platform is to ensure that latent labour issues capable of truncating industrial peace in the Ministry including the Unity Schools are identified and amicably resolved in line with contemporary trade union best practice.”

    The officers reiterated their demand that officers who have duly sat for promotion examinations and passed should be paid their promotion arrears and properly placed in their appropriate grade levels to boost their morale. They said it was demoralising for officers to be made to undergo rigorous promotion examination, and be denied their promotion after they excelled in the exercise. “This practice is unacceptable and should be discontinued,” they said

    The communiqué further said that the meeting frowned at the increasing cases of victimisation of officials of the Association by some Principals in some of the Unity Schools.

    (1)”These officials are indiscriminately transferred to other places using framed up charges. It noted that the action of these Principals is against the existing agreement between the Association and the Management of Federal Ministry of Education on the need to allow units officials exhaust their tenure in their schools where they are serving before being posted to other schools. This agreement is in line with ILO Convention 87 and 98 on rights to organise and collective bargaining. The meeting called on the Federal Ministry of Education to reverse these punitive postings in the interest of industrial peace and harmony in the Unity Colleges.”

    On the purported withdrawal of some members of the association, to join the Nigeria Union of Teachers, the meeting said, as senior federal civil servants employed by the Federal Civil Service Commission, the Unity School teachers are “bonafide members” of ASCSN, which has always stood by them in times of their trials and tribulations including saving their jobs when it waged a relentless battle against the Federal Government which had concluded plans to sell the Unity Schools to private individuals.

    “We, therefore, disassociate ourselves entirely from any individual or group which purport to claim that Unity Schools teaching staff are members of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT). The NUT which is the umbrella body of primary and secondary schools teachers employed by the state governments is advised to steer clear of Unity Colleges henceforth in the interest of industrial peace in the schools and concentrate on improving the welfare of its members, the abysmal failure of which has led to the exit of secondary schools teachers from its fold to form the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS).

    “Only recently, the Basic Education Teachers also pulled out of the NUT and formed Basic Education Staff Association of Nigeria (BESAN). Both the ASUSS and BESAN have publicly stated that the NUT has patently proved incapable of promoting the welfare of its members which was why they had no option but to withdraw their membership,” the communiqué stated.