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Tag: Aminu Suleiman

  • Reps, minister meet on schools’ resumption Monday

    Reps, minister meet on schools’ resumption Monday

    The House of Representatives Committee on Education, on Wednesday, said it had invited the Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, and the Nigeria Medical Association to a meeting over the resumption date for schools.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Aminu Suleiman, disclosed this to journalists on the sideline of oversight tour to some tertiary institutions in Lagos.

    Suleiman said the committee would meet with the minister and NMA officials on September 15 to discuss the resumption date for public and private schools in the country.

    He said, ” It is true that government has reviewed the position earlier taken on the resumption, government may have some reasons that are not available to us.

    “But since the Minister of Health has initially justified the reason for the review, the legislature decided to abide by that position.

    “Now, a superior, more professionally position has been taken by those supposed to drive the project in the first place.

    “The NMA advised that the review of the date will not be in the best interest of the country health wise.”

    The lawmaker said as representatives of the people, the House decided to invite the executive through the minister and the NMA, “which we have done.”

    “The meeting is slated for September 15, so that we can interact and arrive at the very best position.”

  • COEASU, ASUP/Fed Goct face-off: we’re in a fix, says Wike

    COEASU, ASUP/Fed Goct face-off: we’re in a fix, says Wike

    Hope for a speedy resolution of the lingering dispute between the members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and the Federal Government dimmed yesterday.

    The Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, confessed that the Federal Government “is in a fix” on how to progress with the issue.

    At a meeting yesterday between the Aminu Suleiman-led House of Representatives Committee on Education, the minister said resolving the almost a year old dispute would be tricky because the proposal he made on the payment of the outstanding N40 billion arrears to COEASU and ASUP had been overtaken by events.

    “We are now in a fix. We are now trying to resolve the issue with salaries and wages Commission,” Wike said.

    On what transpired between the Federal Government and ASUP in particular, the minister said he “took a risk that I’ve never taken in life” when he summoned a meeting with ASUP and proposed the payment of the outstanding arrears by instalments.

    Wike said: “I asked that we solve the major issues. They said there were arrears of N20 billion for COEASU and N20 billion for ASUP.

    “I asked the Permanent Secretary (in the Ministry of Education) to write a memorandum on how it would be paid. I made a memo to Mr President that I had made the offer. They now wrote a letter back that they were not accepting the proposal.”

    The minister explained that following the rejection of the proposal by the ASUP, the Wages and Salaries Commission wrote a letter, also rejecting the proposal.

    This, he said, compounded the situation.

    Wike said “the government is not sleeping” on the issue, adding that it was nobody’s desire to see schools shut for almost a year.

    He added: “People should know that what we are trying to do is not personal. Nobody wants children to stay at home. The matter started with the former minister.”

    The minister said a committee to bridge the gap between polytechnic and university certificates was working.

    He said the government had to stop paying the salaries of polytechnic lecturers after they were paid from October 2013 to February 2014 without working.

    Suleiman (APC, Kano) said the committee summoned the meeting because of the need to find a speedy resolution to the crisis.

    A representative of the Minister of Education, Mr. McJohn Nwaobiala, had told the House Committee on Education  that the salary arrears of polytechnic workers, which is one of their demands, was not captured in this year’s budget.

     

     

  • Ex-Edo SSG hospitalised

    Former Secretary to Edo State Government (SSG) Dr. Simon Imuekheme has been hospitalised.

    Imuekheme and three former officials of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) were remanded in prison custody by a Benin High Court on Monday.

    They were arraigned on an eight-count of alleged diversion of N113 million SUBEB funds.

    Prison sources said Imuekheme was taken to the unnamed hospital for an unknown ailment.

    Spokesman of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) Aminu Suleiman said Imuekemhe was received by prisons officials on Monday afternoon.

    Aminu said Imuekheme took ill hours after he was brought in and requested for medical treatment outside the prisons complex.

    Imuekemhe’s request was granted yesterday by the prison authorities.

     

  • Reps summon JAMB boss over mass failure

    The Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Examination (JAMB), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde is to face the House of Representatives  over student’s mass failure in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
    Chairman, House Committee on Education, Aminu Suleiman (PDP, Kano) said the invitation was as result of barrage of complaints that flooded the Committee from across the country.
    He said: “We heard that JAMB authorities had formally explained some reasons for the mass failure, this is not enough if the content of the complaints of Nigerians is anything to go by.
    “One of the complaints was that concerning the usage of computer for the exam that most of them have never had contact with computer before or that they only learnt the theory without the practical usage of computers.
    “It can be recalled that the House passed a resolution asking JAMB not to use computer for the 2013 exams and they said they would make nit optional; but there were still complaints by Nigerians that some students filled the manual or paper option only to find themselves being asked to write the exams using computers”.
    Saying that the mass failure could be as a result of the introduction of computers for the examinations, the Chairman noted that most students, especially those in the rural areas are not computer-literate enough .
    “The committee have no option that to act accordingly to work towards finding lasting solutions to the perennial failures of Nigerian students,” he said.