The Nation Newspaper

Tag: employment

  • NOLLYWOOD MODEL HAS CREATED EMPLOYMENT FOR S/A FILMMAKERS, SAYS ANDILE BUWA

    NOLLYWOOD MODEL HAS CREATED EMPLOYMENT FOR S/A FILMMAKERS, SAYS ANDILE BUWA

    FOR the Chairperson of iThekini Filmmakers Association, Andile Buwa, not only have his colleagues put aside the criticisms that have trailed Nollywood, they have evolved a micro budget model that has been accepted by the government and has led to the creation of the Mzansi Magic channel on DStv. “Circumstances have forced me to get involved again on the side of mobilizing other filmmakers,” he said. “Since 2006, we started this movement which is inspired by the Nollywood model of film making. We started making films basically out of nothing. And it is that movement that led to the establishment of Mzansi Magic channel (DStv) that has employed a lot of people as we speak. We started that movement out of the need to tell our stories, and the fact that we can’t continue to wait for government or financiers to come on board. It’s a very long time to wait, and the waiting has not been fruitful.

    So, we just got our hands on the ground and we started making films, and we have seen the success. We came up with what we call a micro budget model; which is one thing we have been advocating for, particularly here in Durban. I can safely say that there has been wide spread criticism generally of Nollywood, but we believe here in Durban that it’s high time we put aside criticism and take ownership of Nollywood as ours in the continent, and ascribe the successes of Nollywood to ourselves because we seems to have something in common.

    Now, what led to the Mzansi Magic is along the model of the micro budget films where the filmmakers are commissioned by Mzansi Magic with the budget of 300,000 to 500, 000 Rand to make films. We are happy to have this Nigerian delegation, and what we are trying to establish is of mutual benefit to both sides because I think we have started a model that is taking the direction that Nollywood has actually gone, and we have managed to mobilize our government to our support. So we can see that that positive side that our government is on this model that we have started and having a delegation from Nollywood, it can only get better.”

    The AFRIFF delegation includes its Founder/CEO, Chioma Ude; its Advisor and Chairman of AVRS, Mahmood Ali-Balogun who was also an official guest of DIFF; AFRIFF’s Artistic Director, Keith Shiri; Programmes Director, Afie Braimoh, and Project Manager, Chioma Onyenwe.

    •Ikenna and Ihuoma
    •Ikenna and Ihuoma

    Others are award-winning filmmakers, Kunle Afolayan and Mildred Okwo; actors Ramsey Nouah, Rita Dominic, OC Ukeje, Hilda Dokubo and Uru Eke; Julian Nwagboniwe,  Ikenna Ezenyirioha,  Anthonia Nwajiugo, Ayorinde Ojo, Ihuoma Nwigwe, Charles Novia, Joe Hundah and Sam Onyemelukwe of Trace TV.

  • Union prescribes measures for employment generation

    The Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE) has challenged the Federal Government to help bring down the cost of production and improve infrastructure in order to promote industrialisation and employment in the country.

    Speaking at the 35th yearly general meeting of the AFBTE in Lagos, the association’s President, Paul Gbadebo identified high cost of manufacturing as a barrier to competitiveness of local products, saying it makes imported products more attractive to consumers.

    Gbadebo also deplored the state of infrastructure especially power supply, road network and rail service, calling on the new government to invest in infrastructural development.

    He also identified other factors necessary for improvement of the economy to include, enforcement of corporate governance and best practices in order to combat corruption, ensuring access to long term credit for genuine manufacturers and reduction of bank lending rate.

    Others are securing the nation’s border against illegal imports, tackling insurgency in the northern part of Nigeria, checking multiple taxation, and streamlining activities of regulatory agencies.

    He, however, alerted manufacturers to brace up for challenges that will arise from the devaluation of the naira and dwindling oil revenue.

    The Executive Secretary of AFBTE, Aderemi Adegboyega, identified impunity, official high handedness, and insensitivity on the part of regulatory agencies as factors that affect the manufacturing sector negatively.

    “The kind of things we want the government to do include creating a situation where multiple taxation would be avoided. Regulatory agencies should be supporting our businesses. The government here should ensure that our raw materials are sourced at prices that are reasonable. We should be able to source finance from the banks at cost that will be helpful to the manufacturers”, he said.

    He also said a level playing field should be provided in terms of access to finance, infrastructure and government patronage, lamenting a situation where one has to “know” someone in government or a bank before they can be attended to.

    Reflecting on measures adopted by the Federal Government to improve the economy, he said the recent removal of 41 items from foreign exchange list may not achieve the desired aims unless the government can prevent smuggling of the products.

    “The truth is those goods might have been taken away from the list, but somehow we still find them in the market. And because we find them in the market, it means some people are bringing them to the market without paying duties. And when they don’t pay duties it makes such duties to be very cheap and people would buy such products anyway. It does not really confer any advantage”, Adegboyega said.

    He also sought introduction of a special foreign exchange regime for the manufacturing  sector. “The cost at which manufacturers get finance from the banks now is not helpful. Government can support manufacturers in terms of access to funds. Also in terms of cost of machinery and moratorium, and the leave period that is granted to manufacturers of goods in terms of taxation”, he added.

  • Boosting employment opportunities for lawyers

    Boosting employment opportunities for lawyers

    A lawyer, Tunde Olofintila, identifies other employment opportunities for lawyers outside the courtroom

    When lawyers gather, be it in the hallowed bowels of the court and tribunal halls where they slug it out to resolve the mystery of legal cases or at workshops, seminars or learned conferences where they dig deep into the foundation, practice and interpretation of Law, the attitude, colour and character of their gathering are always the same: some serious business. The recently concluded 48th Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) was no exemption to this norm and time-tested practice.

    It was serious business right from the opening ceremonies when the frontline legal icon and Founder of AfeBabalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD),  Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) and the Hon. Justice IbrahimTanko Muhammad of the Supreme Court addressed the Law Teachers and wittingly or unwittingly set the agenda for this year’s Conference. As it were, majority of what the duo said at the opening ceremonies later formed the pith of the deliberations of the Conferees and the meat of their communique.

    In tandem with the theme for the Conference “Mainstr-eaming Interdisciplinary Approach to Legal Education: Imperatives for the Development of Nigeria”, Babalola, a man who roars where angels tremble to whisper,frontally tackled such contentious issues as the place and import of Law Teachers as experts and specialists in Law, funding of quality Education, admission into Colleges/Faculties of Law, the running of the Law School, Interdisciplinary Approach to Legal Education and appointment of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) as well as Extension of Funds to Non-Profit Private Universities. Such weighty issues could not have escaped the powerful rays of his searchlight.

    For example, Babalola would not fathom why it is difficult for Nigeria to step up the current allocation of about 7% of its national budget to fund education to meet the UNESCO recommendation of at least 25% of the national budget of every country should be dedicated to education, the fact that it has to grapple with other matters such as health care delivery, security and infrastructural development as well as funding of education notwithstanding.

    He would not be taken in on why the annual budget of $7,130,137,243 which translates to N1,212,123,331,310 for North California State University in 2012 could be more than the Federal Government of Nigeria’s budget of N495,456,130,065 for 50 Federal Universities and UBE (Universal Basic Education) which translates to 40.88% of the budget allocation of American University within the same time frame.

    As for the Hon. Justice Muhammad who stood in for the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Hon. Justice Mahmoud Muhammad, he counselled all lawyers, Judges, Law teachers and indeed all stakeholders in the legal profession to play significant roles in sanitizing the legal profession by identifying and flushing out all the bad eggs in order to restore the dignity and honour that had been the hallmark of the noble profession in yester years.

    According to Muhammad, the legal profession has been facing a lot of challenges from within and from without as a result of “bad eggs amongst (some) practising lawyers, (some Judges) and even from Academics” and therefore implored the Law teachers, whom he described as “a collection of great minds who have the onerous responsibility of moulding the character and minds of students, for positive contributions to the political development of this country”.

    After four days of rigorous and painstaking sessions and copious drinking from the fountain of experience and knowledge of some erudite Judicial Officers of note, seasoned Legal Practitioners and Legal Academics from all over the world, the Law Teachers, through the communique at the end of their 48th Conference, returned a unanimous verdict that a lot still needs to be done to make the wheel of justice run faster and smoother in the overall interest of the administration of justice in Nigeria.

    Determined to insulate Law graduates from the ever expanding unemployment market, the Association advocated for an immediate expansion and reformation of the curriculum of legal education in Nigeria to accommodate new areas of market economics and developmental studies such as Agriculture, Medical Science, Physiology, Nursing, Sociology, Psychology and Marketing among others, reasoning that such immediate expansion and reformation of the curriculum will guarantee rapid development of the different spheres of the society and make law graduates employable in different fields of human endeavor.

    In addition to the above, they advocated that a new curriculum with respect to cyber-law should be developed for Nigerian Universities in keeping with the practice in other jurisdictions, such as the United States and the United Kingdom to enable Nigerian trained lawyers handle the increasing legal challenges thrown up by the fast growing cyber technology.

    Considering the importance of Information and Communication Technology in the 21st Century and the concomitant phenomenon of rapid globalisation, it is imperative for Nigeria to facilitate the development of information and knowledge-based economy through the instrumentality of law. Consequently, Information Technology law should be carried out as a law course to be taught in the penultimate law of the basic law programme in all Faculties/Colleges of Law in Nigerian Universities.

    To make Nigerian lawyers really relevant in the competitive global market, there is the need for Nigerian Universities to ensure that undergraduate students, especially in Law, undergo entrepreneurial training to endow them with skill and competences that can empower them to be self-employed and sharpen their capacity to have legitimate sources/streams of income.  Legal education in Nigeria must strive to achieve synergy between the law graduate and the society in such a way that our universities will not just be turning out job seekers who become stranded when there is no vacancy in both the public and private sectors.

    In addition to the above, there is an urgent need to re-evaluate and re-engineer the Nigerian postgraduate education in Law in terms of designing more suitable research methodologies with a view to accommodating new frontiers of knowledge, Information and Communication Technology as well as entrepreneurial studies. This would in turn ensure response to current realities, global competitiveness and relevance.

    With multi-disciplinary training, lawyers can be gainfully engaged in Advocacy, as Solicitors or in Educational and Research Institutes where the likes of Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Prof. ItseSagay, Prof. G. A. Olawoyin, Prof. I.O Agbede and Prof. P.A. Oluyede as well as Prof. Ayo Ajomo among many others have made indelible marks.

    Other areas Lawyers can be active players are Commerce, as Realtors, Government Agencies like National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (AFDAC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as Governance and Politics where lawyers like Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama and Obafemi Awolowo have shaped the course of history and governance in the contemporary world.

    Besides, many lawyers could be appointed as Special Advisers, Research Assistants in addition to working as Arbitrators, Concilliators and Mediators, in the Ministry of Justice, both at the Federal and State Civil Service, the International Civil Service, Field and Protection Officers in Conflict and Post Conflict areas, the Industries, Legislative Houses and of course, the Judiciary, where they could rise to become Magistrates and Judges.

    NALT emphasised that conscious efforts should be made to adopt the comparative and global perspectives to legal education in Nigeria both at the Law Faculties and at the Law School against the current trend which focuses mainly on domestic/municipal laws which cannot guarantee the production of legal practitioners who can respond effectively to the growing challenges of globalization, adding that curricula of legal education in the Universities and the Law School should be restructured to incorporate comparative and global legal studies for the benefit of Nigerian lawyers who desire to play at the global level.

    The law teachers would like the criteria for the appointment of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), particularly as they apply to the Academic Category, to be reviewed to accommodate more academics who meet the minimum requirements for appointment into the silk in tandem with the practice in England where every qualified applicant gets appointed as Queen’s Counsel (QC), the British equivalent of SAN.

     

  • 9,000 migrants seek employment yearly in Italy , says IOM

    Apparently in search of greener pastures, no fewer than 9,000 migrants from Nigeria arrived Italy through the Mediterranean Sea last year, an official of the United Nations International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said.

    A research officer with the organisation, Tara Brian said at a conference on National Migration Policy Thematic Areas, organised by IOM that Nigeria was the fourth top country of origin for people arriving in Italy in last year.

    She said, already, between January and April this year, no fewer than 3,000 Nigerians arrived Italy for jobs.

    In his presentation, a migration expert, Prof Adepoju Aderanti, said Nigerians abroad constitute the population of about seven African countries, adding that it is not surprising considering the country’s population.

    Aderanti however said Nigerians in Diaspora could be potential development tools for the country. He said the remittances of Nigerians abroad is about $25 billion yearly, adding that it overtook direct foreign investment and was second to oil revenue.

    “An average African who migrates ultimately wishes to return home but returning home depends on the situation at home. Some Africans in Diaspora want to come back home but the circumstances at home in many countries are not encouraging,” he said.

    Aderanti called on the Federal Government to make migration a win-win-win situation for the migrants, the origin and destination countries through policies to attract remittance flows such as tax holidays.

    He also called for policies to woo Diaspora engagements like establishing a Diaspora Commission and reviewing bilateral migration agreements with destination countries in favour of Nigeria.

    Aderanti commended Nigeria for being the first country in Africa to adopt a National Policy on Migration.

    A representative of the UN Resident Coordinator, Jean Gough, commended the Federal Government for adopting the National Policy on Migration.

    Gough said Nigeria was a major country of origin, transit and destination within West African sub-region and globally.

    She said having a legal framework for the governance of migration was an important step and a major achievement in managing the multi-faceted challenges of migration and taking hold of the opportunities.

  • UNILAG Alumni offer students employment tips

    TO address unemployment among youths, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Alumni Association has organised a seminar for the 2015 set of thegroup.

    The workshop, which  held at the school’s Multipurpose Hall, was also aimed at educating the outgoing set on the reality of the labour market.

    The event had as theme: ‘Workplace readiness and employability’.

    At the maiden edition, Mr. Olufemi Awoyemi, who spoke on ‘personal branding for employability’, explained that graduates were faced with unemployment and the competition of young professionals that were laid off or returning from the Diaspora also  citizens of other countries competing for the same job and entrepreneurship openings.

    This, he said, had created a paradigm shift from the graduates programmes to postgraduate degrees as a benchmark for employment.

    He said many youths were investing time and resources in post-graduate education but still fall behind in the knowledge of personal branding.

    He explained that branding of oneself had gone beyond seeking employment or apprenticeship; rather one’s total personality would be weighed against expectations of the present and the future.

    Awoyemi, who is Chief Executive Officer, Proshare Nigeria Limited, also warned the students to be cautious of what they post on social media as it would be a criterion for assessing their employability skills.

    “Employers or recruitment agencies will take your name and search your footprints on social media that is the first place to vet your personal brand in today’s world. for those who are eager to respond to their first stimuli, to type what comes to your head immediately, to post that sassy meme or to spit out in anger, opens your employability in ways you hardly imagined.”

    He pointed out that students could take advantage of an additional global language which is an essential criterion for multinational companies.

    He advised the students to desist from blaming parents or schools for poor academic training but rather seize opportunities to advance their knowledge. National  Social  Secretary, UNILAG Alumni, Mr Akin Akinteye, said the event was organised to enlighten the 2015set about the labour market, which would prevent them from the challenges outside school as well as  reviewing the cause of unemployment in the country.

     

     

     

  • How NEPC, SURE-P, OPS boost employment

    A tripartite partnership with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) and the organised private sector has helped alleviate the unemployment crisis in the country in no small measure, reports Assistant Editor, Nduka Chiejina

    The Nigerian Export Promotion Council in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance recently organised a stakeholders’ interactive forum on Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), with the theme: ‘Integrating GIS in Non-oil Export Development.’

    The forum was organised to sensitise export sector stakeholders on the benefits of participating in the SURE-P Graduate Internship Scheme.

    The forum was conceived to mobilise export-oriented firms to participate in the GIS as a means of building capacity of interns to be engaged in setting up and managing export-oriented businesses; open up opportunities for job creation in the non-oil sector, especially export business; sensitise stakeholders on the NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP); revitalise the non-oil sector of the economy towards increasing its contribution to GDP growth and provide greater non-oil export job opportunities, focusing on youths as the bedrock of a sustainable national economic development and ensure that the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) scheme, as a fiscal tool, is also used for implementing government economic policies aimed at ensuring capacity building and creating enabling environment for employment generation.

    The speakers were happy with the idea of the partnership between the Nigeria Export Promotion Council and the Federal Ministry of Finance’ Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) and they viewed the integration of internship into the export business as a platform for producing future managers and professionals for the non oil export sector.

    The resolutions reached by the participants commended the federal government for introducing SURE-P and especially the Graduate Internship Scheme, which was viewed as an important intervention in the life of unemployed graduates.

    YEESAP was also commended as a well-thought out project and participants agreed that the interns should be trained on export skills before being deployed to the organisations in order to enable them contribute meaningfully to the participating organisations.

    Challenges

    It has been alleged that some firms and interns were engaged under fraudulent circumstances, with several cases cited in Ondo and Osun states. These cases have been investigated and culprits – both firms and interns – were said to be expunged from the scheme. Monitoring has also been strengthened in all states. In order to address the problem of delayed uptake of graduates by firms, internship firms have been identified and organised in all states to facilitate swift selection/matching and documentation of graduates.

    The Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo, expressed happiness with the partnership formed between NEPC and the GIS.

    In his words, the NEPC boss stated that: “this is a clear effort at encouraging government to government partnership and by extension public private partnership (PPP) as well.

    “The NEPC-GIS partnership is an attempt by our two organisations to work together towards discharging our statutory responsibilities as well as achieving some of the targets set out by federal government in the Transformation Agenda in the areas of reducing unemployment, skills acquisition, capacity building and creating pool of trained graduates, capable of adding value to participating employers.”

    Speaking in similar tones, the Project Director, GIS, Mr. Peter Papka, stated that “Graduate Internship Scheme, which is one of the interventions of SURE-P, is a platform that provides young graduates with a one-year temporary work experience to make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market as well as boosting their chances of being self employed.”

    According to Papka, “among the objectives of the scheme is the resolve to enhance the employability of at least 50,000 unemployed graduates in the 36 states of the federation and in the FCT by improving their skills through work placement.”

    He emphasised that the “graduate internship scheme is providing a platform for the reduction of vulnerability among unemployed Nigerian graduates. Internship from our experience provides soft landing for many such graduates in finding direction for their lives either through jobs or entrepreneurship. It is our hope that this scheme will be sustained as a veritable bridge between school and the job market, so that Nigerian graduates would disrobe the toga of despondence on completion of national service.”

    Mr. Peter Papka noted that different partnering firms around the country indicated that many graduates were willing to excel, while utilising the GIS to do so. The firms, he added, were also utilising the scheme to determine prospective candidates for their employment, without having to search wide.

    To engender more interest in the GIS/NEPC partnership, Papka said government was planning to “review conditions of service for the interns, especially by increasing their monthly stipend and provision of insurance cover has also endeared serving interns to work harder, and other graduates to register; while also stirring interest of more firms/organisations or firms have come to appreciate not just the benefits derivable, but the national implication of their participation, that is why they play their roles by opening their doors to mentor these graduates for 12 months. We have partners among multinational corporations, financial institutions and SMEs, NGOs and government institutions.”

    Special partners

    Partnership has been established with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to integrate GIS into the export trade with a view to encourage and train graduates to key in and participate in government’s divestment into the non-oil sector. The objective of NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP) is to train 500 graduates on export trade, while the outcome expected is that they will be export-ready after internship. YEESAP has been established to achieve this and over 3000 graduates are to be engaged at the first instance.

    Emerging trends

    There are already several lessons emerging from the GIS which are reaffirming the objectives of its establishment and others which would guide future direction of the educational curricula.  One of the key results emerging from the scheme is the high rate of retention of interns by their employers. Many interns have also found employment with other organisations as a result of the skills they have acquired and improved personality they have developed during internship.

    Besides, GIS is gradually emerging as the bridge between educational institutions and the labour market, providing a pool of skilled, trained, experienced and work ready graduates for firms to select without having to go through a formal, costly process of recruitment.

    To analysts, there is need to take a look at school curricula at all levels and introduce mandatory courses of entrepreneurship, thus preparing school leavers at all levels with a capacity to start and run their own businesses and not seeking employment.

    This is even as more Nigerians are calling for the institutionalisation of the scheme beyond 2015, so that results are sustained and expanded to cater for more graduates and firms. There are also calls for academic reviews of the opportunities that GIS can create for national development in the execution of its mandate.

    Registered graduates who may never benefit from matching to firms are being targeted for an online employability training in order to avail them an opportunity to develop skills through online modules, which are to be developed, in collaboration with and certificated by sector professional bodies.

    Nigerians are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of internship in the life of graduates, especially those that are unemployed, in terms of the value they can add during this waiting period as well as the benefits and skills they will develop. Katsina has shown more appreciation to GIS and commitment by establishing its own version of GIS, deploying 600 graduates for a year and paying them N30,000, just like GIS.

    There is a clear need for synergy between all tiers of government in a programme like this for optimisation of benefits and for greater impact. States and local governments are therefore urged to key into such initiative as demonstrated by Katsina State.

    The prospect for this graduate internship is huge. However, there is need for improvement in business environment for the private sectors, who invariably are the greater employers of labour.

    Young graduates are becoming more interested in setting up cooperatives to raise capital and build partnerships, and are thinking more of building their own businesses rather than rely on white collar jobs.

  • Jonathan vows to end oil sector corruption next four years

    Jonathan vows to end oil sector corruption next four years

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday night vowed to sanitize and end corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector in the next four years if re-elected for second term in office.

    He made the promise at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos during interactive session with young professionals in Nigeria and abroad.

    The youth event was tagged “An unimaginable feat in sports” and showcased President Jonathan’s achievements in the sports sector.

    Among those who attended the event, which ended in the early hours of Monday, are young professionals, sports men and women, and beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s scholarship programmes.

    The President said that his administration has succeeded in using technology to reduce corruption in many areas including fertilizer distribution and procurement, contract inflation, and salary payment.

    According to him, he will do the same in the oil industry.

    He said, “We are going into oil sector. People talk about the oil industry because that is an industry with a lot of people and a lot of money is involved.”

    “But I promise you that in the next four years, we will sanitise the oil sector.” He added

    The President also promised to end the stigmatisation of Nigerians in the international community as a result of corruption.

    He pointed out that the issue of corruption is being over-celebrated in a way that shows that the whole country is corrupt.

    He harped on the need for all Nigerians to work together to end the stigmatisation of Nigerians.

    The President also promise to work with the young people because of his conviction that parents who do not encourage young ones are preparing their families for extinction.

    To this end, he said that he will give more youths under the age of 40 years more opportunities to serve as ministers and heads of government parastatals if reelected.

    He noted that the former Minister of State II, Foreign Affairs, Nuhu Mohammed, before going to contest as deputy governor in Jigawa State, was a minister appointed below 40 years of age.

    On Mohammed’s replacement, he said: “Last week, we swore in the youngest female minister. She is also about 40 years old.”

    “Apart from cabinet positions for under 40s, we are also appointing young people as heads of parastatals.”

    “We want to continue to encourage those in youth-dominated sectors such as business, sports and entertainment industries too.”

    “I can assure you that we shall not go below what we are currently doing. I know you want more, vote for us and you will get it,” he said

    He said that the poverty rate in the country is 33.1 percent and not the over 60 percent that was reported.

    But he pointed out that the issue is not about the percentage but about the commitment of his government to impact more on the lives of the people.

  • ‘Traffic bill will create employment in Akwa Ibom’

    ‘Traffic bill will create employment in Akwa Ibom’

    The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Transport, Prince Godwin Ntuk Udeh, has won National Assembly award as outstanding commissioner. In this interview with Kazeem Ibrahym,  Udeh explains the motive behind the award and how the state won the war against illegal parks.

    You joined the Akpabio’s cabinet about a year ago and today you have been honoured as the most outstanding commissioner by the House of Representatives Committee on Inter- governmental Affairs. How did you achieve that?

    I must first dedicate this award to God and my church leader of Heaven Light Assembly who is incidentally a prophet in my life, whose prayers have lifted me in life. His intercessory prayers have prompted me to do the unusual and uncommon things I have done. I will not forget to dedicate this award to my dear Governor Chief Godswill Akpabio for the opportunity given to me out of his conviction on my abilities to serve the state well. When I came on board his executive council, people taunted me that I have been posted to the wilderness (Ministry of Transport) where I will achieve nothing but the governor knew my capabilities, he sent me here because he was optimistic I will deliver on the mandate he handed over to me and for his confidence and love for me I dedicate the Award to him.

    What is the traffic bill before Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly seeks to achieve?

    The bill when passed into law will first offer employment to our teaming youths as traffic managers stationed at strategic locations to manage traffic and ensure compliance to all the reforms the new traffic system will offer, the bill will provide legal backings to the reforms and people will be officially designated as traffic managers. They will ensure complete sanity on our roads in partnership with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) since we cannot do it alone. So their job will complement the FRSC but our outfit will go beyond the capital city of Uyo to other areas of the state with considerable vehicular movements. The traffic officers who will be well trained are expected to ensure total sanity on our roads.

    Your predecessor tried to solve the problems of illegal parks and terrible loading and offloading by commercial vehicles along the road but failed, how do you tackle this menace?

    First you should be aware that no two persons are the same. For instance, Governor Godswill Akpabio is not the first Governor of Akwa Ibom but his administration is tagged uncommon because he is able to do unusual things. He has made the impossible become possible even within a time frame. This is one government that initiates projects of big magnitude and accomplish it within a targeted time frame. So as people who have understudied him and strongly believe in his ideology coupled with the fact that we have tapped into his spirit, we have to bring in those virtues that brought about his lofty achievements into activities. We as a team here drew up a template with genuine commitment moved into the scene regardless of threats to our lives and with total believe in God we moved against touts and illegal parks that dotted around the capital city and unlike the usual attempt of chasing them with security personnel, we went with full dialogue and preaching and perhaps the voice of God prevailed against forceful ejection and they complied. Some of them afterwards could not come to terms on how they complied with our directives this time but the important thing is that they have moved to designated parks. Today our designated parks are now booming and have offered employment to many while a lot of people’s enterprises have been rejuvenated. Several empty shops in the parks built with public funds are now filled and generating revenue while other little business thrives.

    Now people who are traveling know where to go to get vehicles and don’t stand on the road anymore for touts and thieves to waylay them. We have done biometric capturing on all the tricycle’s operators in the city in such a way that when there is any problem they can be traced and we have given the routes for them to drive and areas to avoid. We have made it possible for tricycle drivers to access every part of the city.

    One of the major problems that nearly kick start unrest in the state was complaints by tricycle operators of exploitation by government, how do you navigate through the problem?

    In this case I must commend the governor for his generosity and intervention. Upon the relocation to the parks, operators who commended our actions which brought sanity lamented that they are carrying burden of higher tariffs. We upon investigation, we discovered that an average tricycle man pays about N250 per local government and you know that the Uyo capital city have about four local government areas sharing boundaries and they pay about N1,000 daily. We pleaded for the council’s consideration of their plight but they remained adamant and we suspended the charges for seven months to study the situation and come up with acceptable tariff. We worked with tricycle operators and settled for N400.

     

     

  • NSCDC parades man over N95m employment scam

    NSCDC parades man over N95m employment scam

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) paraded yesterday a suspected job racketeer kingpin for allegedly defrauding  job seekers of N955 million.

    NSCDC spokesman Emmanuel Okeh, who briefed reporters said: “Michael Ogun (44)  was arrested at his home in new Nyanyan, Abuja, where he allegedly perpetrated his nefarious activities.

    “The suspect opened a Facebook account in the name of the NSCDC commandant general asking applicants to pay for recruitment.

    “He has defrauded  applicants seeking for employment into the Corps, Customs, Immigration and other services of N403, 624, 992.”

    “Other fraudulent financial transactions  amount to $950, 000 and other transaction involving money laundering  amount to N552, 371, 901.50”

    “Therefore, from different fraudulent accounts, N955, 996, 893.50 was said to have passed through his bank accounts.”

    According to Okeh, the suspect printed fake employment letters of various agencies, including the Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service and Customs and issued same to his victims by urging them to report for documentation.

    These job applicants  were posted to Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

    He said Ogun will be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    The NSCDC warned the public that the Commandant General, Dr. Ade Abolurin, nor the Corps has any Facebook account for recruitment.

    But Ogun denied the allegation.

    He said:“I’m completely demoralised; I did not do those things.

    “All these things that were said about me, I am surprised to hear them.

    “There is someone behind this; I want the person to come forward.

    “ It is a set-up, the person who set me up is an NSCDC official.

    “The laptop taken from my house,belongs to my managing director.”

  • Uduaghan gives tips on employment

    To address graduate unemployment, Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is advocating the inclusion of business studies in the curricula of tertiary institutions.

    Uduaghan, who spoke at the maiden convocation of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro , stressed that the curriculums of tertiary institutions should be tailored towards producing graduates that would be self-employed.

    He said graduate unemployment posed a big challenge that the government at the various levels cannot solve.  He therefore urged that governments should fashion out programmes and policies aimed at producing graduates that would be self reliant.

    In Delat State, he said the “Delta beyond Oil” project “is geared towards how we can engage some of these youths as they come out, in this development programme.”

    “We believe in self-employment. The challenge is how do we get you to become self-employed?  There is the challenge of educating you not just in your specialty, but also how to manage the business and of course there is also the area of funding if you have to be self employed,” he added.

    He noted that self-employment programmes and initiatives were incomplete without sound knowledge of business management skills.

    Meanwhile, the governor praised the rector of the institution Dr Jacob Oboreh, for deploying the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the school to develop about 30 infrastructural projects within two years.

    Uduaghan said the feat achieved by Oboreh has reaffirmed his belief that management of higher institutions should be allowed to manage their IGR without remittance to the state government.

    Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Hope Eghagha, called on institutions of higher learning in the state to key into the Delta beyond Oil programme to produce graduates that would be self- reliant.

    Eghagaha praised lecturers of the polytechnic for not joining the strike by their counterparts across the country.