The Nation Newspaper

Tag: infrastructural decay

  • NUT threatens strike over arrears, infrastructural decay

    NUT threatens strike over arrears, infrastructural decay

    • Lists 12 debtor-states

    The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has threatened to embark on a nationwide strike over salary arrears owed by state governors.

    It also said teachers will down tools if infrastructure in public schools does not improve.

    NUT’s National President, Michael Olukoya, stated these in Abuja at the solemn assembly organised by the union.

    He said the union has directed branch chairmen to take stock of states owing salaries and monitor the level of infrastructural development in public schools.

    Olukoya said the union would take action after the state chairmen present their situation reports.

    He expressed displeasure over continued non-payment of salaries and allowances of primary and secondary school teachers in several states across the country.

    States owing salary arrears, according to Olukoya, include Abia, Bayelsa, Benue, Ekiti, Kwara, Ondo, Taraba, Delta, Kaduna, Osun, Nasarawa, Oyo and Kogi.

    “Our appeal to all these states is that they should pay or begin to see the wrath of the Nigerian teachers.

    “We call on the affected state governments to clear the salary arrears and ensure regular payment of the salaries of teachers without further delay.”

    Olukoya said the union would not allow its members in Benue to join the upcoming industrial action because of the current security crisis in the state.

    He said: “They will not join the nationwide strike until their case is debated at the national level.”

    The NUT president also condemned the recent sack of over 21,000 primary school teachers by Kaduna State government.

    He said the sack was done without recourse to the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), an agency mandated to regulate and control teaching profession in the country.

    Olukoya said: “We hereby express our dismay over this show of impunity and lack of respect for the rule of law.

    “We call on the government of Kaduna State to rescind its decision and seek closer ties with relevant bodies and stakeholders and work towards amicable resolution of the issues.”

     

  • SON, ISO 700 set to tackle infrastructural decay

    The Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Anthony Aboloma yesterday said in partnership with the International Standard Organisation (ISO 700), which is high in all areas of infrastructure will help in upgrading Nigerian’s urbanisation standards.

    Aboloma spoke  during the world standard day in Abuja, with: Standard Makes Cities Smarter assuring that they are working in partnership with ISO in developing a standard called ISO 700, bringing to fore the establishment of smart cities in Nigeria.

    He said: “That is what we want to deploy in Nigeria, when we do that, our cities will be smarter and things will work, this is a programme we run with all other countries of the world, this will be a welcome development for Nigeria to improve the standard of the city through quality infrastructure.

    “Usually the world standard day is celebrated every October 14, this year it is for us to look for ways to deploy standards to make our cities smart. From statistics we are aware that an average of 20,000 people move into the cities every year, for us to be able to cope with the problems of migration and urbanisation, we have to make our cities smarter, more efficient to accommodate the people coming in to the cities.”

    The Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar said ISO, International Electro technical Commission (IEC), and the International Telecommunications Union, (ITU) are the major standards bodies.

     

     

    This annual event goes with various activities to bring home the message of standardisation across different sectors of economies around the world. “SON is our key representative in international standard forum. The platform today is to discuss how standards can make our cities smarter,” she said.

    The minister said the critical issue of making our cities and building smarter is from conceptualisation through design and construction, that provides for safety, access , good ventilation aesthetics are some of the issues that the theme of this years, s world standards day is calling our attention to.

     

  • How army is addressing infrastructural decay in barracks, by Buratai

    How army is addressing infrastructural decay in barracks, by Buratai

    The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has said the Nigerian Army headquarters had adopted holistic approach in addressing the infrastructural decay in its barracks and other institutions across the country.

    Gen. Buratai spoke at the weekend  in an interview with reporters shortly after inaugurating two newly built blocks of hostels for students of the Nigerian Army School of Artillery in Kachia, Kaduna State.

    He said the infrastructure gap in the barracks were such that required consistent intervention over a period of time for the situation to be improved.

    Buratai said the present Army command under his watch had embarked on massive renovation of existing structures as well as the construction of new buildings to ameliorate the situation in the barracks.

    He said a number of dilapidated structures in barracks spread across the country had been renovated while many others had been earmarked for rehabilitation as soon as possible.

    Gen. Buratai said the situation transcended barracks accommodation, adding that other challenges included lack of access roads, poor water supply as well as poor electricity supply.

    According Buratai, the situation will require gradual approach according to available resources.

    “You can see that these two blocks of hostel accommodation commissioned today will go a long way to meet the needs of the students of this institution.

    “The requirement is huge nationwide and that is why we have adopted a holistic approach; here in Kachia, renovation of other dilapidated buildings will commence immediately.

    “We just commissioned some blocks for soldiers in Jaji yesterday and in the past two to three months we have renovated and constructed new blocks for soldiers and officers’ accommodation in different barracks across the country.

    “We have intervened in barracks in Jos, Lagos, Bauchi, Taraba, Maiduguri, Enugu, Minna and some other states, and work in many other barracks will commence soon, ’’ he said.

    Gen. Buratai said the military high command was extending the same attention it had given to infrastructural development to equipment upgrade and manpower development.

     

  • Group decries infrastructural decay

    The high level of infrastructural decay in the country has been attributed to lack of budgetary provision for the maintenance of the existing infrastructure, a facility management expert has said.

    The Programme Director, International Facility Management Association (IFMA), Abuja Chapter, Mr. Collins Osayamwen spoke during this year’s World Facility Management Day, with the theme: ‘Building Resilience for The Future’.

    According to him, the only kind of maintenance Nigeria understands was breakdown maintenance, which he said, was due to lack of proper planning and budgetary provision.

    Osayamwen argued that, “I intend to a little bit disagree that Nigerians lack a maintenance culture. The reason we are unable to maintain our infrastructure, not even from government alone but even through private sector participation, is that from the word go, we get it all wrong.”

    He pointed out that the inability of the engineers, builders, architects who build to work together with facility managers who maintain, has contributed immensely to infrastructural decay in the country.

    Osayamwen said: “The kind of maintenance we know in Nigeria is breakdown maintenance; until it fails you don’t care whether it needs servicing or not.

    “Unfortunately, we don’t have any budgetary provision to ensure that these facilities are managed and maintained. What we now do is to run from pillar to post when we have a crisis in our hands. Until we are able to give it its rightful place, we will continue to see this level of decay in our infrastructure.”

    The Programme Director lamented that though facility management was yet to be recognised as a profession, he said the organisation was making frantic efforts to ensure that the body is recognised by law.

    Meanwhile, a Senator-elect on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and an erstwhile President of IFMA, said he would ensure he and his colleagues work out a bill that would legalise facility management, adding that they have been trying to achieve that over the years. He further said legalising the body was one of his priorities as a Senator.

    He revealed that the mutual suspicion among engineers, architects, facility managers and surveyors would be adequately taken care of when the bill is put in place.

    On her part, Deputy Director, Abuja Metropolitan Management Company, Mrs. Perpetual Ohammah stressed the need for a strong legislation that would ensure that facility managers are carried along when a project is being embarked on to be put in place.