The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ministry

  • Ministry workers protest salaries’delay

    Ministry workers protest salaries’delay

    Workers of the Ministry of Science and Technology have protested poor welfare and non-payment of salaries to the newly employed junior workers in Abuja.

    Making their demand, Mr Shehu Yahaya, the chapter’s Chairman of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, said the way the management handled staff welfare was not encouraging.

    Yahaya said one of the grievances of the workers was that the ministry failed to carry the workers along while taking decisions about their welfare.

    “We are not saying the welfare must be sharing of money all the time, but there are many ways to tackle the welfare issues.

    “We have been agitating that whenever the issue of welfare will be discussed, we should be carried along, but such thing is not happening here.

    “The ministry must carry us along when deciding on our welfare,” Yahaya said.

    The union also protested the non-payment of about 105 junior workers, recruited and trained by the ministry.

    One of the junior staff members in Technical Department, who pleaded anonymity, told reporters that the ministry had stopped paying his salary since January.

    “I wrote an application letter and the ministry offered me an appointment.

    “I was paid for six months last year, but when the ministry employed another batch of junior workers, the payment was stopped in January.

    “The excuse was that no waiver was given for the appointment. I don’t know anything about waiver; my own is that I sought for job and I was given an appointment letter.

    The officer also complained that on October 10, the Human Resources Department introduced a verification exercise, where the new employees’ original appointment letters were collected from them.

    “We were pleading that they should return our appointment letters, but they refused and we heard that the waiver they were talking about is already out for 120 people,” he added.

    Some of the workers complained that they had been living on borrowing while two of their colleagues had died due to the lack of fund to take care of themselves.

    The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa, who addressed the protesters, linked the poor welfare to low budgetary allocation to the ministry.

    “When you look at the budget frame you discover that the ministry has a limit in its operation and because of that you will bear with us as we drive the system,’’ Ewa said.

    He promised that whatever was given to the ministry would be released to run the ministry.

    Also speaking, Mrs Rabi Jimeta, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, said the workers were aware that the junior ones were employed without waiver.

    Jimeta said the ministry had taken necessary steps to correct the wrongs and assist the people involved.

    “My clear directive on that is that anybody that had been previously employed with the coming of this waiver should be retained.

    “But it is on the condition that he has got the pre-requisite qualifications for that post he is occupying.

    “The qualifications are clearly stated in the scheme of service. If you have those qualifications you don’t have problem, but if you don’t have those qualifications, there is no way we can assist,” Jimeta said.

     

     

     

  • Ministry partners media on science reporting

    To be in the league of industrialised nations and attain the expected national development, the Ministry of Science and Technology is seeking collaboration with the media on science and technology reporting.

    This was the submission of experts at a workshop organised by the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), in Lagos over the weekend.

    The partnership, if effectively harnessed, is expected to sensitise stakeholders on the processes for technology identification, assessment, acquisition, adaptation, transfer and documentation.

    Tagged: ‘Science and Technology Reporting’, the workshop was chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Hajiya Jimeta, who was represented by the Director-General, Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Oshodi, Gloria Elemo said Nigeria may be far from attaining rapid development until the necessary technological infrastructures needed for growth were put in place.

    In his remarks, the Director General/Chief Executive Officer of NOTAP, Umar Bindir identified weak industrialisation strategy, weak standards and enforcement, no industry venture capital, technology support/risk funds, weak IT/commercialisation strategy among others as major challenges confronting science and technology in the country.

     

     

     

  • Governors, N’Assembly, ministry to meet on borrowing plans

    Governors, N’Assembly, ministry to meet on borrowing plans

    The Nigeria Governors` Forum will meet with Finance Ministry and National Assembly over the revised proposed pipeline projects under the Medium Term External Borrowing Plans of 2012 to 2014.

    This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the forum’s meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.

    The communiqué, read by Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers, said the decision was to enable the forum deliberate further with the ministry and the legislature.

    The forum, which comprised the 36 elected governors, also carried out an end of year review of its polio eradication initiative across the states of the federation.

    It noted changes in the demography of incidences and resolved that states should put necessary incentives to motivate vaccinators for better performance and better information sharing mechanism of good practices across states.

    The forum emphasised the centrality of routine immunisation as a sustainable means of eradicating polio in the country.

    It also stressed the need to engage stakeholders from local communities in the campaign against the dreaded virus.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, and some state Commissioners for Finance had defended their request for external loan of 7.9 billion dollars before the senate.

    The loan, named Medium-Term External Borrowing Plan (Revised), which spans from 2012 to 2014, is expected to be used for the execution of specific developmental projects.

    President Goodluck Jonathan had recently sent a letter to the senate, seeking its approval to borrow 7.9 billion dollars for the 2012-2014 pipeline projects.

    Most of the governors, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, described it as “fruitful” and a way to clear some issues associated with the Medium-Term External Borrowing Plan.

    Governor Peter Obi of Anambra, who spoke with journalists at the end of the meeting, said that borrowing for development purposes was right.

    He added that it is wrong when borrowing was undertaken for consumption.

     

  • Ministry, SSS partner on distribution of free textbooks

    In a bid to check diversion and fraud in the distribution chain by the Federal Government/Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the Federal Ministry of Education yesterday entered into a working partnership with the State Security Service (SSS) on the distribution of instructional materials to primary and secondary schools across the country.

    Under the partnership, the operatives of the SSS in the 36 state commands and Abuja will participate in the distribution of free textbooks meant for the 774 local governments.

    Speaking at the headquarters of the SSS in Abuja during a visit to the Director-General of the SSS, Mr. Ekpeyong Ita, the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, said the direct involvement of the security agency at the highest level became necessary because of the illegal actions of the officials of the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB). They were found to have allegedly diverted the books meant for the less privileged children.

    He hailed the SSS for its success in Niger State where three SUBEB officials are being prosecuted for diverting books meant for the state.

    Wike said the partnership was aimed at ensuring that those involved in trying to sabotage the process were fished out and prosecuted to act as a deterrent to other potential criminals in the textbook distribution chain.

    He said: “We seek your partnership to help the Federal Government actualise the goal for basic education and the distribution of books. We urge you to help us check the leakages and sabotage in the distribution chain. We have come here to give the list of the distribution of textbooks and library resource materials to the states for the next phase to begin in November to ensure that the books get to the end users.”

    The Director-General of the SSS, Ekpeyong Ita, assured the minister that the security agency will work towards ensuring that the books distributed by the Federal Government get to the end users.

    He said the SSS would work with the Federal Ministry of Education to monitor the distribution of the textbooks and library resource materials to the local governments through the state governments.

    Ita noted that there is a reason to sanitise the distribution channel to avoid a situation where saboteurs deny Nigerian children access to the textbooks.

    Highlight of the meeting was the handing over of the list containing the distribution chain for the next phase of the distribution of books to the Director-General of the SSS by the Minister of State for Education.

  • Ministry of Trade invests in Finima women

    IN a bid to promote development and growth in the riverine area of Rivers State, the Ministry of Trade and Investment has set up a bread-making factory for members of the Finima Women Association (FIWA).

    The bakery which has the capacity of churning out over 380 loaves of bread was commissioned by Dr. Olusegun Aganga. It is the first automated bread factory in the oil and gas dominated environment and has provided jobs for at least fifty workers.

    FIWA bakery, according to the body’s president, Dr. (Mrs), Ibimina Victor-Akan, is aimed at “improving the general wellbeing of the members of the community, especially those from the Brown, Tobin and Attoni Houses, who are the three main founders of Finima community.”

    FIWA was formed on the 27th of September 1997, with the aim of affording the women a common platform to harness their hidden talents to foster sustainable development in Finima Community. The bakery will also undertake other brands of snacks[p when fully operational.

  • ACN berates Kwara over burglars’ invasion of Finance Ministry

    •PDP accuses ACN of circulating ‘fake documents’

    The Kwara State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said the reported invasion of the Ministry of Finance by burglars was not ordinary.

    But the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the opposition of circulating “fake documents” on the Abdulfatah Ahmed administration to deceive the public.

    The government had said the incident was a robbery and that it was being investigated.

    A statement in Ilorin, the state capital, by PDP Director of Publicity, Alhaji Mas’ud Adebimpe, said the opposition was painting the PDP “in bad light” with the documents.

    But ACN maintained its position on the burglary at the Finance Ministry, that it was more than a robbery. It also raised some questions for the public to ponder.

    In a statement in Ilorin, ACN Chairman Kayode Olawepo said the incident was a conspiracy to cover up some alleged underhand deals.

    The statement reads: “These are some of the questions begging for answers, although the handwriting on the wall is clear enough for an average person to sense a cover-up and conspiracy of sort. This incident adds to the long list of suspicious actions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration which ultimately explain why it would do everything to remain in power so that the people will never know the truth.

    “But the truth can never be buried. The timing of the burglary, the place of the burglary (the Ministry of Finance, of all places) and the fact that sensitive documents were carted away, leave no one in doubt that the incident was no ordinary armed robbery.

    “Quite a number of disturbing news have been emanating from Kwara State in the past few months, all bordering on corruption, mismanagement, deceit and grand conspiracies to keep the people perpetually groping in the dark for a brighter future.

    “On September 17, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular banning all commercial banks from lending further credits to Kwara State Government, among other debtors said to be owing the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).

    “That incident confirmed the fears of our people about the profligacy and corruption of the PDP-led administration in the state. Many patriotic citizens have called for a probe of the embarrassing blacklisting. But the PDP government does not seem to be tired of its shameful conducts, as the story in Sahara Reporters on the burglary at the Ministry of Finance indicated.

    “As scary as this incident was, even scarier is the fact that the Kwara State Government has carried on as if nothing ever happened! We understand the civil servants have been directed not to mention it to anyone. Clearly, many things are not right here and many questions are begging for answers.

    “Was the September 21 failed attempt at breaking into the ministry reported to the security agencies? If yes, why was there no security beef up at the place, in view of the sensitive nature of the ministry?

    “Why has the state government kept a sealed lip about this terrible incident, given the dangerous signals it sends to the public? These signals include that nobody is safe, if burglars can, at will, break into guarded property of the government.

    “This burglary came at a time anti-graft agencies are vetting the books of the former administration on its handling of the controversial local government allocations/joint accounts/State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) funds.

    “We understand that the governor’s spokesman Femi Akorede said on twitter that it was an armed robbery case and is being investigated. If so, what would armed robbers do with documents, including carting away the e-back-up of financial transactions between 2003 till date? And, finally, why did the police command not respond to the distress call by the injured guardsman?”