The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Suswam

  • Suswam begs Aliyu to return to PDP

    Suswam begs Aliyu to return to PDP

    Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam has begged his Niger State counterpart, Babangida Aliyu, to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Suswam said it is out of place for someone to abandon a house he built, “leaving your family where there is trouble”.

    The governor said it is better to “stay back and tackle the trouble; Governor Aliyu should come back and tackle the problem” in the PDP.

    Suswam spoke at the Government House in Makurdi, the state capital, when he hosted the North Central Executives of the party, led by its chairman, Yusuf Tyongo.

    The governor was optimist that Aliyu, the chairman of the Northern States’ Governors’ Forum (NSGF), would soon return to “where he rightly belongs, because there is nothing like a new PDP”.

    He said in the PDP in Benue State was one big family, though he admitted that some aggrieved members had left the party.

    According to him, a process was being put in place to bring them back into the fold.

    Suswam, who donated an 18-seater bus to the party, said the PDP was solidly on the ground in the state.

    The governor referred to the last general elections, in which the party won two senatorial seats, and the majority seats in the House Assembly and House of Representatives.

    He urged the party’s zonal Exco to be loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    Ityongo hailed Suswam for his achievements and advised party members to remain united.

  • Suswam’s presence stalls opening of nPDP office in Benue

    The presence of Governor Gabriel Suswam stopped the opening of a new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) office in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, on Wednesday.

    The Nation gathered that shortly after the formation of the new party by the Kawu Baraje -led faction last month, some aggrieved members of the party in the state had begun plans to open the nPDP office in the state capital.

    A member of the National Assembly who is nursing ambition to succeed Suswam as governor in 2015 is believed to be behind the moves.

    He allegedly sponsored sprinter group to create a new party in Benue and was waiting for Suswam to travel out of the state before hatching his plans on the nPDP office.

    The Chairman of the Benue State chapter of the party, Dr. Emmanuel Agbo, told our correspondent in an interview that there is only one PDP in the state.

    Dr. Agbo, who is the chairman of Conference of PDP chairmen said what, happened in Abuja was a family affairs that would soon be settled.

     

  • ASUU berates Okoh for comment on strike

    ASUU berates Okoh for comment on strike

    •BSU lecturers call Suswam’s bluff

     

    The Academic Staff of Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday berated the former Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Rev. Nicholas Okoh, on his call that the national body of the union be disbanded.

    It described the cleric’s call as “ungodly and unholy”.

    ASUU said such utterances were least expected from “a religious leader who is supposed to integrate warring factions and not aggravate conflict”.

    In a statement by the Chairman of the University of Ibadan (UI) chapter of the union, Dr Olusegun Ajiboye, titled: Primate Okoh Goofed, ASUU ‘said it was surprised at the compromising comment credited to the Bishop.

    Dr Ajiboye said Okoh demonstrated the greatest ignorance about the union’s numerous achievements.

    The union leader averred that Nigerian universities would have totally collapsed without the constant agitation of the union.

    Okoh spoke last Thursday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, during the Standing Committee’s meeting of the Bishops’ Conference of the church.

    He said: “The government should find a way either to privatise the universities or get ASUU to be limited to individual universities such that there will be no national ASUU body mandating, even institutions without grievances, to go on strike…”

    But Dr Ajiboye said: “As a revered man of God, it is expected that he should guard his mouth and not allow his mouth to run diarrhoea on issues as important as education, which concerns the teeming youths of our country. Primate Okoh should stop playing politics with ASUU. He should face squarely the work of his ministry and get busy with it, if he cannot be part of the solution to the logjam created by the Nigerian government in the education sector.”

    The Chairman of the Benue State University (BSU) branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Mr. David Ikoni, has said threat by Governor Gabriel Suswam not to pay the striking lecturers of the institution is a propaganda.

    Ikoni told reporters on phone yesterday in Makurdi, the state capital, that there was a huge lack of amenities in the university.

    He decried the lack of attention by the Suswam administration for the university.

    The ASUU chairman warned that if the governor implements his threat, the university teachers would begin a “no pay, no work” strike.

    He said the university’s lecturers cannot call off the strike without a directive from ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC).

    Ikoni said: “This will not be the first time that the government would stop paying lecturers because of a strike.

     

     

     

     

  • ASUU warns Suswam over utterances

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam to be mindful of his utterances on the strike.

    Suswam, when hosting the National Union of Benue State Students last week, said the ASUU strike was becoming politised, adding that it was no longer an agitation for the improvement of the lecturers’ welfare.

    But ASUU denied any political connection to its strike, saying there was nothing political in asking for the full implementation of a four-year-old agreement.

    The union said if at all, it was the Federal Government through its propaganda machinery that was politicising the issue by refusing to implement the agreement it signed with the union.

    A statement by the ASUU Chairman, University of Ibadan chapter, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, made available to reporters, urged Governor Suswam to guard his utterances and limit his comments to the mandate given him by the Federal Government.

    Ajiboye quoted Suswam as saying: “ASUU has no business continuing with this strike because the Federal Government has met its demands. There is nothing on the list of their demands that government has not touched.”

    According Dr. Ajiboye, ASUU has a legitimate agreement with the Federal Government since 2009, which the government has refused to fully implement.

    He asked the leaders to demonstrate the love they have for the country by withdrawing their children from private universities in the country and abroad and stop travelling abroad for medical treatment, adding that they should use the health facilities in the country.

    The ASUU leader said as members of the intellectual community, they were surprised that the leader of the Federal Government’s Needs Assessment Implementation Committee was losing sight of the reality that there was a difference between an agreement and a demand.

    Reiterating the resolve of the body to get full implementation before going back to the classroom, Ajiboye said ASUU would not allow the Federal Government to mortgage public education.

    He said the political class has been selfish.

    Ajiboye said it was laughable that Governor Suswam could ask ASUU to consider the nation and students when it was ASUU that was fighting to save the nation from maladministration.

    “Are Nigerians heating up the polity when they say roads are bad, health facilities are in comatose and that politicians are sucking the nation dry? Are these not visible everywhere? How can a governor say we should soft-pedal and stop heating up the polity?

    “Our leaders should show leadership and faith in the country by withdrawing their children in foreign and private universities. Governors and other political office holders must also show Nigerians that they can vouch for the quality of health facilities and roads by patronising our hospitals and travelling by road. The roads are so bad that it has become fashionable for our leaders to buy jets. Nelson Mandela was ill and was treated in a Pretoria hospital. Our Governors, President’s wife, Senate President and other political office holders travel out to treat Malaria and undergo medical check up. Yet they do media hype, claiming they have revived the health sector.

    “People die on a daily basis due to insecurity. Who is then heating up the polity? We are patriots in ASUU. We believe Nigeria must work and our children deserve the same quality education, health, and roads, which our leaders and their children have access to abroad, using our collective patrimony,” the union boss said.

  • ASUU misleading Nigerians – Suswam

    ASUU misleading Nigerians – Suswam

    The Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, on Thursday said members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are misleading the students and Nigerians on what the Federal Government has done since negotiations began.

    Speaking at the Government House in Makurdi, when he played host to National Union of Benue State Student (NUBESS) on Thursday, the governor stated that the Federal Government has acceded to all the demands of ASUU.

    He advised them to go back to the classes for the sake of Nigerian youths.

    “The federal government has done a lot and I think ASUU should also sacrifice and shift ground as the whole negotiation is becoming political.”

    Suswam, who is leading the federal government negotiation team with ASUU revealed that the sum of N 100 billion has already been distributed for infrastructural development and N30 billion for earned allowance ”

    According to the governor, the criteria for distribution of funds was adopted with ASUU representatives and stated that all projects are to be executed by the universities and their councils.

    He further revealed that the earned allowance is for only federal universities and as such, state universities have no business going on strike.

    He said Benue State University lecturers have been paid their earned allowance.

     

  • FG’s offer: ASUU should suspend strike – Suswam

    FG’s offer: ASUU should suspend strike – Suswam

    The Chairman of the Universities Needs Implementation Committee and Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam on Tuesday maintained that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should call off its strike base on the N130 billion government’s offer.

    Speaking with State House correspondents in Abuja, he said the Federal Government has decided to inject N100 billion into the infrastructures of 61 universities in the country and N30 billion for staff allowances.

    ASUU had asked for N87 billion for the cumulated earned allowances of staff based on the agreements reached with the Federal Government in 2009.

    For shifting ground from no money to agreeing to assist the Governing Councils of universities with the N30 billion for the earned allowances, Suswam said that ASUU should reconsider its stance.

    According to him, the federal government will meet the universities’ councils and vice chancellors this week to update them on the decisions taken so far and to certify those that are really entitled to the N30 billion to be released for the earned allowances.

     

  • VCs lobby Suswam Committee over projects

    VCs lobby Suswam Committee over projects

    SOME vice chancellors of the Federal Government-owned universities are lobbying members of the University Needs Implementation Committee headed by Governor Gabriel Suswam in the bid to get the favour of the committee in the sighting of projects.

    The committee was recently set up by government to identify priority projects for each federal university with a view to addressing the lack of infrastructure in the ivory towers.

    Sources disclosed that shortly after the committee was inaugurated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, about two weeks, some of the VCs immediately began to reach out to some members of the committee on the need to consider their universities under the first phase of these project allocation.

    About N6 billion has been earmarked for the first phase of the programme, with one federal university in each of the six geo-political zones to be considered.

    Mostly involved in the lobby, according to sources, are VCs in zones where there are two or more federal universities. They include the South West, which boasts of the University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Federal University of Science and Technology, Akure, and the new Federal University in Oye Ekiti.

    In the South East are the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, Anambra State and the Federal University of Agriculture, Umuduke, Abia State.

    Sources revealed that while the VCs of the first, second and third generation of federal universities are claiming that their institutions should be considered first, their counterparts in the new universities set up by the current administration are said to have argued that their institutions’ newness and lack of basic structures, among other reasons, are enough to be accorded priority by the Suswam committee.

    Though the modalities on the selection of the universities that will emerge as the first set of beneficiaries are still being worked out, sources revealed that the VCs are not leaving anything to chance, including reaching out to top government officials, to influence the decision of the committee in favour of their institutions.

     

     

     

     

     

  • ASUU strike: Jonathan meets Suswam, others

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met with Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and some ministers at the Presidential Villa on the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    Suswam is chairing the Universities’ Needs’ Implementation Committee, whose mandate is to resolve the present crisis between the union and the Federal Government as well as ensure adequate provision for the universities.

    But there was no official statement at the end of the closed-door meeting.

    None of those at the meeting, including Suswam, Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Labour and Productivity Minister, Mr Emeka Wogu, addressed reporters at the end of the meeting.

    But Education Minister, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa’I, told reporters that the government was still negotiating with ASUU.

    She urged the union to call off the strike.

    “I have not been mandated to speak to journalists on the matter, but I can tell you that we are on course. I will only appeal to ASUU to call off the strike in the interest of the nation,” she said.

     

  • Suswam: Child marriage violates Child Right Act

    Suswam: Child marriage violates Child Right Act

    Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam yesterday said the resolution of the Senate was not in the interest of the Nigerian child.

    The governor said the passing of the bill was against the Child Right Law, the interest of the Nigerian child and human rights.

    He decried the decision of the Senate, which supported child bride marriage, saying the National Assembly should consider the people’s interest before passing the bill.

    Suswam spoke yesterday at the third Criminal Justice Reform Conference organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Minna, the Niger State capital.

    He advised the legislators to be careful when passing such resolution and to understand that Nigeria is a multi-religious state with several ethnic groups tribes and beliefs.

    Represented by Paul Harris, the governor warned that before the passage of such bills or laws, the people’s opinions should be considered.

    He noted that in the child marriage controversy, the people were not considered before such decision was taken.

     

     

     

     

  • PDP elders plot against Suswam’s senatorial ambition

    Some aggrieved elders and founding members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have allegedly ganged up against the senatorial ambition of Governor Gabriel Suswam in 2015.

    They are reportedly accusing Suswam of running a one- man show as governor, worried he might not reach out to some of them believed to have worked for his victory.

    The Nation gathered exclusively that the elders and founding members held a meeting in an undisclosed Hotel in Gboko where the plot to stop Suswam’s senatorial ambition in 2015 was conceived.

    A reliable source, who was part of the meeting, said most of the elders who attended expressed regret for supporting Suswam’s emergence as governor.

    Part of the plot, it was gathered, is to deny him the PDP ticket for Zone A senate seat.

    In the event that he gets the slot using the power of incumbency, it was agreed that all PDP members will pull out and vote for any opposition party at the poll.

    Many of the disgruntled elders expressed dismay that even some political appointees who should have reached out to PDP members at the grassroots have kept complaining of cash crunch while none of them has resigned.

    Part of the plot is also to frustrate the governor from choosing his successor in 2015.

    A member of the PDP working committee, who pleaded anonymity, advised the elders to channel their grievances through established, appropriate channels.