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Tag: Uche Chukwumerije

  • Remember Amata people

    Remember Amata people

    THIS is a special appeal to Senator Uche Chukwumerije. And it is my belief that my great Senator will do my wish which is also the wish of the whole people of Amata in Abia State.

    Amata is a village in Umuelem Isuochi. Life in the locality is tough. People are not happy with the level of development there. They complain everyday.

    What we need in this village is development. We need good roads. We want electricity and other amenities that will create comfort for people.

    We are also in need of educational development, and this is possible if we have well-equipped schools. Therefore, we are expecting schools that can give our children qualitative education.

    All these needs are dividends of democracy which I believe can be provided by Senator Chukwumerije.

     

    Ibeh Cletus,

  • 2013 budget: ‘Implementation of Education sector below 50 per cent’

    2013 budget: ‘Implementation of Education sector below 50 per cent’

    The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Sen. Uche Chukwumerije (PDP Abia) has decried the poor implementation of the education budget, saying it was below 50 per cent.

    Chukwumerije spoke yesterday in Abuja at the budget defence of corporations, agencies and departments under the Ministry of Education.

    He said: “It is regrettable that the allocation, especially for capital cost, has been dwindling. But it is more regrettable that the level of implementation of budgets has remained below 50 per cent.

    “While this holds true for all sectors, its impact on the education sector is most severe.

    “It is important that the executive appreciates the imperative of releasing funds s when due.”

    Chukwumerije said the committee gathered from its oversight functions that the sector was grappling with infrastructure, faculty and content problems.

    The senator explained that while funding might not be adequate to address all issues, the committee resolved to find solutions to the contents and access to contents problem.

    He said: “This is so because the ultimate goal of an academic institution is to deliver effective content.”

    The committee chairman regretted that there was no systematic way of ensuring the professional growth of teachers.

    According to him, the need to emphasise the quality of teachers’ turnout from colleges of education is pertinent.

    Chukwumerije said: “Teacher quality is largely determined by the extent of professionalism and opportunities available for in-service training and teacher support.”

    The senator said there was need for greater commitment to policy implementation, adding that most education laws and policies were not being adhered to.

    He said: “Whether in teacher recruitment, continuous assessment or school postings, there were minimum standards that must be adhered to.

    “Non-adherence to minimum standards promotes over-crowding of classrooms and recruitment of teachers not qualified to teach.”

    Chukwumerije said the committee was worried that N70.4 billion statutory transfer to the Universal Basic Education Committee (UBEC) was added as part of the total personnel cost for the sector.

    He also said for capital cost, N49.5 billion was allocated, as against N71.9 billion in 2013, showing a decrease of N22.4 billion.

    The committee chairman added that N22.8 billion was allocated for overhead in 2014 as against the N23.2 billion allocated in 2013.

    He said for a sector that was in dire need of improved funding, these decreases were not healthy for it.

    While calling on the executive to ensure prompt release of funds, he also advised institutions and agencies to be prudent in managing funds appropriated to them.

    The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, decried the reduction in the appropriation to the board.

    He urged the committee to appropriate more funds to it.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the proposed estimates for the education sector in 2014 is N493.4 billion as against N432.7 billion in 2013.

    With an increase of over N60 billion, the education sector has 11 per cent of the total national budget.

     

     

     

     

  • Northern elders and Ihejirika

    Northern elders and Ihejirika

    It is our duty to raise an alarm when birds cease to cry like birds. That is why we are worried by the statement credited to the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) to the effect that the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Azubike Ihejirika should be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over military operations against terrorists in the North.

    Chairman of the NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, had said in a statement that the group would take Ihejirika to the ICC for “extra-judicial killings by soldiers in Bama and the act of strangulating civilians in Giwa Barracks, using an underground detention centre, while depositing the corpses in hospital.”

    Expectedly, the statement has attracted criticisms and, understandably, one of the first critics of the NEF is Senator Uche Chukwumerije who, at a forum in Abuja dared the NEF to go ahead with its plan adding however that should the NEF go ahead with its threat, it would be a good opportunity for other aggrieved regions and people in the country to knock at the doors of the ICC for redress over one form of injustice or the other.

    These included the Igbo who would take the massacre of over two million Ndigbo during the civil war to the court, while the other groups would also table their own cases before the international court. “As Ango Abdullahi’s team opens the doors and walks into the hall of the world court, let them realise that they have at last opened the Pandora’s Box”, Chukwumerije said.

    We are however happy that the pan-Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), is not in agreement with the position of the NEF. Indeed, we align with every point raised by the ACF in dissociating itself from the NEF position on this matter. This tells us that the thinking of the elders’ forum may not necessarily be the position of the entire northern region on the matter; which is heartwarming.

    As the ACF rightly noted through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani,:”The campaigns by the military against the insurgence could not reasonably be personalised against the former Chief of Army Staff. And that is why the military has its own way of bringing to book those soldiers who cross the line in any of such campaigns”. The elders’ forum did not tell us the basis of its conclusion or why the former chief of army staff should be held personally responsible for whatever crimes the soldiers might have committed.

    This issue is similar to the claims of marginalisation that nearly every region in the country has been complaining about. If, as Senator Chukwumerije noted, any group decides to approach the ICC for redress over any matter, a lot of past wounds will be reopened because hardly is there any group or section in the country that does not have one grievance or the other to report at the international court. We particularly deplore the ethnic flavour introduced into the matter by the elders’ forum and commend the ACF for its timely dissociating with the forum’s position.

    What we would urge, and indeed insist on, is strict compliance with rules of engagement in all military campaign, especially the ones against insurgents, whether in the north or any part of the country for that matter. Where there are breaches, the military should be able to decide those and address them appropriately. This is what we expect the elders to demand instead of fanning the embers of hatred and disunity. It’is high time elders started acting in a statesman-like manner and as the true elders that they are.

     

  • Obasanjo’s letter to Jonathan danger signal, says Chukwumerije

    Obasanjo’s letter to Jonathan danger signal, says Chukwumerije

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, yesterday described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s open letter to President Jonathan as a sign of looming disaster.

    Chukwumrije in a statement last night said a second term for Jonathan is necessary to foster a sense of participation of all ethnic components in the administration of the country at the highest level.

    He warned that never again will the Igbo nation allow itself to be made a sacrificial lamb in the nation’s political history.

    He described as alarmist Obasanjo’s warning that the military is being primed for “possible abuse and misuse… for unwholesome personal and political interest…”

    The statement reads: “For System Nigeria, a period of almost half a century of silent ostracisation of a group in political wilderness should be enough of a part of the total reparation exacted from Ndigbo since the end of the civil war.

    “This major ethnic nationality has never produced an elected President of Nigeria. Still on the future of Nigeria (and specifically fate of Igbo ethnic nationality) in the dark shadows of new but predictable hazards of replay of ancient systemic uncertainties.

    “The lengthy loud ambiguities of our Delphic Oracle reek with offensive smells – innuendos of betrayals and lurking disasters, of cyclical visitations of ignored history, of clear blinks of danger signs from 1966 milepost.

    “When such an alarm comes from a revered leader, it is an invitation to a ship wreck from familiar quarters. Predictably, rehearsed but hollow threats of impeachment was a logical fall-out of the alarm. Timely counter threats of treasonable felony followed.”

    He added: “We must avert this disaster. For Ndigbo, System Nigeria can never make us again the sacrificial lamb of its fractured history. Never again.

    “If to foster a sense of participation of all ethnic components in the management of Nigeria is the prime purpose of rotation of the presidency, the formal acceptance of the current six-zone structure, (the successor to the former regions), should be the most effective mode of implementation of the formula.

    “A second term for Jonathan is important to establish this necessity. This gives to the federal edifice the solid foundation.”

    The lawmaker noted that the turbulent history of Nigeria suggests the six-zone format as a “dialectical necessity in the current phase of our nation-building.”

    He said the formula would bring all the sectors of the federation nearer to a level playing ground.

    He stated that “the reference to dialectical movement is to the history of the dynamics of power relationships among regions, ethnic blocs and under-girding hegemonies.

    “The direction of Nigeria’s political evolution since 1962 has been the inexorable pace of disintegration of hegemonic strongholds in favour of progressive democratisation of the political space.

    “Seen from this view, a second tenure for Jonathan is a necessity. It strengthens the precedent of a six-zone structure and reinforces a new convention/formula that adopts this rotation format for the Presidency as the recipe of national stability.”

    He lamented that a major ethnic group like Ndigbo have since independence been excluded from Nigeria’s elected presidency.

    He said: “The official name of the competition rule is ‘democracy is a game of numbers’. But the buzz code of the System is ‘exclusion of the Igbos for the meantime’.

    “Obasanjo has allegedly said as much a long time ago, warning that it was an insult to the System for Ndigbo to expect access to the presidency in less than 100 years from end of the civil war.

    “OBJ’s choice of use of regions as rotation units to warehouse manipulation of selection of presidential materials gives credence to this allegation.”

  • Senate committee assures Unijos on take-off grant

    Senate committee assures Unijos on take-off grant

    The Senate Committee on Education said it will liaise with the Federal Government for the release of the take-off grant for the University of Jos.

    The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Uche Chukwuemerije, said this when he led his colleagues on an oversight visit to the institution.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the university, one of the second generation universities established in 1975, has yet to receive its take-off grant.

    According to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Hayward Mafuyai, the non-provision of the seed money is responsible for the slow development of the institution.

    Chukwumerije said that senate would assist the school in “pushing for the release of the grant.”

    He also promised that the senate would assist towards resolving the security challenges faced by the institution.

    “ We understand your peculiar security challenges and we are engaging the Federal Government to attract some funds that will assist you in handling the challenges.’’

    He promised that the committee would also assist the school to break more grounds in the area of research, noting that much had already been done in that area.

    Earlier, Mafuyai had highlighted the university’s challenges and identified major areas to include insecurity, inadequate accommodation and transportation.

    “We have a student population that is close to 30,000 but we only have accommodation for 7,000. Staff accommodation is equally inadequate,” he said.

    Mafuyai said the university’s infrastructure was also in bad shape.

     

  • South East public hearing on review of Constitution

    South East public hearing on review of Constitution

    The Senate Committee Constitution review held its public hearing in the South East Zone on Thursday at the Enugu State House of Assembly. Photo Cletus Obi

    Pix 1:   2nd Right, The Deputy Senate President, Ikem Ekweremadu (right), Sen. Ayogu Eze, 3rd Right: The chairman of the community Sen. Uche Chukwumerije, Sen. Nkechi Nwaogu and Sen. Chris Ngige

     Pix 2:  From left: The chairman of the committee on the review of 1990 Constitution South-East, Sen. Uche Chukwumerije, The deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu and the chairman Senate Committee on works, Senate Ayogu

    Pix 3:   A cross-section Traditional Rulers during the the Public Hearing