edogu:
*MR. PRESIDENT, THANK YOU. BUT PLEASE, KEEP YOUR 4-MONTH "MERCY-SALARY"*

By Samuel Atabo
Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi.

1. After being subjected to untold hardship and forced to complete the 8-month backlog of work, the President has magnanimously approved a dehumanizing 4-month "Mercy-Salary"

2. As if that was not enough, it is being served with a cold-chilly caveat of never protesting any ill-treatment meted out to the University community as a pre-condition to be paid. Really?

3. In their thousands, many have died leaving behind loads of bills for widows and orphans and the "mercy" shown by the President to these victims of wicked politicians is the release of half of the full salary that has been worked for?

4. The FGN currently owes members of the academia a backlog of over 9 years of EARNED ACADEMIC ALLOWANCE. There is no mention of that anywhere. So any attempt to request or protest non-payment is to be quenched by "mercy-payment" of 4 out of 8 months duly earned salary?

5. The academics are the only set of FG workers that do not access annual leave, which is enjoyed (or monetized) by all workers in Nigeria. They work for 12 months a year. Furthermore, massive cases of un-remitted pension and NHS deductions are still ongoing as of today. So by agreeing to the President's mercy payment, you lose the right to protest these broad-day violations? What a shame!

6. Between 2009 and 2023, the salaries of nearly all FG employees have been reviewed upwards by 70% to 260%, except for the academics in the Federal Universities. Even the most recent 40% pay rise that was implemented within the last days of Buhari's administration did not include the University community. Amid these horrible injustices, this is the "Mercy" we get from the President?

7. After the failed negotiations with the Buhari-led FG, 25% and 35% salary award (for junior academics and Profs respectively) was included in the 2023 budget. Two months to the end of 2023, the present FG has re-introduced and presented the same Buhari's salary award as a favor to Lecturers. Even at that, they have refused to pay. That doesn't seem like enough provocation, ..then they're presenting ASUU with a slave option of WE PAY YOU 50% OF THE SALARY YOU HAVE WORKED FOR, AND THEN YOU DON'T EVER GET TO PROTEST WHATEVER WE DO TO YOU! What an offer!

8. In his magnanimity, the same President who deemed it fit to pay ASUU 50% of duly earned salary has approved 100% payment of salaries to Doctors for the period they were on strike! That is how politicians rate the engine room of the citadel of learning in Nigeria.

9. Mr. President, thank you, but please, keep your 4-month "mercy payment". If you can't afford the 8-month salaries we have worked for, then keep all of it. Pay us our Earned Academic Allowance (EAA). On all grounds, we have at least earned that pay.

10. It is true that we have been pauperized, but we are no slaves, we are not beggars. Our dignity and self-respect are all we've got left, after years of battering by politicians. Please, don't take that away from us with this demeaning, slave "mercy salary" approval.

Thank you, Mr. President.

edogu:
*MR. PRESIDENT, THANK YOU. BUT PLEASE, KEEP YOUR 4-MONTH "MERCY-SALARY"*

By Samuel Atabo
Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi.

1. After being subjected to untold hardship and forced to complete the 8-month backlog of work, the President has magnanimously approved a dehumanizing 4-month "Mercy-Salary"

https://mediakeynaija..com/?m=1

2. As if that was not enough, it is being served with a cold-chilly caveat of never protesting any ill-treatment meted out to the University community as a pre-condition to be paid. Really?

3. In their thousands, many have died leaving behind loads of bills for widows and orphans and the "mercy" shown by the President to these victims of wicked politicians is the release of half of the full salary that has been worked for?

4. The FGN currently owes members of the academia a backlog of over 9 years of EARNED ACADEMIC ALLOWANCE. There is no mention of that anywhere. So any attempt to request or protest non-payment is to be quenched by "mercy-payment" of 4 out of 8 months duly earned salary?

5. The academics are the only set of FG workers that do not access annual leave, which is enjoyed (or monetized) by all workers in Nigeria. They work for 12 months a year. Furthermore, massive cases of un-remitted pension and NHS deductions are still ongoing as of today. So by agreeing to the President's mercy payment, you lose the right to protest these broad-day violations? What a shame!

6. Between 2009 and 2023, the salaries of nearly all FG employees have been reviewed upwards by 70% to 260%, except for the academics in the Federal Universities. Even the most recent 40% pay rise that was implemented within the last days of Buhari's administration did not include the University community. Amid these horrible injustices, this is the "Mercy" we get from the President?

7. After the failed negotiations with the Buhari-led FG, 25% and 35% salary award (for junior academics and Profs respectively) was included in the 2023 budget. Two months to the end of 2023, the present FG has re-introduced and presented the same Buhari's salary award as a favor to Lecturers. Even at that, they have refused to pay. That doesn't seem like enough provocation, ..then they're presenting ASUU with a slave option of WE PAY YOU 50% OF THE SALARY YOU HAVE WORKED FOR, AND THEN YOU DON'T EVER GET TO PROTEST WHATEVER WE DO TO YOU! What an offer!

8. In his magnanimity, the same President who deemed it fit to pay ASUU 50% of duly earned salary has approved 100% payment of salaries to Doctors for the period they were on strike! That is how politicians rate the engine room of the citadel of learning in Nigeria.

9. Mr. President, thank you, but please, keep your 4-month "mercy payment". If you can't afford the 8-month salaries we have worked for, then keep all of it. Pay us our Earned Academic Allowance (EAA). On all grounds, we have at least earned that pay.

10. It is true that we have been pauperized, but we are no slaves, we are not beggars. Our dignity and self-respect are all we've got left, after years of battering by politicians. Please, don't take that away from us with this demeaning, slave "mercy salary" approval.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Popular Nigerian Priest, Rev. Father Okunerere Announces He’s Leaving Catholic Church Over Alleged Oppression, Others

A Catholic priest of Nsukka Diocese, Reverend Father Paul Obayi, popularly known as Fr Okunerere has revealed that he wants to leave the Catholic church.

The outspoken Catholic priest who founded the Okunerere Adoration Ministry, Nsukka, Enugu State, accused his Bishop, Most Rev. Godfrey Onah of oppressing him.

According to him, his local ordinary and fellow priests want to take away his ministry’s land by force.

Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka, the spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry, who is also under the Enugu Catholic Diocese, had a similar battle with his Bishop which later led to the imposition of a ban on him and the shutting down of his ministry. Although the ministry had since been reopened, the Enugu Diocese changed the ministry to chaplaincy.

In a 30-minute video posted on his Facebook page, Okunerere alleged that he gave everything to the church, yet the church wanted to strangle him.

In the video seen by SaharaReporters, Fr Okunerere made a long list of claims, adding that he was being forced to leave the church.

He said: “The church is my vineyard, I love the church, I love my Nsukka (Catholic) church, I love the bishop, I love the priests, I love them, but they are oppressing me.

“I was looking for a land where I will conduct my adoration but couldn’t find. I rented a place behind Queens College Nsukka and started my adoration there. Bishop Onah chased me out of the place, saying I was causing noise and distracting the students of Queens.

“The past governor of Enugu State, Gburugburu gave me this piece of land I’m staying in now. I told the Bishop that I have land and I took him there to see the land. When he came, he then said that the land is fine to be used to build the Marian Shrine. I told him it’s my adoration ministry I want to start here and not Marian Shrine. He said I shouldn’t talk about it again.

“I give everything to the church, yet the church wants to strangle me. But it can’t happen!

“I bought and installed the best transformer in the cathedral of Nsukka Diocese which they’re using till today.

“The Bishop mandated me to build a museum where I would keep the deities I removed from villages. I spent N2.8 million to build the museum upstairs inside the cathedral and reported it to my bishop. The only ‘thank you’ I got from my bishop was that he asked me ‘where did I get the money to build it when he has banned the selling of olive oil’. Yet, I endured it.

“At Obimo, I got land to build my adoration ministry. It’s a mountain. I spent more than N50m to level the place and create roads, then built a 30-room self-contained house there. The church collected it from me and I surrendered it. Kidnappers are using that building today to keep their victims because the church isn’t using it till today after collecting it from me. The Bishop said he wants to use the place as Nsukka Diocesan Pilgrimage Centre.

“I was posted to Obollo where I spent N10 million to build a church. The Bishop came to dedicate it and on the day of the dedication, everybody was acknowledged but they refused to acknowledge me, Fr Obayi who built the church. Just after 2 months of dedicating the church, I was transferred to Ikem, where everybody knows that the roads there are filled with kidnappers.

“I was an associate professor but no one in the Diocese ever announced me as associate professor, but those priests who became associate professors yesterday are recognized by the Diocese but I was ignored till today even as a professor.

“It got to the point that fellow priests broke my gate just to take my land, they said they were sent.

“During the Bishop’s Episcopal ordination, I supplied drinking water free to everybody in attendance."

He added, “The oppression is too much. Priests are avoiding coming to my adoration because if they see any priest in my adoration, during posting, they will post the priest in a faraway village beyond Adani in Uzo Uwani LGA.

“I have been inviting the Bishop to my adoration but he refused to come, saying he doesn’t understand what we are doing here.

“If Charismatics draft a programme and include my name as a guest priest when they take it to the Diocese for approval, the authorities will tear the programme on seeing my name there. They would ask the Charismatics why should they invite Fr Okunerere. For 10 years now, I have not attended any charismatic programme because the church authorities won’t permit me.

“Bishop Onah stopped me from going to London to preach, saying that I would go there to preach heresy. I asked him, before you became my bishop, I had attended 10 different programmes in London where I preached. Is it now you’re my bishop that I will preach heresy?

“The church refused to give me land for my adoration, and the one given to me by the government, the church wants to collect it from me.

“Since the church doesn’t want me again, I am leaving the Catholic church any moment from now.”

Dailyactiveinfo:

Pastor Adeboye
The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC has asked given a three prayer points to the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye over the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine in Gaza.

The Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, in a statement issued on Saturday, noted that, instead of praying for Israel specifically, Pastor Adeboye should rather pray for the whole world.


Akintola urged Pastor Adeboye to pray for the failure of oppressors between Israel and Palestine over the ongoing war in Gaza.


Recall that Adeboye had earlier declared support for Israel in the ongoing war between the Zionist nation and Palestine.

In a video message via his X handle, the RCCG General Overseer said he would be praying for Israel to be victorious.

The statement reads, “We have been reliably informed that the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye has declared support for Israel in the ongoing war between the Zionist nation and Palestine. He also said he was praying for Israel to be victorious.

“We are bewildered that a religious leader of Pastor Adeboye’s standing can ignore the sufferings of a people who have been under occupation, siege, arbitrary arrests, long imprisonments accompanied with severe torture, family separations, demolition of homes without warning, extra-judicial killings on a daily basis and the most horrendous dehumanization and violation of fundamental human rights.

“Nigerians must therefore realise that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is not rooted in religion but in land-grabbing.

“That is why Nigerians should not exchange hostilities over the conflict in the Middle East. We should not be divided along religious lines. Good Muslims and good Christians should continue to interact, love and share.

“The Palestinians know that the Israelis are not Christians and they are not fighting Israel on grounds of religion. They are merely defending themselves and asserting their fundamental human rights after being under zionist occupation for 75 years.

“Instead of praying for Israel’s victory specifically, we invite Pastor Adeboye to pray for failure for the oppressor between Israel and Palestine.