₦airaland Forum

TonyeBarcanista:
The confirmation of Rotimi Amaechi as minister of the government by the Saraki-led Senate yesterday sent a strong message to the PDP that APC is fully in charge of the red chambers. What went wrong?

PDP Once Had The Senate At Its Grip:
During the period that precede the election of the National Assembly leadership, some of us opposition members schemed on how to do a "Tambawal 2011" on the ruling APC for both Houses of the National Assembly. Seeing that APC leadership had endorsed Senator Lawan and Hon Femi Gbajabiamila for the offices of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, we embarked on campaign calling for Senators elected under the PDP platform to team up with minority APC dissent legislators and support Abubakar Saraki and Yakubu Dogara for the respective aforementioned offices. It was in fact, a well calculated effort to position the PDP as the power behind the National Assembly throne". The NASS leadership election not only went the way of the PDP in all four offices, it also gifted PDP's Ike Ekweremadu the Deputy Senate Presidency as a "trophy". It sent shivers and anger to the APC and joy to the PDP.

PDP Prevented APC From Self-Destruction
APC leadership and the presidency never hid their displeasure at the manner the ruling party was embarrassed by Saraki-led minority APC rebel senators that worked hand-in-hand with the PDP. The government embarked on a journey to get Saraki out of the way by dusting his alleged corruption file that was idling at the Code of Conduct Bureau locker. I had reasoned that the prosecution of Saraki before the Code of Conduct Tribunal is the internal affair of the APC and capable of polarising APC's ranks in the Senate, creating division and catalysing their own destruction. There was a room for the PDP to negotiate a soft landing for Saraki and his minority APC loyalists with promise of chairmanship of choice committees and retaining the Principal officers on condition that Saraki will step down voluntarily and mobilise his minority APC followers within the Senate to support a PDP candidate for the position of Senate President. The PDP unfortunately, chose to "swim and sink" with Saraki. They followed him to all his court appearances like the now famous "Abubakou" and allowed Saraki to negotiate his way to the heart and soul of the APC leadership at their very own expense. The PDP successfully aided the prevention of APC's destruction in the Senate. They made the APC to realise their mistakes and unite their Senators to do their own bidding. PDP lost the Senate as a result!

PDP Lost The Golden Chance To Block Amaechi's Screening:
October 21 was first scheduled as the day of screening for Hon Rotimi Amaechi as a minister of the government. Same day coincidentally was the day Bukola Saraki was to appear before the CCT for his ongoing trial. Being the Deputy Senate President, the constitution allows Senator Ike Ekweremadu to preside over the affairs of the senate in the absence of the Senate President. It was expected that with Ike at the helm affairs, the PDP senators have the rare privilege of doing nominee Amaechi as they pleases. Instead of seizing this rare opportunity, PDP leaders in the Senate "agreed" with Saraki to adjourn planery for the said day. They lost the golden opportunity to have both their say and their way in Amaechi's screening. Sadly, with Saraki at helm of affair, PDP Senators only had their say but not their way.

Walk-out May Cost PDP The DSP Position:
It is no secret that APC leadership want Ike Ekweremadu out of the DSP office. According to section 50(2)(c) of the 1999 constitution, removal of the Deputy Senate President from office only requires 2/3 votes of the Senate. Considering that it only needs 1/3 members of senators to form a quorum(Section 54(1) of the constitution), the APC senators present may take advantage of any walk-out by PDP senators and move motion for the impeachment of Senator Ekweremadu from office. It only need the blessing of 2/3 members of the Senators present to achieve it. PDP caucus should be very careful.

The Present State of PDP In The Senate:
Having lost their grip of the senate, PDP caucus should let bygone be bygone and come to terms with their role as opposition within the Senate. They should be focussed on providing good opposition while doing their jobs as legislators. They have to face the fact that as opposition, they will most likely not have their way but only their say. Hopefully, the party gets things right and win majority seat in next legislative election in 2019.
Tonye, this gives me an opportunity to commend you for always standing up for what you believe in. I so much cherish your analytical skill. However, please note that removal of DSP requires 2/3 of the whole Senate and not 2/3 of those present at plenary.
I see you at the top some day

May God Bless Us All and Nigeria

egift:
While going through President Jonathan's CV, I found out he spent 8-9 years in Primary School. He definitely failed repeatedly before moving to another class.

Also it is also noticeable that he did not make the minimum credit in WAEC, he had to take GCE to complete the minimum credit requirement to study Zoology University of Port Harcourt.

ifeness: This is top of the range stupidity! Holding Nigerians to ransom because most of them have been brainwashed with the "god" ideology. Why did god not ask him to release all the criminals in the prison? I think this god is only for the corrupt politicians! Just as the same god supported genocides and vicious atrocities in the bible

lakesider: Notin is wrong with resit exam as long as i m writing it from my brain.in advanced country U can walk out of exam hall Nd. Av your paper resheduled if U feel U ll fail d paper.outdated pple @ work

free2ryhme: 50k per player? Wonders sha never end! inflating the cost .. una no go kill people for this country .. Corruption everywhere.. Even MRI testing ...

jenti: Dear Ezira
Thanks for your report. I do not own shares in any of the private universities that were closed down but I have children in who attend private universities not because I have alot of money to throw around but because of my personal experience. For instance, I did an 18-month MBA for 4-years in Unilag btw 1992 and 1996 not because i failed but because of Aluta . I also studied abroad - University of Surrey, UK and I know the schools are stable. As a parent, I look at University rankings to judge the academic stability of institutions. If a University like Joseph Ayo Babalola ranked 21st out of 107 and far ahead of many public University is suspended for not meeting NUC criteria , it surely raise some dusts about NUC standard and criteria. If a university has one or two issues with NUC, must we suspend the License of the institution .

Have you considered the Plights and the trauma NUC is giving to their parents and the students?

When a University like LEADs ranked 56th says they have FULL accreditation for all their courses and NUC did not dispute it, Will it be fair to suspend their License without fully disclosing what else they have done wrong?
IS IT TRUE THAT LEADS UNIVERSITY HAS FULL ACCREDITATION FOR ALL THEIR COURSES.?[/size][size=8pt][/size]. PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION

Has NUC realised that by suspending the License of this Universities you are crippling the huge investments of the proprietors of these institutions. You are also stopping them from admitting new students for the next academic session. These private institutions are not receiving subventions from Abuja and their staff are not on Federal Govt Payroll as Mr Ezira and other NUC staff. What you get is a gradual resignation of the Academic and non academic staff of the private universities and tomorrow the same NUC will blame them for poor staff. This is unfair.

How can NUC wake up and suspend Part-time studies overnight without any notice to the students and the universities?. This is similar to what GEJ did for Unilag in the name change. This steps are anti-democracy. Democracy is about constructive engagement. I have a right to be heard. My opinions must count when you take a decision about me. Your actions are against the cardinal principles of justice : No man has aright to be a judge in his own case and the need to hear the other side in your decisions.

REGRETTABLY, NUC DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE JUDICIARY AND FAIR HEARING .The affected private Universities, cannot go to court to enforce their rights or challenge the decisions of NUC because NUC management is too big to obey the judgements of Nigerian courts. Rather than obey the court order and then Appeal if they have reasons to disagree, NUC will not obey. They will appeal and keep the Appeal dragging.

Whatsoever a man soweth, he will reap. Although you feel comfortable now because you are staff of NUC and you have the Federal might, remember there is A God in heaven that watches over the affairs of men. When you leave that comfortable zone, become an ordinary citizen and put your hard earned resources on a project only for one government to threaten or demolish it overnight without given you an opportunity to say something , you will feel what the private university Proprietors are feeling

I do not have any personal animosity with your boss - Prof Okogie. I am very familiar with UNAAB where he left before he took the position of Executive secretary in NUC. I know that he made little or no impact throughout his tenure as VC. Visit UNNAb now and compare it with when he left.Go to the university and ask about his tenure as VC and his impact. Ask the staff on the ground how many new facilities and infrastructures he created during his tenure and how many were created when Prof Balogun left.Both of them had a 5-yr term as VC. You will then feel how i felt. You can will then know if the NUC Prof has any moral justification to mark the scripts of other VCs or condemn and suspend the Licenses of these institutions.

Were there no private universities during Prof Okebukolas tenure as NUC Exec Secretary, how many of them had their Licences suspended or threatened with withdrawal. What is going on now will not do the nation any good. The credibility of NUC is already being questioned and the reputation of Nigerian Universities is daily dragged into the mud. The present situation will further discourage investment in Education. NUC ought to parley with the all VCs on how University education can get better rather than be at press war with private university proprietors

Finally, it is disappointing to see that you addressed UNILAG as MAULAG when the matter is still in court and the National Assembly had not ammended the act of the University. This again is what I said earlier of the present NUC management. They are too big to obey Court orders[i][/i]. Your boss at the heat of the renaming of Unilag rather than wait to see the direction of events went to the Press and said NUC is willing to effect the change of name. Is that his job?

Once again, thanks for your writeup. I hope you will see reasons in my points

jenti: You are a liar. Where is this school.Describe how to get there.
This guy is a staff/ surrogate of NUC

jenti: Inspite of all the shutdowns and crackdowns, no Nigerian University is among the first 500 ranked university in the world. The best we have is 33 in Africa. Shame

There is nothing wrong with Satellite campuses . Most American Universities operate Sattelite campuses. What we should be concerned with is the facilities and the staff strength at the satellite campus. It is wrong to concentrate everything about a University in one single area. Sometimes a University running Medicine may not have an upgradable Hospital in the vicinity of Main campus. Also there are quite a number of Arts ,Social Sciences and mnagement courses that can be run in Satellite campuses if the facilities are there.

Satellite Campuses provide even development .In a country like ours where every community wants to have a sense of belonging before they can supportt the institution, satellite campuses are inevitable
Sattelite campus create employment for University staff and reduce administrative pressures on Main campuses
Sattelite campuses enable more students to be admitted as the student population can be managed betterWith over 20m candidates writing Jamb and less than 2m admitted annually, it is unreasonable to close down the existing ones simply because they are more than 20km from the Main Campus. Okojie and his men are still in the past. NUC is not foward looking. With GSM and Internet, there is nothing those at Satellite campuses need intellectually from the Main campus that cannot be assesed online in a foward looking University
Those institutions being closed down are often those who are not playing ball othewise let NUC publish the decisions of the accreditation panels that visited these universities and campuses. Were these Satellite campuses not accredited b4 Okogie came on-board. This man is only witch-hunting someinstitutions in his Black book. Have you ever heard any contrary report about BELL UNVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGYin Ota. And You will neva hear one as long as Okogie is in charge. Bell University of Technology is rated 56th in University rankings in Nigeria. Joseph Ayo babalola is rated 21st, yet according to Okogie and his men in NUC, Bells meets the standard and Joseph Ayo Babalola did not meet the standard. See http://www.4icu.org/ng/ for University rankings and judge if NUC had been fair
Okogie is working to destroy some private universities and God will expose him very soon

tayoccu: If you indeed are a staff of NUC, then talk to ur boss, he has a god complex.
Lead city's issue started when its PRO wrote an article in d dailies (2006/2007) criticizing prof Okojie for suspending the license of cetep city university.
Ever since he has been picking on lead city. Its been one war after another (most of which he lost in court).

U mentioned quality? Please what is wrong with the quality of graduates produced by lead city? Have u or the NUC assessed us and found us wanting?
Like I said your boss has a god complex, he seemed to have surpassed all excpectatons he had as a child, and now he is power drunk.
He should explain why he scrapped part time programs in universities without thinking of people who have to work their way through school, because they can't afford to study full time.
Instead of calling a meeting of stake holders to formulate a plan to sanitize the part time study sector of the university system he decided to scrap the programs instead.

Musiwa2: correct process is for the NUC to invite the VC of this universities and also invite the CEO of banks or rep central bank to a meeting. You help the universities to get loan. or if the NUC have the money you give it to them. The role of NUC is to make for a better universities system and not destroy the system.

Not suspend them. You can issue warning Or suspend program. Not their licence.

https://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1369/leadt.jpg

intelligen: Things re realy happeng in dis country...poor guy...bt i dnt tink dat's enof excuse to commit such a crime....bt is 1k nt too smal an amt as a fine for 2mths in prison?abi na typographical error?

TisaBone: wasn't nobody even talkin to you. see this is exactly what i mean. you men have no manners! wut ya'll need is a firm, but loving hand to guide you. everyone knows men only think with one head, and its not the big one. so leave all the big stuff to the more capable sex.