₦airaland Forum

GOVERNOR Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State, has said the delay being experienced by teachers in the payment of their 27.5 per cent salary increase is to avoid industrial unrest in the state.

The teachers under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, have embarked on indefinite strike over the refusal of the state government to pay the salary increase which other states across the country have been paying.

The governor said this just as he hinted that henceforth, teachers in the state would collect their take-home pay through cards and that a consultant had already been instructed to carry out the biometrics of all the teachers in the state.

He expressed displeasure at the financial burden that the payment of teachers’ salary alone was putting on the state

He expressed displeasure at the financial burden that the payment of teachers’ salary alone was putting on the state.
[b]
Akala said it baffled him how the teachers could continue to demand for the same salary even when teachers retired from service.

Governor Akala, while addressing newsmen during the monthly forum with newsmen, said another remote cause of incessant strikes by the teachers was as a result of the indiscipline that had permeated the country.



According to him: “It is a pity that we don’t match productivity with income. If they have decided not to come to work for the month of July, they would not get paid for that month.”

Governor Akala did not hide his feelings about the problem created by the Federal Government which forces policies down the throats of the federating states as if the country is operating unitary system of government.

He said his reluctance in paying the salary increase should not be seen as sheer wickedness but he is just trying to ensure that other developmental projects are not stalled because of the salary of teachers. He added that their salaries alone gulped over N1.5 billion monthly.
He said: “What we are trying to do is to avoid labour crises in the state. All other workers too are entitled to get their salaries increased. It is not only the teachers. What is happening to teachers in the state is what is happening in our society. It is nothing but indiscipline. Most of us are indiscipline. It is not the strike that will make me pay the money . They can’t hold me to ransom by their strike. I don’t care. It is a universal law that if you don’t work, you don’t get paid[/b]".

It is now Professor Jega's turn to conduct the free and fair elections

The federal government has released the sum of N87.7bn to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

THE Minister of Finance, Mr Olusegun Aganga Friday disclosed that he had last Wednesday released the N87.7 bn supplementary budget of INEC, as approved by the National Assembly and consequently signed into law by President Jonathan.

Aganga while briefing State House Correspondents moment after President Jonathan assented the Electoral Act said “immediately after the INEC meeting with the national assembly leaders and some members of the executive, the president directed that the funding for INEC should be sourced immediately, the following day the required funds were sourced and released”.
According to him, “we also had a follow up meeting with the chairman of INEC and the supplementary budget for the full amount of N89.5bn was submitted to the National Assembly for approval”.

He explained that “I also appeared before the National Assembly alongside with the chairman of INEC to confirm and reassure the national assembly and the country that the funds have been sourced and will be made available to INEC as and when due to INEC once the supplementary budget was approved”.

“I am delighted to announce to say that the amount due today was released as soon as the supplementary budget was signed by the President. The INEC chairman and I have a process to monitor progress, we talk regularly. So, we have a very open communication, we are committed to helping INEC succeed. If we are true, if we have dentified this as a main priority of the government to have a free and fair election then, we have to be seen to be supporting them in every way we can and that is what we have done so far”, he added.

The Minister stressed that INEC is indeed independent saying that “you will notice that we have tried to maintain independence because it is critical
and let me tell you we have done that so far with INEC”.,

“It is different when we first met with them they gave us an estimate for the full thing of the total amount of roughly about N72 billion and when we met again, they said sorry it is not N72 billion any more, it is higher than that and in fact that we are under provided for by another N15 billion”, he said.

He pointed out that “the normal thing for me to do is to say I want you to explain why and I will cut the number down but with INEC, I have not gone through that process. The N89.5 billion which was the total amount was submitted by INEC was submitted to the National Assembly because we did not want to be seen to be challenging them because if anything went wrong government will be blamed for not supporting INEC”.

Commending the bold initiatives of President Jonathan, in that regard, Aganga argued that “the president has set the direction, he has made it absolutely clear that said he wants a free and fair election and the minimum we can do as a government is to provide that support to them entirely and I as Finance minister, it is my job to implement the funding side of it and I need to assure the INEC chairman every moment that whatever he needs in terms of financial support I will make it available”.

philip0906:
whatz with all these "may their soul rest in peace" stuff?So na eveerybody wey die go rest in peace?
@op
on their own

Even though they Committed sin against the will of God, we still
have towish them well.

Ajimobi has every right to seek Not only for Akala's Resignation but His office.
ACN should Field à very good candidate hat will dislodge the bleaching Akala from govt.
Nö thanks to Obasanjo for foisting Akala on the Oyo populace.

You can go to hell wih your silly rantings.Fashola is doing well and Nobody can distract him from the 2nd Term bid.He deserve the 2nd Term more than any governor in Nigeria's history.

Bottom line, you run into the people you know. But generally there are more Yorubas in Uk, more Igbos in the US and Asia  and more Ghananians than any other group in Germany.


The assumption above Is so wrong.Algeria has the highest population of africans in Germany,followed by Cameroun,Togo,Ghana and Nigeria.


You Need to get your facts right before posting stuffs.

Again, BUt this man is a Professor of English.
May their soul R.I.P

One of Nigeria’s most respected poet and professor of English and Literature, Dubem Okafor is dead. He died last Sunday in the United States after shooting his wife Cheryl 37.

Reports and calls from the US say Okafor, 64, cousin to the late poet, Christopher Okigbo apparently distraught his wife had left him a few days earlier, arranged to meet her at his sister’s Reading home, Pennsylvania, where he shot her several times and himself once in the head at 3:45 p.m. Sunday, police said.

A small-caliber handgun was found near the bodies, police said. The Berks County coroner declared her death a homicide and his death a suicide.

Chukwudubem A. Okafor, 64, an associate professor of English at Kutztown University, was said to have shot his wife, Cheryl V., 37, who was an artist, several times Sunday afternoon and turned the gun on himself shortly after they arrived separately at the home of his sister, Patricia Ofilin, in the 300 block of Pear Street, investigators said.

He is just seeking attention of IBB

He is at least campainging for vote.
That's the beauty of democracy.This same man ruled Nigeria with power of gun and order but today he is just like
every civillian campaigning for vote.
I hope he will be giving a fair chance but robbed of the votes.

OBJ cant even take care of his own family.

Comparing Ohakim with Fashola is like comparing Hellfire with Heaven.
Ohakim will be replaced come 2011 because of his low performance.

Nice indeed but what is the latest on the project and why is it taking so long to reclaim the land.
The reclamation should have been faster.

But the truth is that NNPC is really broke becase as at today it still owes marketers around N500B.
GEJ needs to gy his priorities straight.

It is a combination that will take us to the promise land.
I hope it will work,

AC has lagos and Edo while it formed alliance wth LP in Ondo state.
If push turns to shove,AC will accept Sylva to make needed inroad into that state because of power of incumbency.
AC's transformation(when fully harnessed) will definitely see it take over the entire SW,Some part of North and SS.

xterra2:
this,this,

Here is the only picture of the Lagos Rail Rail while being constructed in the internet (if not world) snapped by ME,yes ME !
https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4457876285_9c3bf1eb14.jpg
This i took in January this year,from a newspaper daily trust
See the Location in the caption Please someone that lives in Lagos should get us pictures

Thats in front of National Theatre in Orile-Iganmu.
What is the update on Mile 2-Badagry expressway?That last i heard is that FG wont allow ligh rail on the road.Any new developments??

Nigerians need results, We have heard these exciting news time and over again but what happened eventually?

NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll reserve my comments till we get results,

Thanks babapupa and paddy lo for the update,

this thread is very educative.
BEAF needs to be more receptive.

Obiagu1:
Peter Obi is known for his financial prudence and Okonjo Iweala rated Anambra as the best financially managed state in Nigeria. This is what we need in Nigeria along with the battle against corruption which will be championed by Ribadu.
Also, AC is mostly a western party. If it fields Ribadu, whom the people already liked, from the North and Peter Obi who has virtually no dent so far, PDP will be defeated. Peter Obi will deliver both SS and SE for AC while the West will still go AC and Ribadu will deliver the North. So I think it’s the best combo.

Your analysis is seriously flawed.Obi CAN NEVER deliver SS and SE because APGA has only Anambra and that's even shaky.Oshiomole,Donald duke,Utomi and Ikimi will deliver SS and SE,Ribadu will split the North voting block or even win the support of Buhari(Both are anti.corruptionists) while Fashola,Fayemi and Aregbesola will deliver SW.GEJ can retire to his Yenagoa oil-top

But the best combo is Ribadu/Duke or Ribadu/Utomi

What more can i say??

MaziUche0:
Time for a president with an indigenous name!

must you be so daft?what does name have to do with performance.

Good riddance to bad rubbish

Babalola is the Minister Of State while Aganga is the Minister of Finance.
Aganga is one of the star of the present administration and has no controversy so far.

Beaf:
Aren't you spam?

from your earlier posts, one can easily read that the Bini emmissary met the Awori people in Lagos.The Awori people are mainly fishermen who persuaded the Bini prince to stay in Lagos.
That definitely explains that those Awori people are the real Lagosians.We don't need to distort truth for selfish gains or propagation of tribal sentiments.
We don't need to be abusive and stupid about issues.
Yorubas still have similar culture and political ideology with the Binis.
The entire Akoko section of today's Edo state is Yoruba speaking.
One of my friend is Floyd Ayeni.Guess what?He is from Edo state and he will tell you how his Family is a combination of both
Yoruba,Bini and Ichang.

LAGOS— DEPUTY Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said, yesterday, that the N74 billion requested by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was too much and that it was possible to reduce the amount needed to conduct a fresh register for 2011 general elections.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, had asked the Federal Government to relelase N74 billion for a fresh voters’ register.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, Senator Ekweremadu said there was too much poverty in the country for such staggering amount to be used only for voters’ register.

He said the Senate would work closely with INEC to see how the figure could be drastically reduced and still execute the assignment at hand, adding: “I think for the purpose of the election, it (estimate) is reasonable but a country such as here where we have so much poverty, it is on the high side.

“So if there is anyway we can deal with it in such a way that there could be like two polling booths per Data Capturing Machine, DCM, I’m sure its going to reduce the figure. We will work it out with him but he is going to get all the support he needs from us"
May use existing register if…

But Jega was also quick to add that “in the event that the funds are not made available, then the only option would be for the Commission to clean up the register.”

That, too, Jega made clear, “comes with its own problems. What we can do is to print the current register as it is, display it so that people can come and make their claims and objections, but that would be it.

“If somebody observes that his name is there but the photograph is not his own, then we would still need the capture machines and if we don’t have them, that leaves us with the best and only option of doing this thing, carry out a fresh registration of voters.”

The INEC boss said the cost of the exercise is N74 billion.

On a positive note, he said the benefits to derive from this exercise far outweigh whatever the cost is. This is because as we are preparing for the registration of voters, we are also factoring-in the real elections of January.”

truly:
How can one compare Tinubu to PDP - the cradle of corruption
Look at the people Tinubu served with - Daniel, Agagu, Ladoja/Akala
Chimaroke Nnamani, Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Odili
The Fed allocation when these people served was much lower than what governors are sharing now
Even then, Obj witheld federal allocation from Tinubu on account of his creation of additional LGs
So it is statistically wrong to compare Chime and Amaechi to Tinubu in terms of resources
Notwithstanding I live in Lagos, let us name the projects done by these people

BTW Amaechi was one of those who advised Johnathan to send footbal into the wilderness for 2 years
while Dophins players had not reciced salary for 6 months

Despite running Lagos with only IGR,Tinubu led the pack among the 1999-2007 governors including the oil-rich Niger-Delta governors.He did so well to the chagrin of his detractors and it was on his goodwill Fashola rode to become governor.
oBJ used all Federal might. Against Tinubu but fell short of it.