₦airaland Forum

Striking teachers have rejected a directive by the National Labour Commission, asking them to call off their industrial action.
The teachers say the Labour Commission's ruling is unfair and will not compel them to reverse their decision.
Teachers across the country have boycotted the classrooms to demand improved service conditions and allowances. They also want their 15 percent retention allowance revised upwards after three years of the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The National Labour Commission had directed the striking
teachers to return to the classroom whilst negotiations continued. But the teachers say they will not comply with the
decision.
President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers
(NAGRAT), Christian Addai-Opoku, has described the NLC ruling as “unfair” stressing; “their members “will not comply” with the directive.
According to Mr. Addai-Opoku, there is no negotiation going on currently because, “the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, (FWSC) claims it does not have the mandate to negotiate with us”.
He said NAGRAT is ready to face the NLC in court should the
latter decide to take legal action against them. He said the
teachers were determined to sustain the action until their
concerns were addressed.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Kwabena Osei, Head of salaries at Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) told Joy News “GNAT cannot give any assurance that their members will stop the strike” because “they are fully aware of the circumstances and the leadership supports the action of their members”.
http://www.modernghana.com/mobile/453476/1/striking-teachers-reject-nlcs-directive-say-ruling.html

Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Education (MoE) Paul Krampah has strongly indicated that authorities at the Ministry are on top of issues apropos the strike action embarked upon by members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT).
He explained that contingency plans have been put in place to insulate students from being directly affected by the teachers’ action. Mr Krampah was speaking in a heated interview on TV3’s 7GMT on Tuesday, March 19, 2013.
Mr Krampah disclosed that heads of government schools have been directed by the Ministry to Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Education (MoE) Paul Krampah has strongly indicated that authorities at the Ministry are on top of issues apropos the strike action embarked upon by members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT).
He explained that contingency plans have been put in place to insulate students from being directly affected by the teachers’ action. Mr Krampah was speaking in a heated interview on TV3’s 7GMT on Tuesday, March 19, 2013.
Mr Krampah disclosed that heads of government schools have been directed by the Ministry to implement a contingency plan, which he failed to make public. “We are just waiting for a report from them,” he said.
War with teachers?
Asked why the Ministry’s contingency plan appears not be visible in schools visited by our correspondents, Mr Krampah indicated that when one is at war, it will go against that warrior if they disclose their plan, to their opponents.
“But the Ministry is on top of the issues,” he emphasised.
“We shall continue with monitoring,” he said of the situation, which has left some schools falling back on national service personnel and non-teaching staff including cooks to invigilate terminal exams.
He noted the Minister of Education, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, visited five schools in the Accra metropolis and all but one had teachers at post.
He said most of the teachers the Minister talked to “were not even aware of the concerns raised by their leaders.”
The nationwide strike by teachers is in its second day though the National Labour Commission has directed teachers to return to classrooms since negotiations are ongoing. implement a contingency plan, which he failed to make public.
“We are just waiting for a report from them,” he said.
War with teachers?
Asked why the Ministry’s contingency plan appears not be visible in schools visited by our correspondents, Mr Krampah indicated that when one is at war, it will go against that warrior if they disclose their plan, to their opponents.
“But the Ministry is on top of the issues,” he emphasised.
“We shall continue with monitoring,” he said of the situation, which has left some schools falling back on national service personnel and non-teaching staff including cooks to invigilate terminal exams.
He noted the Minister of Education, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, visited five schools in the Accra metropolis and all but one had teachers at post.
He said most of the teachers the Minister talked to “were not even aware of the concerns raised by their leaders.”
The nationwide strike by teachers is in its second day though the National Labour Commission has directed teachers to return to classrooms since negotiations are ongoing.
http://www.tv3network.com/Education/teachers-strike-education-ministry-on-top-of-issues-says-pro.html

Agrika: Orpelin
Bro, are U high on something
What then can U say abt the bomb incident that happened around bumpia last year Jan
MR. PLS KINDLY SHUT-UP AND READ WHAT I WROTE, I SAID FOR ONCE I WILL PERSONALLY NOT ATTRIBUTE THIS BOMBING TO B.H BUT TO KANO STATE GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAS BEEN HAVING SOME INTERNAL SCRUFFLE WITH IGBO TRADERS AND TRANSPORTERS.

Ogbeche77: na that same luxurious park wey we dey enter lagos and katsina bus oooo.. No be small tin ooo.. I just dey happy say I don comot that warzone

Agrika: For once, this is not B.H, but the politics of the Government of Kano who have been battling with igbos since they refuse to relocate the park and also thier drug bussiness to another site, hiding under BH to commit atrocities, welldone Mal. Kwankwaso.

2015 general elections appear to be under threat as some senior officials of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, vested with the responsibility of planning and implementing the vote, are enmeshed in a dispute with the Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
The affected staff, who had taken their promotion examination since May 2012 and had been expecting their promotion letters having passed the test, are angry that the Commission has not only withheld the result but has also gone ahead to use extraneous criteria to promote selected staff from some states in the country. The action has given rise to the fear that some staff are systematically being positioned to give a section of the country undue advantage in the 2015 presidential election.
“The structure of the place (INEC) remains skewed, biased
and worrisome as we approach 2015. Promotion has been
swayed more by regional control of the place to the extent
that the criteria are not certain. Recently, at a meeting, a suggestion was put forward for what was termed ‘special promotion’ without giving details of what constitutes special promotion and if there is any promotion in the civil service called by such name. It all turned out to be more people from a section of the country who would be promoted.
It is still in the cooler because it could not be defended but the move may come under a new strategy”, a source said.
Findings by Sunday Vanguard revealed that apart from scoring a minimum of 60 percent in the May 2012 promotion exam, INEC also considered state quota in promoting most of the 669 senior staff who took the exam and were recommended for promotion.

Trouble started when some of the affected staff awaiting their promotion letters got to know that they had been stagnated because of what INEC described as “lack of vacancies in the affected employees’ states”.
On the promotion list, which Sunday Vanguard sighted,
last night, some staff who scored 60 percent in the examination were recommended for elevation while others who scored 67 percent were stagnated because there were ‘’no vacancies” in their states.
Some of the aggrieved workers have, however, dismissed
the claim of lack of vacancies as an afterthought by the
electoral body’s authorities to deny them career advancement since the issue was not a criterion before the
examination was set.
Their grouse is that Jega invented a ‘strange rule’ to promote people in some states to the detriment of those from other states who passed the examination in flying colours.
The breakdown in some states shows that the staff from many states were denied promotion because of their number. For instance, of the 15 senior staff from Abia State recommended for elevation, only three were denied due to lack of vacancies.
Only eight of the 30 staff of Akwa Ibom origin in INEC,who
were successful in the exam, were promoted due to the fact that the state has had it’s fair share in the Commission.
Similarly, in Anambra, only nine persons out of 25 who passed the test were promoted.
The situation was the same in Imo, where only seven out of 37 were lifted to their new ranks while six were elevated out of 17 who made it in Benue.
But some states were lucky. Lagos got 12 out of 12, Delta
got all its 11 workers lifted, Zamfara, all four, Yobe, all eight, Sokoto got all seven recommended, Ekiti, nine, Nasarawa, all seven, Gombe seven, and Taraba, all 12.
Bayelsa, Ondo, Enugu and Kebbi got close to getting all that was recommended for promotion in those states.
Only one out of the nine recommended for elevation in Bayelsa did not get it just as two out of 13 in Jigawa lost out. ”0ur worry is that the chairman is inventing a segregative measures to favour those he likes and stagnate the others from certain states in the country”, one of the aggrieved INEC staff said.
This strange tactic is unknown to the civil service rules which emphasise the promotion of staff based on performance at the promotion examination and not on state of origin.
“Let it be known that this policy is an afterthought since it was not made before the promotion examination. It, therefore, amounts to shifting the goalpost after the game had been concluded. “It is on record that the welfare policy of the Jega administration in INEC is at zero level.
His lot has been unfulfilled promises and this has led to an all-time low morale of staff across the country.
The staff are feeling betrayed and deceived since Jega has
only two years to the end of his tenure in INEC.” The aggrieved staff also accused the administration of using consultants to undertake jobs, which could be handled by
staff at exorbitant costs, thereby depleting the resources of the Commission.
The workers said the recent recruitment of 1,500 workers by the electoral body did not follow due process, leading to the querying of the process by the National Assembly. The workers accused Jega of smuggling the new staff into INEC with the active connivance of a national commissioner and a level 13 officer.
But the Commission’s Chairman dismissed all the allegations as baseless and a figment of the imagination of those bent on discrediting INEC and its objective management policies. Jega, who spoke through his Chief
Press Secretary, Mr. Kayode Idowu, stated that, contrary to
the allegation of favouritism levelled against him, he did
his best to ensure that those who passed the examination were promoted based on available vacancies and taking
into cognisance the Federal Character principle.
On the recruitment of the new staff, he said it was done
openly and in accordance with the rules. ”It was because
the recruitment followed due process that the National
Assembly did not invite INEC to answer questions when
some other agencies of the government were summoned
last week,” Idowu explained.
The spokesman also defended the use of consultants by
the Commission to create Asset Register, saying that nine existed before the appointment of the Jega-led administration. ”Look, let me tell you that all these
allegations are often fuelled by people who do not want things done the right way. Prof Jega is determined to change the ways things were done shoddily and move the Commission forward for the best interest of the nation,” the spokesman stated.

obadiah777: IT DOES NOT CONNECT AT ALL. THAT EVENT HAS NOT HAPPENED YET. IT WOULD HAPPEN IN THE SECOND COMING. WHAT HAPPENED IN 1948 WAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LORD. SCRIPTURE SAYS WHEN MY PEOPLE RETURN TO THE LAND YOU WILL KNOW BECAUSE THERE WILL BE PERMANENT PEACE ON EARTH. EZEKIEL 38

Russian officials here have so far declined to comment on the announcement, which was made in Washington on Friday by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Aides to President Vladimir V. Putin said there would be no reaction until early next week, when they expect to be briefed by American officials. But Russian news accounts quickly noted that the decision could portend a breakthrough in what has been a largely intractable dispute between Russia and the United States for years. A headline by the Itar-Tass news agency declared, “U.S. abandons fourth phase of European missile defense system that causes the greatest objections from Russia.”
Pentagon officials said that those longstanding objections by Russia played no role in the decision to reconfigure the missile interceptor program, which they said was based on the increased threat from North Korea, and on technological difficulties and budget considerations related to the Europe-based program.
“The missile defense decisions Secretary Hagel announced were in no way about Russia,” George Little, a Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday. “They were based on technological developments and increased threat of ballistic missiles from North Korea.” Still, other Obama administration officials acknowledged potential benefits if the decision is well-received in Moscow, as well as the possibility of continued objections given that the United States is not backing away from its core plan for a land-based missile shield program in Central Europe.
“There’s still an absolutely firm commitment to European missile defense, which is not about Russia; it’s about Iran these days,” said a senior administration official. “If there are side benefits that accrue with Russia, so be it. But that wasn’t a primary driver of this policy change.”
Regardless, some experts said it could provide a breakthrough by eliminating what the Russians had cited as one of their main objections — interceptors that would target long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are part of Russian’s nuclear arsenal but not Iran’s.
American experts insisted that the Russians’ concern was
exaggerated and that the system would not have jeopardized their strategic missiles, had the final phase been developed. But that Russian concern has now been addressed.
“There is no threat to Russian missiles now,” said Steven Pifer, an arms control expert who has managed Russia policy from top positions at the State Department and the National Security Council. “If you listen to what the Russians have been saying for the last two years, this has been the biggest obstacle to things like cooperation with NATO.”
“Potentially this is very big,” said Mr.Pifer, now of the Brookings Institution. “And it’s going to be very interesting seeing how the Russians react once they digest it.”
However, the change does not address the Russians’ political
objections to the program, which centers on the deployment of American missile interceptors in Eastern Europe. That part of the program will remain.
Until the conflict over the missile shield program, the United
States and Russia had been discussing the possibility of a jointly developed common missile defense program that the former cold war rivals would operate together to protect the world from an attack by a rogue state or by terrorists. If Russia’s says its concerns have been addressed, such talks could potentially resume, Mr. Pifer and other experts said.
In recent weeks, Russia had also indicated that there was virtually no possibility of agreeing to further nuclear arms reductions beyond what was included in the New Start Treaty — a major priority for President Obama — without the United States first addressing Russia’s concerns about missile defense.
Sean Kay, a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University and expert in international security issue and Russian relations, said that the so-called fourth stage of the Europe-based missile defense program “was largely conceptual” and might never have been completed. Still, he said, it prompted “significant technological concern for Russia.” Eliminating that portion of the program made sense, Mr. Kay said. “In effect, by sticking with a plan that was neither likely to work in the last stage but was creating significant and needless diplomatic hurdles at the same time, we gained nothing,” he said. “If in the process of eliminating a costly and non-effective element via stage four we might get more constructive engagement from Russia on Iran, we have the potential to make considerable national security gains.” He added, “The bottom line is we sacrifice nothing for this.”
http:// www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/world/europe/with-eye-on-north-korea-us-cancels-missile-defense-russia-opposed.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Tonya Long, a 13-year Army veteran, approved military cash payments to Afghan drivers of "jingle trucks," the colorful transport trucks that carry supplies to U.S. bases.
Last week, Staff Sgt. Long stood in the dock in a federal courtroom here and read aloud from a statement she had written on notebook paper:
"I cannot express how sorry I am … I chose to betray my country and my family." She did not ask for mercy, she told a judge, "because I don't deserve it."
Long, 30, had pleaded guilty to stealing at least $1 million and shipping the cash in hundred-dollar bills to the U.S. in the guts of hollowed-out VCR players.
Long's scam is part of a pattern of fraud and theft among U.S.
soldiers responsible for paying Afghans who support U.S. forces.
Last year, 18 U.S. soldiers were charged with such thefts,
according to the Special Inspector General for Afghan
Reconstruction. Nine U.S. contractors also were charged.
The inspection agency is now investigating 80 bribery and
corruption cases, "and the Tonya Long case is a prime example," said Special Inspector General John F. Sopko.
Recent prosecutions have described U.S. soldiers creating
elaborate schemes to pocket piles of cash, often with the
complicity of corrupt Afghans.
Last June, investigators seized $23,000 sewn inside a teddy bear at a base in Afghanistan. The sergeant who had tried to mail the bear to the U.S. told them he was returning cash sent to him to buy carpets, but couldn't explain why he sewed it inside the bear.
The Case is under investigation.
In September, a disbursing agent at Bagram Airfield, Sgt. Nancy Nicole Smith, pleaded guilty to forging documents and stealing $100,000 intended for U.S. military operations. Smith stuffed the money in a backpack before her flight to the U.S. at the end of her tour.
In October, Sgt. Christopher Weaver pleaded guilty to his part in a scheme to steal more than $1 million in fuel intended for U.S. forces and sell it to an Afghan. Weaver was paid $5,000 for every 5,000-gallon truck he allowed to illegally leave a U.S. base near Jalalabad. In December, Staff Sgt. Philip Stephen Wooten, a paying agent, pleaded guilty to stealing about $225,000 by falsifying receipts for money intended for reconstruction efforts. Sgt. 1st Class Mauricio Espinoza, who contracted with Afghan vendors, was charged in the same case.
At least two other U.S. Army officers are under investigation in Long's scam, and federal prosecutors say more indictments are likely. As part of a plea deal, Long agreed to testify against others allegedly involved.
At Long's hearing March 4, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle
called the case "a critically symbolic prosecution," and speculated that Long and her suspected allies might have actually stolen $10 million or more. The judge suggested that such thefts have been going on since the U.S. mission in Afghanistan began more than a decade ago.
"I can't disagree with that," said FBI Special Agent Timothy G Gannon, who investigated Long.
Long, also known as Tonya Long Keebaugh, was caught after a tipster alerted investigators that the U.S. was paying Afghan trucking companies for phantom deliveries from Kandahar Airfield. The companies gave cash kickbacks to Long and other soldiers, prosecutors said.
In court, prosecutors described how Long loaded the VCRs stuffed with cash into footlockers and cleared them for shipment to the U.S., affixing a seal to the cargo container.
The seal meant the container would not be inspected by customs officers upon entering the U.S. The items were claimed at Pope Field, N.C., by a captain working with Long, according to prosecutors. He locked the money in safes inside his apartment near Ft. Bragg, the prosecution said.
A married mother of three, Long admitted to having sexual
relations with the captain and with a second captain, later
promoted to major, who was also accused in the scam.
After the first captain gave Long "a large amount of money," the two ended their affair, Long's lawyer, Edwin C. Walker, told the judge. But Long continued to receive cash because the captain "wanted to keep her quiet," Walker said.
Long spent more than $500,000 on a car, an 18-wheel tractor- trailer, vacations and cosmetic surgeries, prosecutors said.
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