₦airaland Forum

LadyHeaven:
Please where can one read life experiences of studying and living in Estonia?

i want to know if their degrees are worth it and not like Cyprus

Try to narrow down your questions.

However, you can do a research online or read this thread from the start.

October 8, 2018

The staff of the multimedia organisation, Gotel Communications, owned by former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, are currently in distress over owed severance benefits and delays in payment of salaries.

The Yola, Adamawa State based media organisation, which has a television channel and two radio stations, has also scaled down its operational hours due to challenges associated with finances and management.

Uncertainty is brewing among staff who the company owes over N97 million in unpaid entitlements, due to disengagement of their previous appointments.


Insiders blamed the situation on what they called a “sit-tight and overbearing committee” which Mr Abubakar set up to reposition the company three years ago, and the former vice president’s carefree attitude to the business.

The indebtedness started in 2016 after the committee appointed to re-organise the station sacked all staffers and re-engaged some of them in fresh appointments.

Those who were asked to go were reportedly paid promptly while those re-absolved in the organisation are yet to get their pay despite issuance of disengagement letters bearing what every staff was due to receive.

Staff retrenchment
Insiders at the station told PREMIUM TIMES the business became distressed with the economic recession of 2015, leading to a series of reorganisation measures.

To coordinate the reorganisation, Mr Abubakar, who on Sunday emerged the presidential candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 elections. appointed a seven-member committee named Gotel Communications Restructuring Committee (GCRC).

The committee is headed by Adamu Modibbo, a retired banker and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Adamawa State.

Others in the committee are Babakura Jatau; a son of Mr Abubakar, Abba Abubakar; Timaus Mathias; Abdullahi Nyako; and Abdullahi Babalele. The organisation’s acting managing director, Mohammed El-Yakub is the secretary of the committee.



In October 2016, the committee took the decision to cut down staff strength of the station.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the workforce was scaled down in the wake of the reforms, which brought down staff number from 306 to 125.

The disengagement and re-absorption were initially carried out verbally before local unions pushed for formal communication.

It took almost a year before the management issued letters dated August 2017, backdating the actions to October 2016.

One staff who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said the reduction in staff strength was so sharp that current staff are being overworked.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that apart from those retrenched, some staff also resigned their posts due to the situation at the stations.

One staff alleged that a few staffers later hired by the controversial committee were not as competent as those sacked, and therefore unable to cope.

“For example, I work for almost seven days a week running from one task to another, something that ought to be done by nothing less than three staff. I hardly get a day off, throughout the week,” he said.

There has also not been a new condition of service and salary scale in place, despite the spirited effort of the local chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the National Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union (RATTAWU).

A November resolution of the combined sittings of the two unions seen by our reporter catalogued the issues and appealed to the reorganisation committee for redress.



The company’s managing director, Mohammed El-Yakub, said his management team is pushing for the settlement of the owed benefits through the restructuring committee.

But speaking to PREMIUM TIMES, chairperson of the Gotel Chapel of the NUJ, Muhammad Mustapha, said almost a year since the November 2017 submission to the management, the issues are yet to be addressed.

Rather than attending to contending issues, in line with the purported reforms sought to be implemented, the committee is overseeing what one staff called “strangulation” of the radio and television channels.

“As I speak to you, we don’t have internet connection. We use modem, and even the modems are inadequate that some of us have to provide for ourselves,” one source, a presenter at one of the radio stations said.

The radio station on AM frequency, which used to operate for 24 hours has scaled down hours of operations, and insiders said even in those active hours, the stations often go off air due to short supply of fuel.

“Sometimes, if there is no electricity, we have to be off air as diesel is not always available to power the stations. Finances are now controlled by the committee and the managing director is just there, helpless,” on operation staff said.

Committee reacts
When contacted, chairman of the restructuring committee, Adamu Modibbo, denied charges of mismanaging the stations.

He admitted that staff were being owed benefits from the retrenchment but, contrary to the promises his committee made to the staff about payment, Mr Modibbo told PREMIUM TIMES they are not paying anytime soon.

Mr Modibbo, who initially said the new system has written off the old condition of service which “was not contributory pension system” however, said under the new contributory pension arrangement, the company cannot pay those benefits until those staff are unemployed.

Reminded that the old system was different, by his own admission, and that beneficiaries were already issued with letters of engagement bearing the amount they are each entitled to, Mr Modibbo maintained his grounds.

“Those that are not paid are those that were asked to continue to work. We reabsorbed them,” he said.

“In other words, the reason why we said they were disengaged and reabsorbed is that is the nature of the new condition of service because it is the contributory pension scheme.



“We disengaged them under the former system but reabsorbed them under the new condition of service which is contributory pension scheme. How do you expect us to pay them entitlement when they are still working? Can you pay someone pension when he is still getting salary?”

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/289103-staff-of-atikus-media-outfit-cry-over-unpaid-entitlements.html?fbclid=IwAR2G6-my-x_Gm3GE9Y5UUtniyNtwCjC-adUbxGXYVrgQZVEHEGHtJvmHyXI#.W-afd-E0iIc.facebook

SmartMindsFx:
He told his followers not to deny any military personnel entry. They should allow a smooth passage and once the personnel is deep in their midst, they should kill him and his entourage and behead them.

Thanks

SmartMindsFx:
Inasmuch as I am a million percent against any form of violence and cheating, I have a serious problem with the shiites and their so called peaceful marches.

First of all, why did your Leader and his deciples block a whole chief of Army Staff from forging ahead?
That's where the whole problem started.

There's this video moving around where Zak spoke in Hausa and what he said was crazy.
Request for link and I'll send it.

Please I have been looking for someone to interpret that video. What did he say?

I see nothing interesting here.

shezpwiti:
Pls what is the least grade universities in estonia require?

Second class upper

shezpwiti:
Pls I am about to start applying for masters in estonia and the school and course I want to study cost about 2500 euros but pls I want to know how much I will need to cover my flight and accommodation and how much they will cost. I will appreciate if anybody answers me

Calculation of cost of flight, accommodation, visa, etc are not that straight forward because you will need to visit a transit country to get Schengen visa.

The cost depends on the transit country you visit as well as whether you will have to return to Nigeria after you are issued your Schengen visa.

Nowenuse:
PMB will win North-central after he has ignored fulani herdsmen killings all over the region right? I'm sure fulani herdsmen and their cattles in the NC are enough to make Buhari win the NC. Rubbish!

Same NC states that went gaga when Buhari visited?

[quote author=Jidris post=71540879][/quote]Did you get South Africa?

buzuazi:
Good evening nairalanders.Pls,would like to know if Egypt and turkey route is now hictchfree so as to obtain visa easily.Your responses would be highly appreciated as the visa route issue disrupted me lastThanks

Apply with your school documents and do it early, Egyptian embassy in Abuja will give you visa before your resumption date is near.

TolaTosin:
Read the verses before then and under the context.

Stop picking a sentence, and quoting it out of context.

I have done that since centuries ago

CynthiaChi:
I just don't get why someone would send nude pics to a complete stranger... Why send them in the first place for pete's sake?

May be for a price.

TolaTosin:
stop quoting the Bible upside down. What led to that statement by Jesus is not related to the topic

How is it not related? I quoted the bible verbatim, so what do you mean by upside down?

Jesus taught celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom. So it is part of the reasons the Catholic Church adopted it.

Ayodele92:
Has anyone been nominated for the 2018/2019 stipedium Hungaricum scholarship?

I like to know more about schooling in Hungary. What are the requirements? Are there student Jobs for English speakers?

Ayodele92:
That's a lie,.a friend of mine just secured admission at Hungary with a 2.2 (2.94/5.0). He even went to NOUN.

ANOTHER ONE ALSO SECURED ADMISSION AT UNIVERSITY OF HANNOVER IN GERMANY

Euroacademy is a school in Estonia. He wasn't talking about schools in Europe.

I pity these misguided youths.

tiredoflife:
Why do women always need house maid
There latest complain is no one is helping me

Why should someone help u

I hear it from mum sisters mothers and its so annoying

The stress of modern life.

On the topic, it is very bad. Some people don't have human love. But some of these housemaids are evil too. I know one Madam who kept four such housemaids, all about 13 years, but one of of them behaved like a witch. One day quarrel bursted among the girls, and they exposed one of them as always spitting on her Madam's husband food. Just because the man sometimes shouts on them.

The worst she would use water to rinse her mouth and mix it with her Madam's baby food. An18 months old baby.

The Madam and her husband didn't touch her because they didn't want trouble, but when they invited the housemaid's people, they dealt with her in the presence of her Madam before taking her away.

The girl was wrong, and she didn’t manage the situation well.

slysite4real:
Appointment dates in Turkish embassy in Abuja would already be in October by now. In early July it was already in September.

Hmmm, there is a way. One can be lucky

Chisense, You might want to try Turkey too.