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Uchegbu Obinna John-Paul, an indigene of Ohaji Egbema in Imo state has taking over the social media following his excellent results in WAEC and JAMB examinations,. respectively.

According to his mentor, Amb. Pope Saviola, Obinna recorded a score of 331 in his JAMB exams and bagged 9 A’s in the recently released WAEC results.

The Lad is aspiring to study Medicine and Surgery, and has been working tirelessly towards it, his mentor said.

Credit: PressExpress

WAEC’s Head of National Office, Patrick Areghan made the disclosure on Monday while speaking at a media briefing.

The results of students who sat for the recently concluded 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations, (WASSCE) have been released by the West African Examinations Council, WAEC.

WAEC’s Head of National Office, Patrick Areghan made the disclosure on Monday while speaking at a media briefing.

According to him, the results were released 45 days after the last paper.

The examination held for six weeks from May 16 to June 23, 2022.

Details shortly….

Nigerian Students Begins Move To Impeach President, Asefon Over Alleged Incompetence, Illegal Tenure Elongation

Some members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have started the process of removing Sunday Asefon as its President over alleged unlawful tenure elongation.

The members accused him of the inability to serve the primary purpose of the association, which is to protect the general interest of all Nigerian students, both at home and abroad.

Asefon was elected on December 4, 2020, for a one-year tenure at the NANS convention in Abuja at the age of 45 and was supposed to hand over in December 2021. He has however failed to conduct another convention or hand over in line with the association’s constitution.

Teachers in Rwanda are the latest to join the world’s good earners. The government has announced a pay increment of 88 percent for primary school teachers, effective this August 2022. Other ranks within the profession equally received good percentages of pay rise.

Minister for Education, Valentine Uwamariya said in a joint session that, “it is not just about arise in payment, but we are looking at it as a way of creating a conducive environment for teachers who have long been unstable in this profession.”

The increment will see primary teacher will receive a net pay of Rwf108,488 instead of the current Rwf57,639. Teachers who hold the A1 certificates will also get a 40 per cent pay rise. The minister also said Graduate teachers will be paid Rwf246,384 representing an increase from Rwf176,189.

Announcement on teachers’ salary increment in primary and secondary schools.

— Ministry of Education | Rwanda (@Rwanda_Edu) August 1, 2022

Officials say the drastic policy is meant to improve the living conditions of teachers and also retain them in the field. According to statistics, some number of teachers were exiting the field in search for better options due to poor conditions. With the recent changes, hope has been restored for the teachers.

Constitutional lawyer, Femi Falana SAN, has called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to recover funds from looters to fulfil its agreement with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Falana said this on Tuesday, when he joined the Nigeria Labour Congress at a solidarity protest in Lagos.

He said, “Let them stop deceiving our people that there is no money. A few of them, about 400 took loans from our banks, called them toxic loans, N5.4 trillion is owed.

“President Buhari collect money from 10 of your people, 10 looters to resolve this problem. One of them was charged on Friday. The man has stolen N1.9 billion, one person. There are those who have stolen more, there are those who are stealing more.”

Credit: Punch

Mustapha, one of the sons of the former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has graduated from the University of Portsmouth, London.

He bagged a first class in Economics from the UK university on Tuesday, July 19

The former monarch, his wives, children and family friends attended the graduation.

Credit: Instagram | Lindaikejiblog

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu to resolve the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike and industrial action by three other university-based unions and report back to him in two weeks’ time.

The President gave the directive on Tuesday, July 19, during a meeting with some Ministers and heads of Federal Government agencies playing roles in resolving the lingering crises within the tertiary subsector of the education sector.

Among those at the meeting, besides Adamu, were the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed; the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Ngige; and the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami.

Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, proceeded on one month warning strike on February 14, and other unions also withdrew their services after that as a result of the alleged inability of the federal government to meet up with their demands.

The three other unions that embarked on strike are the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions, NASU and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT.

President Buhari summoned the Tuesday meeting to receive briefing from the government team on why the strike has lingered for too long.

The President after hearing from the relevant MDA’s directly involved ordered the Minister of Education to ensure that the impasse was resolved within two weeks and report back to him.

After the pictures of students from St. Kizito writing promotional exam on bare floor went viral, the Ogun state government has quickly reacted by providing chairs and tables for the student of St. Kizito High School, Iwopin, Ogun Waterside.

The state government also promise to do more to the school.

Photos of St. Kizito’s High School Students Iwopin, Ogun Waterside, writing their Promotion Exams, on the bare floor earlier today, 18th July, 2022.

Mohammed Sani Badaru, the son of Jigawa State Governor, Badaru Abubakar, has graduated from Brunel University London, in the United Kingdom. 
 
Wife of the governor, Hajiya Magajiya Badaru Abubakar and other family members attended the graduation ceremony held on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
 
His siblings took to Instagram to congratulate him and also shared photos from the ceremony.

Hope rose again for students of public universities as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday said it had completed negotiation with the Federal Government on the issues that led to its 141-day-old strike.

“The strike can end tomorrow. We are done with the negotiations and now waiting for the government to call us for the signing of the renegotiated agreement,” ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, announced.

Osodeke was however quick to explain that all the issues that led to the strike remained unresolved since a pact has yet to be signed by the parties to the dispute.

The ASUU boss, who was featured on Channels’ Politics Today, listed the non-revitalisation of infrastructure in the universities and the disputed mode of payments to university teachers as some of the issues.

He attributed the lingering strike to what he called a lack of will by the government to do the needful.

Osedeke explained that ASUU embarked on the strike after exhausting all avenues available to amicably resolve the issues with the government.

His words: “If the government had been willing to resolve the issues affecting Nigerians, then there would be no need to go on strike. The problem is the will of the government to resolve issues,

“All the issues that made us go on strike are still there; that is the revitalisation fund that is putting more money into universities and revitalising the infrastructure in the universities. “There is also the issue of our mode of payments in the universities.

There is no university in the world where lecturers are paid salaries from the Accountant General’s Office.

“We have challenged them to provide one, if universities are a universal body, why are they doing things differently? “We talk of negotiation of the agreement, the proliferation of universities, among others, so there are lots of issues that they have not resolved.

“What we are doing is for the benefit of Nigerians. We want a a situation where there will not be a disparity between the children of the rich and the poor in knowledge acquisition in this country.”

Meanwhile, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently recover missing N105.7bn of public funds from ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to fund the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in order return to classrooms without further delay.”

SERAP said, “Pending the recovery of the missing public funds, we urge you to redirect some of the presidency’s budget of N3.6 billion on feeding and travels, and the N134 billion allocated to the National Assembly in the 2022 budget to meet the demands by ASUU.”

SERAP also urged him to “send to the National Assembly a fresh supplementary appropriation bill, which reflects the proposed redirected budget, for its approval.

In related news, a 20-year-old female student of Gombe State University (GSU) identified as Maryam Adamu, has lamented that the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has forced her into an urgent search for a husband.

The 200-level student of Public Administration at GSU explained in an interview in Gombe that the strike has messed up her plan and wish of graduating before the age of 20 and that the continued strike and her staying at home have slowly killed her spirit of studying before marriage.

Credit: PressExpress

A 200 level student of Gombe state University made this known on his social media handle.

“I cannot take it anymore, our continued staying at home following the shutting down of academic activities since February is not going down well on us, many of us have lost the spirit, as I speak now, if I am to be asked to choose between going back to school and marriage, I would put marriage first.

“This strike has forced me into an urgent search for a husband because that is what I could think of while staying at home with no assignments and studies to keep me busy, most of my friends who had married earlier when marriage was a no-go area for me are today nursing their one or two children and am in a way jealous.”

-Maryam Adamu, 200-Level Student Of Gombe State University

A civil society, Save Public Education Campaign, has called on the striking university lecturers, students and parents across the country, to get ready for  mass actions to compel the Nigerian government to take necessary steps to end the strike action of the university lecturers.

The group also called for immediate payment of all withheld salaries of the striking academic lecturers and unions across the country.


Addressing a press conference on Monday in Abuja on behalf of the group the Co-conveners, Comrade Vivian Bello and Comrade Dimeji Macaulay, the group berated the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government for wasting humongous amounts of money and resources on political parties’ Nomination forms and Primaries.
It scolded the government for taking politics as priority while relegating the issues of education and future of Nigerian children to the background.

Bello described the action of government toward the plight of the lecturers which bordered on issues of poor welfare as ridiculous, absurd and unacceptable.

She lamented the time lost by the students in public universities across the country which she said amounted to an entire two and half years under the Buhari government.

Vivian said, “Distressing statistics show that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has been on strike for a total of over 725 days, since the beginning of this administration over issues that bother largely on poor welfare, University Autonomy and lack of adequate funding for Universities. When tallied inversely, this amounts to an entire two and half years lost, in the educational lives of innocent Nigerian children/students in public universities across the country.
“It did not end there; the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education, ASUP and COEASU are all also currently on strike on similar issues as ASUU. We all can see clearly, that this is an all-round collapse of the tertiary education sector in the country.

“We make bold to say, that if government will recognise the futility in its so-called insecurity-fighting campaign, change strategy and invest a greater proportion of the resources it is expending in the insecurity campaign in providing robust, efficient and quality educational system and structure and qualitatively educate its teeming citizenry, within a calculated period of time, insecurity will gradually die a natural  death in Nigeria and the society will take on its hitherto regular and peaceful equilibrium.
“In order words, we submit boldly that education can be a veritable panacea to insecurity in Nigeria. In view of the gravity of the situation, we make a clarion call for unity and coming together of staff unions, students, workers and communities across the country, to mobilise and get ready for civic mass actions to compel the government to take the necessary steps to end the strike and have the millions of our children and students, return to school to end the jeopardy of their education and future.”

On his own part, Macaulay faulted the unpopular policies of Buhari’s led government
in education sector which he said had affected public universities and tertiary institutions across the country.

He called on government to discontinue with the Integrated Payment Platform and Information System (IPPIS) platform adding that evidence by the striking academic unions showed that the platform was problematic, inconsistent and fraudulent.
He therefore called for the deployment of the proposed University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as suggested by the lecturers.

“On the other hand, the children of ruling elites are graduating in different international universities across developed countries around the world. Soon, if the situation persists, we will have no option than to compile names of these public officials and their children, and demand the hosting countries and schools expel them to return and have education as it is, in their home country, Nigeria,” Macaulay said.

Credit: SaharaReporters

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has observed that resolving its ongoing strike action could be done by the adoption of the transparent payment platform, University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS).

Dr Socrates Ebo, Chairperson of ASUU, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State chapter, in a statement, lamented that the deep-rooted penchant for corruption within government ethos is all out to frustrate its deployment, saying that UTAS has been proven to be a flawless payment platform.

According to him, the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), has been decisively proven to be a porous, easily compromised payment platform.

The chairperson opined that the IPPIS has been ineffective in curtailing waste of resources, stressing that on the contrary it has been used to pad payrolls and used to effect all manner of fraudulent deductions from workers’ salaries.

He explained, “We definitely can’t continue this way, the adoption of a transparent payment platform is critical to resolving the current impasse in the nation’s university system. UTAS has been proven to be a flawless payment platform but the deep-rooted penchant for corruption in our government ethos is all out to frustrate its deployment.”

He stated that no lecturer under IPPIS can say for certain what his salary is, pointing out that what they find queer is the insistence of some government officials on the use of IPPIS when it is proven to be compromised and corruption-prone.

The statement noted that UTAS has been designed to be corruption-proof, asking why the government would not be interested in a payment platform that is cheap, 100% corruption-proof, and 100% indigenous.

It stated that if IPPIS was corruption-proof, the accountant-general of the federation would not have been able to loot N80 billion and N70 billion.

It said the statement claimed of savings by IPPIS are fraudulent, saying that IPPIS arbitrarily cuts workers’ legitimate salaries to cover its heavily corrupt and inefficient tracks to create the false impression of efficiency and savings.

The statement explained that the recently paid minimum wage arrears are a case study as many persons have not been paid till date, stressing that in his branch alone, 40 persons have not been paid while the Minister of Labour thinks that they were paid three years arrears.

He added that what they received was a mere nine months without any clear template on how the payments were made, stressing that nobody knows what they are entitled to, nobody can ask questions to anybody and even the university bursars can’t explain how the payments were made and what was paid.

He suggested that the government should get serious with education in the country, saying that in the 60s and 70s, the universities ranked high among their peers with scholars all over the world coming to their universities to teach and study.

He lamented that today, the universities are so dead that even their politicians no longer believe in them as they now send their wards abroad for the same education, saying that they are the people killing education in the country as ASUU is the only bastion of defence for quality education in this country.

The chairperson noted that when education is destroyed, healthcare is also destroyed, and doctors are taught new procedures and skills at the universities, not at Aso Rock Clinic or National Assembly, pointing out that eventually, everyone gets sick and everyone eventually suffers consequences of the dearth of educational infrastructure.

Credit: Daily Times Nigeria