Senate passes bill abolishing HND/BSc discrimination

The Senate, on Wednesday, read for the third time and passed a Bill that seeks to end discrimination between First Degrees graduates from universities and Higher National Diploma (HND) holders from polytechnics in the country.

The passage of the Bill followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service Matters; and Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, during plenary.

Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, in his report, said: “The enactment of the bill to abolish and prohibit discrimination between First Degrees and Higher National Diploma for the purpose of employment in Nigeria will no doubt free holders of HND from stagnation and ensure balanced treatment with their counterparts from other higher tertiary institutions in Nigeria.”

He added that the abolishment of the existing dichotomy between HND holders and graduates of Universities would meet the huge manpower needs of Nigerians, ensure social justice and enhanced corporate governance as well encourage patriotic contributions amongst HND employees in both public and private sectors.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his contribution, said the passage of the Bill would serve as motivation for polytechnic graduates.

He called on the public and private sectors to ensure the implementation of the Bill’s provisions as soon as it is signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“This particular issue has been in the front burner for a long time. I recall that in the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, this was one bill that was so important, and is one way of encouraging our Polytechnic graduates.

“That should not take away from the kind of training they receive, but, in fact, it is supposed to be a motivation for our polytechnic graduates.

“I pray that the Federal Government and all those government agencies and the private sector would start to implement this by the time the President assents to this Bill.”

The Bill which was sponsored by Senator Patrick Ayo Akinyelure seeks to resolve the lingering controversy, discrimination and wage and entry level disparity against HND holder in the public and private sectors of the economy.

It also seeks to promote Nigeria’s technological advancement by encouraging many qualified candidates to pursue polytechnic and technological studies.

It could be recalled that in his lead debate during the second reading of the Bill, Senator Akinyelure had insisted that discrimination against HND holders could ruin the nation’s core policy thrust of evolving a technological and scientifically based society.

Findings, he said, had proved that some polytechnic graduates were in some cases better on the field than their university counterparts.

Nigerian Rapper, Falz Rubbishes Buhari’s Statement On Insecurity

Folarin Falana, better known as Falz, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech on insecurity challenges in the country.

Naija News reports that the Nigerian rapper and songwriter took to his verified Twitter account hours ago to describe as rubbish the threat issued by Buhari over recent killings and destruction of government facilities in the Southeastern parts of the country.

Recall that President Buhari yesterday after a security briefing with members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over attack on its facilities, threatened to deal with those who carried out the attacks.

 Buhari said such individuals or groups seeking to destroy his government will receive the shock of their lives, adding that they will be treated in a language they will understand.

The president’s statement has, however, generated a barrage of reactions as Nigerians home and abroad called out the president for threatening the Igbo speaking people with war.

Joining thousands of Nigerians in reacting to Buhari’s speech, Falz wondered if the president has treated dreaded Boko Haram terrorists and bandits killing innocent Nigerians in a language they understand.

He tweeted:  ”What is this? Have you treated Boko Haram with the “language they understand?” What about the kidnappers & bandits?

”Today you go to London, tomorrow Paris. You are now coming here to tweet rubbish.''

Bop Daddy

@falzthebahdguy

What is this? Have you treated Boko Haram with the “language they understand”? What about the kidnappers & bandits ? Today you go London, tomorrow Paris. You are now coming here to tweet rubbish https://twitter.com/mbuhari/status/1399768537393156097…

10:40 PM · Jun 1, 2021

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Nigerian firm completes acquisition of Shoprite

Ketron Investment Limited, a Nigerian company owned by a group of local investors led by property firm Persianas Investment Ltd, has completed the acquisition of Shoprite Holdings Limited.

With the acquisition, Shoprite, Africa’s largest food retailer, has completed exiting the Nigerian market 16 years after it opened its first outlet.

Ketron in a statement said Shoprite is changing its strategy “from an ownership model to a franchise model. The acquisition has been approved by Nigeria’s federal competition and consumer protection commission.

“We look forward to building an even stronger company following our acquisition,” said Tayo Amusan, Ketron’s chairman.

Shoprite, which operates 2,843 supermarkets in 15 countries, serving 35 million customers in Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, has struggled with supply-chain disruptions and repatriation of funds – both familiar problems to foreign businesses in the Nigerian market.

Nigeria Govt Kicks As Twitter Deletes Buhari’s ‘Language They Understand’ Tweet

The Federal Government has kicked against Twitter that on Wednesday deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet that spoke of treating people in the “language they understand.”

The Presidency questioned the role of Twitter in the secessionist agitation in the South-East following the social media’s deletion of a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari evoking the memories of the civil war to threaten “those misbehaving” in the region. 

The president had said in his series of tweets on his handle @mbuhari on Tuesday: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”

Twitter has now deleted the posts citing violation of its rules. 

The Minister of Information and Culture,  Lai Mohammed, who reacted to the tweet deletion at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the presidential villa, Abuja, wondered why Twitter would delete President Buhari’s post without doing same to the inciting ones that had been posted by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOP). 

He alleged that the role of Twitter in Nigeria is suspect, noting that the social media platform also backed opponents of government during the #EndSARS protests. 

More to come…

Senate urges DPR to enforce ban on illegal cooking gas retailers

The Senate has urged the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to clamp down on illegal roadside retailers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

This, the Senate said was to enhance safety in the country.

The resolution was sequel to a motion moved by Sen. Ibikunle Amosun (APC-Ogun) during plenary on Tuesday.

The motion was “On the need to curb the rising cases of gas-related fire incidences, explosions and deaths in Ogun”.

The upper chamber also urged DPR to step up the clampdown on illegal roadside retailers of LPG who operate without a valid licence or who operate within residential areas.

The senate equally mandated its Committees on Gas, and Industries to investigate the cause(s) of the recent cases of Gas explosions in Ogun, other states and the FCT.

This, it said was in order to find permanent and sustainable solutions that would save the lives of the people, and report back to the Senate.

Moving the motion, Amosun said that natural gas found in abundance in the country had continued to gain acceptance among most homes in Nigeria as it was used for cooking, welding.

He said that this essential commodity if not well managed and regulated, could be a curse rather than a blessing because of the loss of lives and destruction of properties that were usually associated with it whenever anything went wrong.

The lawmaker called on regulatory agencies in the LPG to live up to their responsibilities to enforce standards, clamp down on the influx of sub-standard cylinders and retailers who dispense adulterated gas.

The resolutions were all adopted after a voiced vote by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

See Photos: Missing NSCDC female official allegedly killed by husband to be for rituals

 

The remains of a female officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) who went missing 18 months ago has been discovered in a shallow grave in Obi Local Government Area of Benue State.

Until she went missing, the deceased, Josephine Cynthia Inalegwu Onche, was serving at an NSCDC post in the Otukpo area of the state.

Cynthia, an Idoma native of Otukpo origin, suddenly went missing while her wedding plans were underway.

Some of her colleagues who didn’t want their names on print, narrated that the family of the deceased had reported her disappearance few days to her wedding in December 2019.

She was said to have gone to the market to buy some items in preparation for her wedding but never made it back home.

One of the deceased’s colleagues said several efforts to locate her did not yield results until a commercial motorcyclist disclosed where she was buried.

The cyclist was said to have told the family of the deceased that their daughter was allegedly killed and buried by her husband-to-be for ritual purposes.

Thereafter, he (cyclist) had led the family and security operatives to arrest the groom who in turn led the police to Ogun State where they arrested the native doctor alleged to have performed the ritual at Obi LGA before his relocation to a south west state.

While the suspected killer groom and the native doctor had been allegedly held by the police in Otukpo, the family of the late security personnel exhumed her remains and organised a burial on Tuesday, June 1st, 2021.

Stop threats, PDP tells Buhari as FG again promises tough actions

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, warned people behind security problems in the country, saying he would soon be hard on them.

Buhari also said secessionists were too young to know loss of lives and other tragedies that attended the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970.

Buhari said these at the Presidential Villa, Abuja after being briefed by the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, on series of attacks on facilities of the electoral body across the country.

These were contained in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, titled, ‘Those who want to destroy this country have shock coming their way, says President Buhari.’

But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, in its reaction, advised the President to stop issuing threat and act decisively to end insecurity in the country.

After his meeting with the INEC chairman and commissioners on Tuesday, Buhari issued a stern warning to those who were eager to decimate the country by promoting insurrection and burning down critical national assets.

He said, “I receive daily security reports on the attacks, and it is very clear that those behind them want this administration to fail.

“Insecurity in Nigeria is now mentioned all over the world. All the people who want power, whoever they are, you wonder what they really want.

“Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives. We have given them enough time.”

Speaking on the dangers that the burning of INEC facilities would pose to the 2023 general elections, Buhari said he would give the electoral commission all it needed to operate.

“We will fully support INEC so that no one would say we don’t want to go, or that we want a third term. There will be no excuse for failure. We’ll meet all INEC’s demands,” he said.

The President told the chairman that the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police had been changed, “and we will demand security from them.”

Buhari also said people misbehaving in certain parts of the country were too young to understand the travails and loss of lives during the Nigerian Civil War.

The statement read, “He (the President) said those misbehaving in certain parts of the country were obviously too young to know the travails and loss of lives that attended the Nigerian Civil War.”

It further quoted the President as saying “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later.”

He promised to continue leading Nigeria by the constitutional provisions.

Insecurity: Nigeria’s president threatens to deal with the Igbos

People who promote insurrection in Nigeria face a “rude shock”, its president warned on Tuesday, raising the possibility of a fierce crackdown on rising violence in the southeast that has included arson attacks on police station and electoral offices.

Security forces are already grappling with criminal gangs in the northwest who carry out mass kidnappings for ransom, a decade-old Islamist insurgency in the northeast, and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea off Nigeria's southern coast.

Electoral offices and police stations have been burned down in recent months across the southeast, a region where armed gangs have carried out a series of killings of police officers, prompting a police operation in May.

Nigerian authorities have blamed those attacks on a banned separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and what police call its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network. But the IPOB has repeatedly denied involvement.

The statement issued by the office of President Muhammadu Buhari, who previously led Nigeria as a military ruler in the early 1980s, said "a rude shock" awaits "those bent on destroying the country through promoting insurrection, and burning down critical national assets".

It referred to the 1967-70 civil war fought over the secession of an area in Nigeria's far southeast called Biafra that killed one million people.

"Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through (that) war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later," Buhari, who served in the army against the secessionists, was quoted as saying.

On Monday the streets of towns across the southeast were quiet and businesses were shuttered after the IPOB urged people to stay at home to commemorate those who died in the war.

The presidency statement said there had been 42 attacks on offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission in recent months across 14 states.

Reuters 

Buhari govt has done so much with little —Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday said no administration in the history of Nigeria has done so much with little like the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has been doing since inception in 2015.

Mohammed spoke at a press briefing in Abuja organized to announce the production of a documentary on achievements of Buhari’s regime.

The minister said, “Let me repeat what I have said many times in the past: never in the history of our country has any administration done so much with so little.

“It’s easy to forget now, but when this administration came into office in 2015, the price of crude oil, which provides 80 per cent of Nigeria’s budgetary revenues and 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings, dropped drastically and, along with it, the fund available to the government.
“It is therefore monumental that this administration has achieved so much despite the paucity of fund.

“I want to state emphatically that while more attention has been given, especially in recent times, to the security challenges facing our country, those challenges are fleeting and will not define the legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Let me say that President Buhari’s legacy is assured, and will be defined by his massive achievements in office. The roads, rails, bridges, mass housing, port development, improvement in power supply and other massive infrastructural development will last for generations to come and will help propel economic growth and national development.”

Nigerians En Masse Support June 12 Protest Following Sowore’s Call

Awash social media Tuesday morning is the massive support for a nationwide protest billed for June 12, the celebration day of Nigeria’s democracy.

With rage over the spate of killings, seemingly bringing the country as a whole to a halt, Nigerians have expressed their support to march out on June 12 after a former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore made the call in the early hours of the day.

Sowore, who has been a strong critic of the Muhammadu Buhari-led government earlier on Monday took to the streets of Abuja along with his supporters to protest against insecurity. 

It was at the venue of the demonstration that he was reportedly injured by a tear gas canister fired by a police operative in Abuja, a claim denied by the police.

Again, the relentless SaharaReporters founder, despite the warnings of Festus Keyamo against any attempt to change Buhari’s government, beckoned Nigerians to come out en masse for another protest on Democracy Day.

Among other things, Nigerians are lamenting insecurity, poverty, oppression by the political class, violation of human rights, the continued detention of EndSARS protesters

Here are a few reactions;

We will not bow to dictatorship, and our struggle for liberation is unshaken.#June12Protest. pic.twitter.com/OY8OtEYBrs

— Abiodun Lijofi (@AbiodunLijofi) June 1, 2021