House seeks schools fumigation before resumption

The House of Representatives has asked the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to ensure that all schools in the country, whether public or private are fumigated before they are reopened.

They also urged the Minister to reach students in the rural areas with the online teaching which was recently introduced to keep the students busy.

The Chairman House Committee on Education, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere, in a letter to the Minister, said all schools (public and private), should sensitize their pupils/students adequately on the dangers of COVID-19 and its attendant consequences and possible ways of protecting themselves from being infected.

The House said the resolutions reached should be incorporated into plans by the Ministry before re-opening the schools in order to “prevent our pupils/students from being infected with the virus”.

The House said further “we want to further direct the management of schools to make provision for water/borehole with a view to promoting washing of hands and personal hygiene among the pupils. Clear instruction should be issued to schools to avoid all contact sports till further notice. For the time being, all social/extra-curricular events should be suspended. These should include excursions, birthday celebrations.

“Disinfection of shoes and feet should be strongly encouraged for each classroom as done in poultry pens with appropriate non- corrosive solution. Emphasis should be placed on the minimum number of pupils/students in a class in strict adherence to social distancing procedure/ prescriptions. There should be procurement of infrared thermometers, face masks and hand sanitisers for pupils and Teacher’s use before entering School.”

Buhari approves sack of suspended NECO registrar, Uwakwe, four others

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the termination of the appointment of Prof Charles Uwakwe as the Registrar and Chief Executive of the National Examinations Council.

The President’s directive was conveyed in a letter, dated May 11 and signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, on behalf of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

President Buhari also dismissed four members of the Management for various offences bordering on financial impropriety.

Mr Abubakar Gana had been appointed as the acting Registrar of the agency since 2018 when Uwakwe was suspended.

In the letter, Uwakwe was accused of violating the Public Procurement Act (2007) and pursuant to PSR 030402 and Part 1 schedule 4 (i) of NECO Establishment Act.

Uwakwe had been suspended since May 2018 by the Fedeal Ministry of Education, the parent ministry of the agency over alleged financial mismanagement and abuse of office.

It was alleged that Uwakwe and some top officials of the council allegedly awarded contracts in the council to the tune of N25billion without following due process.

NECO, in a release on Wednesday by its Head of Information and Public Relations Division, Mr. Azeez Sani, confirmed that the suspended registrar had been relieved of his appointment by the President, while four members of the management had also been dismissed.

The letter said: “After due consideration of the investigative panel on the allegation of unsatisfactory conduct levelled against you and some management staff of the council, Mr. President in exercise of his powers, has approved your removal as the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of National Examinations Council with effect from the date of your suspension from duty.”

The former Registrar was also directed to hand over all the government property in his custody to the acting Registrar, Mr. Gana.

In another letter, FME/S/1419/C.3/T/98, on May 11, by the Permanent Secretary, the President approved the dismissal from service of four Management workers.

JUST IN: FEC approves N1.33Bn projects for Plateau Varsity, Customs

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved proposals by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, for projects worth over N1,348,057,600.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House Correspondents after the week’s FEC meeting, which was held virtually.

Giving a breakdown of the approvals, the Minister said while the Ministry of Education security an approval for the construction of the Health Faculty at the Plateau State University, Bokkos (PSUB), at the cost of N610, 355, 221.82, as well as a N114, 357, 600 project for the procurement of furniture and other equipment.

“The Minister of Education today presented a memo seeking approval of council for the award of contract for the construction, equipping and furnishing of a faculty of Health Sciences in Plateau State University, Bokkos and It was awarded at the cost of N610, 355, 221.82 and the completion period is for 52 weeks.

“Also, a procurement of furniture and equipment was awarded at N114, 357, 600 and completion period is 12 weeks”, he said.

He said further that the FEC approved the proposal brought by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for the procurement of computers and printers for zonal and area commands of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at the value of N623, 700, 000.

“The Minister of Finance presented a memo for the award of contract for 1, 200 units of coloured printers and desktop computers for human resources and accounting management systems across zones and area commands of the Nigeria Custom Service, which was approved.

“The sum of the contract was N623, 700, 000 for the 1, 200 desktops and computers for the use of the custom Service all over the country,” he said.

1,180 ASUU members fail BVN test, says Fed Govt

The war of words between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), over the Integrated Personnel Information System (IPPIS), is getting hotter.

The Federal Government has revealed that ASUU members underpaid Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax running into billions of Naira over the years.

Reacting to criticisms from ASUU over discrepancies on recent salary payments, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) on Monday disclosed that “the rate of tax being applied by tertiary institutions was not correct, leading to underpayment of PAYE Tax.”

The OAGF noted that because of the underpayment, “state governments made claims on the Federal Government to pay the differential arising from underpayment of tax by these institutions.”

Bowing to pressure from the state governments, the OAGF said that the “Federal Government has paid several billions on behalf of these institutions because of their underpayment of the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax.”

The OAGF categorically told ASUU that “the request by the tertiary institution unions to formalise tax evasion through Integrated Personnel Information System (IPPIS) is not only untenable, but also an unpatriotic request to violate extant laws on tax.”

Regarding the demand for Bank Verification Number (BVN) from ASUU members before they can be paid, the OAGF said that about 1,180 ASUU members “failed the BVN test and details have been forwarded to the universities for the necessary correction and update.”

According to the OAGF, “BVN as a way of confirming all account numbers of the tertiary institutions that are sent to IPPIS were forwarded to the relevant agencies for validation and confirmation”, but over a thousand ASUU members bungled their information.

With regards to non-receipt of salaries after others have been paid, the Accountant General said “this arose because the names on the payroll are not in uniformity with the names in the bank. Employees are expected to update their bank details in conformity with names on the payroll, as effort to change payroll names in the banks is not allowed, except where there is a change of name as a result of marriage.”

The IPPIS platform, the OAGF said, “does not recognise joint accounts operated by two or more persons. Every salary payment is personal.”

On the alleged payment to dead university workers, the OAGF noted that “the institutions deliberately forwarded to IPPIS the list containing dead ASUU members as being part of their personnel, to get more personnel fund.”

According to the OAGF, “it is the responsibility of the institutions or agencies to inform the IPPIS office about death, resignation or exit from service before due date. We sent payroll analysis to the tertiary institution bursars for review of any omission or names to be excluded.”

On payment of allowances and salaries, the OAGF argued that “any other salaries and allowances approved by any other agency in Nigeria, which are not formalised by the Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (SIWC), will amount to illegal payment.”

Therefore, the OAGF urged ASUU and other unions to understand this.

“The fact that they arm-twisted their institutions to pay them these allowances does not translate to legality.”

Commenting on payments for sabbatical visits and adjunct lecturers, the OAGF stated that “payment of sabbatical aid visiting lecturers is duly recognised by IPPIS, but it is dependent on furnishing the IPPIS with the particulars of such lecturers, including his IPPIS number, his primary institution, the start date of the sabbatical or the visiting and the end date.”

The government, it said, “recognises the fact that all workers on sabbatical are entitled to 100 per cent of their salaries as sabbatical allowances, while visiting and adjunct lecturers will enjoy 50 per cent of their salaries as visiting allowance.”

The OAGF warned ASUU that “government will no longer incur unnecessary expenditure on pension, NHIS or such allowances that are not part of universities pensionable salaries.”

Imo tops JAMB malpractice list

Imo State leads 31 states and the FCT on the examination malpractice list of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the 2020 United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

JAMB’s Public Relations Officer Dr. Fabian Benjamin told The Nation that some of the 195 candidates on the list had already been arraigned for offences like examination by proxy, double registration, attempt to cheat, connivance to cheat, unruly behaviour, and smuggling of electronic device into examination hall.  He however noted that the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the process

“Some of them have been arraigned and others were waiting to be arraigned before the COVID-19 lockdown,” he said.

Anambra had the second highest number of candidates on the list (16), while Enugu, Kaduna, and Kano had 15 perpetrators each.

At the bottom of the list with the fewest offenders were Adamawa, Sokoto, Gombe and Yobe which had only one each. The FCT recorded three offenders while Lagos had nine.

Four commercial banks offer varsity scholarships to top 100 UTME candidates

Four leading commercial banks in the country have offered free scholarships to first 100 candidates that wrote this year’s unified tertiary matriculation examinations.

The banks are offering the top 100 UTME candidates scholarships to study in tertiary institutions of their choice across the country.

The list of the 100 candidates that came top of the UTME would be forwarded to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board this week for action, The Nation learnt.

The Head of Information of JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, confirmed the offer to our reporter in Abuja on Monday, adding that some candidates would have the opportunity of their names appearing on the lists of the four banks because of their UTME scores.

However, Benjamin failed to give the names of the banks, saying the commercial banks have asked that their identities be kept secret.

He said the scholarship offers were a demonstration of the acceptability and confidence in the board’s products.

Dr. Benjamin said: “About four banks have indicated interest to sponsor top 100 candidates. Two banks have requested for top ten and two for top hundred candidates.

“We will submit the names of the candidates to the banks this week.”

He explained that the conduct of the 2019 UTME had witnessed a dramatic turn of events with many startling discoveries and the capacity of the board to navigate such emerging threats.

“As a result of the handling of the crises and performances, many corporate organisations have called on the board to furnish it with top scoring candidates to offer scholarships to study in tertiary institutions of their choice.

“There are banks which are demanding the top 100 UTME candidates for scholarships. This is a stamp on the approval of the board’s products and efforts at repositioning the conduct of public examinations in Nigeria.

“The fight against examination corruption should therefore be fought on all fronts. This is because of the board’s belief that the first manifestation of corruption is cheating in an examination,” he said.

Benjamin urged corporate organisations seeking for UTME candidates to sponsor to vary their stipulated conditions for scholarships.

“Otherwise the same 10 top candidates would benefit from multiple offers, thus depriving other equally qualified candidates the fruits of sponsorship,” he said.

He added: “In this regard, a proviso that the board should provide top scorers who must not have benefitted from any scholarship programme will address the challenge and spread the benefits to other deserving candidates.

“These organisations, including the candidates, are to, however, note that scoring high in the UTME alone is not a guarantee for admission as other factors such as the Ordinary Level results and the post-UTME will have to be incorporated for a holistic cut-off score.”

2019 JAMB Registration: Lagos, Kaduna & Abuja Recorded Highest Candidates So Far

2019 JAMB UTME Registration Statistics: 869,709 UTME Candidates Have Been Registered. The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB commenced the 2019 Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examination, UTME registration its spokesperson Dr Fabian Benjamin said the Board has within  registered 869,709 candidates.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB has disclosed that the board has so far registered 869,709 candidates for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, which has been scheduled to hold in March. This information was contained in the weekly bulletin from the office of the Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede.
According to the break down, Lagos State recorded the highest number of registered candidates, with 111,102 candidates, Kaduna State was second with 59,261 candidates and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had 43,390 registered candidates.
Oyo State has 41,128 candidates; Benue, 36,080; Nasarawa, 35,940; Rivers, 35,749, and Ogun State, 32,702 candidates.
The three states with the lowest registration are Jigawa, with 6,784 candidates; Sokoto, 4,881 candidates and Zamfara, 2,427 candidates.
The JAMB 2019 UTME Registration commenced January 10th, 2019 and is expected to end February 21st, 2019.

FUOYE, ASUU crisis worsens as aggrieved lecturers disrupt congress

The crisis rocking the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Federal University Oye Ekiti chapter worsened on Tuesday when aggrieved members disrupted a congress presided over by the zonal chairman of the union, Akure branch Prof Olu Olu.
The aggrieved lecturers insisted the embattled chairman of the chapter Dr. Akinyemi Omonijo must step aside first before any congress would hold on the campus.
The Nation gathered the congress of the academic union was about to hold at about 1pm at the venue on Tuesday when angry members stormed the venue to stop the meeting, rang bell, made so much noise and chased away those who wanted it to hold.
A leader of the union and Dean of Faculty of Arts of the university, Dr. Popoola Tajudeen, who spoke about the cause of the disruption said: “There was to be a congress but there was no congress because our members felt strongly that Prof Olu Olu who has been part of our problem in this chapter should not now come to foist any congress on us and they insisted that he cannot hold any congress when the chairman of our chapter that he is imposing on us has committed impeachment offences.

“There has been a resolution on ground that the chairman has committed impeachable offences and should go.
“Our people really felt bad and demonstrated their grievances. They spoke their mind. However there was no casualty.
“The demands of our members who insist they are still part of ASUU is that current chairman of our branch Omonijo should step down because he has committed impeachable offences.
“Our people cannot allow a system where some people from outside would cone and lord over us.
“We have our own internal problem and we should be allowed to solve it internally.  Our people want ASUU to move on but we don’t want Omonijo again,” he said.

Strike: ASUU communicate’s decision on Fed Govt’s offer today

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will today communicate its decision on the offers made to it by the Federal Government, its National President Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi said yesterday.

The union had urged the government to show concrete evidence of commitment to agreements on meeting its demands on its on-going strike.

Ogunyemi said that contrary to some media reports, the union did not reject the government offer neither has it make fresh demands.

Labour & Employment Minister Chris Ngige, after meeting with the union on January 4, said the government was about resolving the dispute with the lecturers who embarked on strike on November 5, last year.

Dr. Ngige said the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant- General of the Federation had provided evidence that N15.4 billion for the payment of salary shortfall in public universities.

He also noted that there was evidence that Mr President had approved N20 billion to offset the outstanding arrears of the 2009 and 2012, audit verified earnings in the university system.

The minister, however, said the fund was being worked on and would be released to ASUU as soon as the process was complete, among other demands of the union.

The ASUU president said: “We have been reviewing the offer made by the government and we have concluded our consultations with our members.

“We have concluded our consultations and hopefully by tomorrow we are going to transmit the feedback from our members to the Minister of Labour and Employment.

“What we said was that we are not insisting on having the total package. We are saying if government could give us one out of the five tranches on the revitalisation fund it will be a kind of bending backward in the interest of the students and national interest.

“So, rather than insisting that government should release a total of one trillion naira which we know is not feasible, government can, at least, give one tranche that can be spread over four quarters, starting with the first quarter now.

“This is the shift that the media are misinterpreting to mean a fresh demand. There is no fresh demand on our list whether you are talking of revitalisation or earned academic allowance.”

On the issue of earned academic allowances, he said government had promised to release N20 billion and that the balance would be spread over four instalments but without stating timelines.

Ogunyemi said members of the union were insisting on having timelines for the payments.

He said: “Our members are also saying government had also promised to mainstream and that promise is not new, it was a promise of 2017.

“Our members have also noted that government had promised that the earned academic allowance will be paid within the mainstream budget which they also promised to do in 2018, yet they did not do it

“Our members are saying if you are promising again in 2019, let us see the evidence, which is clear enough.”

Ogunyemi also said that members of the union were demanding to see money of salary shortfall paid into their accounts although they had seen the evidence of approval on paper.

He said that the members of the union were demanding for concrete evidence on all outstanding areas that involved payments.

Ogunyemi said: “Our members are saying let us see concrete evidence that government has paid not that government will be promising that it  will do this and will do that.

“We did that with the N20 billion in 2017, government promised to release N20 billion in two instalments for September and October, 2017, that never happened until we went on strike in 2018.

“So, our members are saying, let’s go beyond writing anything on paper.

“Like I said earlier, on the issue of revitalisation, our members are saying we should not stop at tokenism.”

Kogi to employ 3, 700 teachers

Kogi Government on Friday said it had proposed the employment of 3,700 teachers into public secondary schools in the 2019 state budget.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, disclosed this during the oversight visit of members of Kogi House of Assembly Committee on Public Accounts, to her office in Lokoja.

Osikoya said that the ministry did a need assessment of teachers in public secondary schools, and discovered that the state had deficit of science, technical and vocational teachers.

She said that over 80 per cent of the available teachers were Art, Commercial and Religious teachers, which had adversely affected science and technical learning in state’s public schools.

“3,700 teaching staff have been proposed in the 2019 state budget for education, science and technology, particularly for science, technical and vocational teachers.

“Government should spend more on education, pay attention to technical and vocational skills, provide textbooks, give scholarships to motivate students and encourage teachers.

“We took time in 2018 to prepare for a better 2019. We held Education Summit in February 2018, with all the relevant stakeholders in attendance.

“The state government has also approved the re-classification of additional 17 science and technical colleges across the state to complement the existing four.

“This will enable the 21 local government areas of the state to have one science, technical and vocational college each, which we have already identified,” she said.

Osikoya added that Gov. Yahaya Bello, through the approval of the Council, had allocated 15 per cent of the total state’s budget to education, adding that N98 million was approved for students’ bursary.

In his remarks, Mr Ahmed Mohammed, Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, said the committee was in the ministry to perform its oversight function for effective governance.

He said that the purpose was to work for the progress of Kogi in line with the agenda and policy of the state government.

He expressed satisfaction with the commissioner’s presentation on the state of affairs of the ministry and her achievements in 2018, and promised the committee’s support for the ministry.

Mr Ahmed Musa-Odudo, Chairman, Sub-Technical Committee on Public Accounts, said that the ministry was free of any indictment in the 2015 and 2016 review, saying no sanction for the ministry.

22 students bag First Class at Fountain Varsity

No fewer than 22 students will receive First Class Degree at the 8th convocation ceremony of Fountain University, Osogbo, out of 319 graduating students.

Prof. Amidu Sanni, the Vice- Chancellor of the university, disclosed this at a news conference on Wednesday in Osogbo.

Sanni said 119 students bagged second class upper division, 165 had second class lower division while 13 were in the third class category.

The vice chancellor also said that a former governor of the state, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, would be awarded with an honorary doctorate degree.

Sanni said that the graduating students were academically and morally moulded to be good and responsible ambassadors of the country.

The vice chancellor said that Dr Hamid Mustapha, the Minister of Community Development in Ghana, would deliver the convocation lecture on Jan. 14, with various degrees awarded to students on the same day.

Strike fever over minimum wage

Organised labour has said this year will be a challenging one for workers. They refer to issues, such as the minimum wage, unemployment and the debt burden, among others that would spark unrest. TOBA AGBOOLA reports.

Minimum Wage

There is anxiety in government circles over Labour’s plan to go on strike. The action is to push the demand for a new minimum wage.

The Federal Government has invited workers’ representatives to a meeting  in a move to avert the impending industrial action.

Labour is angry that the Presidency is yet to transmit the New National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly.

Labour has demanded N30, 000 for the least paid worker.

Speaking with The Nation, the President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade  Ayuba Wabba, said government’s dilly-dallying on the issue has strained its relationship with Labour and left it with no option other than a major national strike.

The protest, according to the NLC president, is to express anger and total disatisfaction over the delay by the Federal Government in transmitting, enacting and implementing the new national minimum wage of N30,000.

Wabba said the strike has become the last option for the workers, adding that labour craves the understanding and support of all Nigerians and businesses.

The tripartite committee which comprised representatives of the federal and state government, the organised private sector and the organised labour, had reportedly reached a compromise on N30, 000.

Labour had initially demanded N66,500, Federal Government N24, 500 while state governors proposed N22,500.

Governors under the platform of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) have declared that states were not in financial position to pay.

According to chairman of NGF, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, no attempt to impose the sum would strangle the states.

The president of TUC, Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Ozo-Eson, who said they might attend, however, said the meeting would not change the labour position on the proposed nationwide protest and strike.

According to Kaigama, TUC would only attend the meeting as a matter of formality.

“Of course when they invite us, we will attend. We do not believe in any technical committee, we’ve gone past that. During the tripartite committee sittings, we set up technical committee.

‘’If the technical committee they want to set up is on minimum wage, we’ve gone beyond that.”

He maintained that organised labour only suspended its strike on the wage in November last year and would no longer give any notice on its proposed strike.

“The three centres are going to meet any moment from now, we will not give any date, but (we would) just commence the suspended strike,” he said.

But President of ULC, Joe Ajaero said labour has no reason to meet with the minister or Federal Government anymore since President Buhari had made it known in his budget speech that he wanted to set up a technical committee

“How can Ngige send us such an invitation, we’ve made it known to him that we will not be attending the meeting.

“Ngige can meet with his staff and aides. Labour had made it clear to the government that no other submission would be accepted except what was recommended by the tripartite committee.”

Ajaero said the meeting was diversionary and labour would not be distracted.

“The December 31 deadline given to the government to send the bill to the National Assembly has passed; our next step is to meet and harmonise our next move any moment from now,” he said.

NLC General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson said Labour will not embark on an industrial action secretly.

According to him, the workers’ union has asked its state councils to hold rallies in city centres beginning from January 8 to sensitise Nigerians on the looming action.

Ozo-Eson said: “We (labour) have approved that the protests should hold in all state capitals and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja on January 8, 2019, and mandates all industrial unions and state councils to fully mobilise workers and coordinate with other labour unions for this mother of all protests.

“The excuse that the National Assembly is on break does not hold water as the report of the tripartite committee has been with the President for about two months.

“Was the National Assembly on recess when the report was submitted? Didn’t the House of Representatives adopt a resolution calling on the President to transmit the bill?

“The notice expired on December 31, 2018. When it was given, was the National Assembly on recess?’’

Budget

While reviewing the 2019 budget assumptions of the Federal Government, the organised Labour expressed apprehension about the capacity of the budget to move the economy out of the woods, create jobs and improve the human capacity potential of Nigerians.

Sharing his view with The Nation, the Director-General, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association , Mr Timothy Olawale  who commended the President for submitting the Budget to the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 ,  however noted that the foundation on which the budget was built is worrisome.

He said the budget was benchmarked against $60 per barrel of oil at 2.3m litres daily, an exchange rate of N305 to $1, an inflation rate of 9.98 per cent and a GDP growth rate of 3.01 percent.

This assumption, according to him, negates the reality of oil price volatility, adding that the oil industry experts had noted that the political dynamics of the Middle East might drive down the price of crude.

“True to prediction, a barrel of Crude today sells for $54, $6 less than the benchmarked price and it is yet unknown how government will increase our present 2.09mbpd crude production to 2.3mbpd in 2019 and with OPEC’s resolution on cut in oil production, Nigeria’s daily production should now be 1.7mbpd.

“A cursory look at the allocation to some critical sectors raises some germane questions about our readiness as a nation to address certain fundamental questions. Human capital development has been noted as critical to a nation’s development. It is, therefore, worrisome that education was allocated N462.24 billion, which is less than six per cent of the entire budget. This is a far cry from the UNESCO’s benchmark of 26 per cent of the national budget. A healthy nation is a prosperous nation. The N315.62billion, which represents a meagre 4.1 per cent of the budget tends to negate this mantra. This allocation also contrasts to the pledge made by member countries of the African Union (AU) to commit a minimum of 15 percent of their annual budget to their health sector”.

While proffering a way out of the seeming quagmire, Olawale called for the elimination of resources wastages, perpetrated through the never-ending turnaround maintenance on the old refineries, encouragement of private investor in modular refineries and a total deregulation of the downstream sector.

“As a matter of urgency, we must remove fuel subsidy which has become a conduit pipe for misappropriation of funds. It is not sustainable and we cannot continue to fund inefficiency,” he said.

Olawale also expressed fears at the continuous and increasing debt profile of the nation following the release of the third quarter report of the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the 2019 budget assumptions.

He said: “Figures released by the DMO showed that the Federal Government’s domestic debt profile rose to N15.814trillion in September, 2018 from N15.629trillion in June, 2018 (1.19 per cent increase). This figure becomes more worrisome when we look at the total public debt stock, comprising the external and domestic debt of the FGN, the 36 states and the FCT hitting the US$73.208billion (N22.38 trillion) recorded in June, 2018”.

While discussing the implication of government’s huge borrowing in the domestic market, he stated that: “The size of government borrowing in the domestic financial market also continues to be a major source of concern as this has in no small measure, affected the chances of the real sector to access funding at a reasonable cost.

Proposing a way out, he advised that the federal and state governments, as a matter of urgency, must take deliberate steps aimed at cutting the cost of governance and recurrent expenditure.

He said government also needs to start paying serious attention to workable investment schemes, collaborating strongly with the private sector which is the engine room for economic growth.

The NECA DG concluded that government has to recognise the important role of the private sector in building a robust economy, as oil revenue alone is not enough to place the country on the path of sustainable development. Government must therefore, make commitment to facilitate a favourable environment with policies that will attract private investors.

Unemployment

The organised labour has expressed serious concern over the recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which stated that the number of persons unemployed in the country has increased by 3.3million year on year from 17.6million in Q3 2017 to 20.9 million in Q3 2018. They are worried that the unemployment rate is likely to increase in 2019.

The NLC charges Federal Government to create more jobs to reduce poverty rate.

Ayuba Wabba, President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) called on the Federal Government to ensure sustainable jobs to reduce the rate of poverty in the country.

He said government must implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve the lives of the people and develop the country.

He said sustainable jobs would only be available if the government created conducive environment for industries to thrive.

”We cannot be importers and consumers of what we do not produce. There is the need to resuscitate closed factories such as textile and make business environment competitive and attractive,” he said.

The NLC president said government should also reduce electricity tariff to boost production and make businesses thrive.

Similarly, Dr. Mohammed Yinusa, President, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), who spoke on the nation’s poverty index, said government needed more interventions to raise the living standard of the people.

Yinusa commended government’s pro-poor policies, but said government at all levels should pay attention to the development of critical indices of the Human Development Index (HDI).

“The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report is an indication of a country’s quality of life. The report measures national achievement in health, education and income,” he said.

He added that adequate and sustainable attention must be paid to the indices to lift the citizens out of poverty.

Yinusa also urged government to work towards prioritising the creation of enabling environment for large, small and medium enterprises.