Pandemonium in UNIJOS as students protest hike in School fees

The protest which started yesterday 24th November has continued on to today as we speak causing pandemonium in the school as students mount road blocks leading to the university premises, thereby bringing all activities to a halt and setting fire to the school gate this afternoon. The Genesis of the problem being the 100% increase in school fees based on students claims of the University of Jos.

The students say the fee was N27,800 but has now been increased to #60,000. They also say they were forced to pay for developmental levy which has never been used for any development within the university. They said all effort by the student union government to speak with the Vice Chancellor of the university Prof. Hayward Babale Mafuyai, was met with a brick wall as the VC refused to negotiate with the students.

The growing chaos has been due to the VC's refusal to speak with students, All university activities have been snubbed, including the exams that was meant to start yesterday 24th November.

I am a graduate of UNIJOS myself and I can remember back in the day we paid about N15000 , that's about 10 years back. I am a proud Josite, and plea to the VC to confront the situation and give his students audience, after all he is their leader .. great Nigerian students!!!!

Nigerian Women In Politics

Nigerian women have been able to carve a niche for themselves in the Nigerian political terrain. Nigeria has had women vying for the highest position in the country and two names which stand out in this category are Professor Vivian Mottohmigan who was presidential candidate of the defunct NPC and Mama Sarah Jubril who actually went to the polls as a presidential candidate.
Besides these two Amazons are thousands of other Nigerian woman who have impacted greatly on the country’s political terrain.
Historical evidence is available to prove that Nigerian women have for long been playing crucial role in political life of the country, and this has contributed in no small measure in shaping the political system of the nation. For development of any kind to be successful, a vantage position should be accorded the women, as they constitute a larger proportion of the population. In this regard, they should not be left out in the issues of decision making that bothers on their lives as a people. The post-colonial period, Nigerian women began to play very active roles in various aspects of the nation’s development.
Significantly, five years after independence, only about seven per cent of the salaried workforce were women. However, the role of women in Nigeria’s post1960 politics was not appropriately situated in terms of appointments to policy making positions. This was in spite of the massive support given to various political parties by women, women organisations, market women movements etc. Until recently, few women benefited from political patronage.
In the aborted second Republic (1979 -1983), there was further progress as few Nigerian women won elections into the House of Representatives. Of particular note was Mrs. J. C. Eze of the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) who represented Uzo-Uwani federal constituency in former Anambra State, Mrs V.O. Nnaji, also of the NPP who represented lsu and Mrs Abiola Babatope of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) who represented Mushin Central II of Lagos State. Pointedly, few women won elections into the State Houses of Assembly during the Second Republic.
During the same period, only two women were appointed Federal Ministers by the Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s administration. They were Chief (Mrs.) Janet Akinrinade as Minister of Internal Affairs and Mrs. Adenike Ebun Oyagbola as Minister of National Planning, while Mrs. Francesca Yetunde Emmanuel was the only female Permanent Secretary (first in the Federal Ministry of Establishment and later Health).
Specifically, in 1983, Ms Franca Afegbua became the only woman to be elected into the Senate. This was in addition to the few women, who contested and won elections into the Local Government Councils in the second Republic. But a number of women were appointed Commissioners in the states.
In the Fourth Republic which started on May 29, 1999, the Nigerian political terrain witnessed an increase in the number of women political appointees, even though women did not perform well at the elections. In the elections held before May 29, 1999, only few women emerged as Chairpersons of local government councils.
Significantly, there has been no woman Governor in any state of the federation except for a deputy governor in Lagos state, Senator Bucknor Akerele since the commencement of the fourth Republic in 1999.
Similarly, in the National Assembly, there were only three women in the Senate, namely; Florence Ita Giwa representing Cross River State South Senatorial District, Stella Omu from Delta State and Hajiya Khairat Abdul-Razaq (now Hajiya Gwadabe) representing the Federal Capital Territory, just as there were only 12 women in the House of Representatives of the 360 members.
President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed a number of women into the Federal Executive Council. They included Dr. (Mrs) Kema Chikwe (Minister of Transport), Mrs. Dupe Adelaja (Minister of State Defence), Dr. (Mrs) Bekky Ketebu-Igwe (Minister of State, Ministry of Solid Minerals), Dr. (Mrs) Amina Ndalolo (Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Health), Mrs Pauline Tallen (Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology), and Hajia Aishatu Ismaila (Minister of Women Affairs). Chief (Mrs) Titilayo Ajanaku is the Special Adviser to the President on Women Affairs.
For more on the great achievements of Nigerian woman in politics, please tune in to THE AMAZONS, today Friday at 7.pm on AIT.

"FG can't meet ASUU's N92b demand' - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says

Minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala said yesterday during the opening of the two-day meeting of Commissioners of Finance and Accountants-General of States, that the federal government can't meet the N92billion being demanded by ASUU.

 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said

“At present, ASUU wants the Federal Government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances, when the resources are not there, and when we are working to integrate past increases in pensions. We need to make choices in this country as we are getting to the stage where recurrent expenditures take the bulk of our resources and people get paid but can do no work. Since I assumed office, the share of recurrent expenditure in our total budgets had increased astronomically. In fact, recurrent expenditure accounted for about 77.2 per cent of the federal budget and we are now working to re-balance this ratio.
The country is still suffering from the effect of the 2010 increase in salary. Do we want to get to a stage in this country that all the money we earn is used to pay salaries and allowances? If the demands of the university lecturers are met and we continue to pay them salaries and allowances, we will not be able to provide infrastructure in the universities.”

So this does not resolve anything .. instead students will be forced to stay at home, become idle.

ASUU Strike Continues After Yesterday's Meeting With Government

Hopes of quick resolution of the present face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities were dashed on Tuesday as the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the government has no resources to meet the union demands.

The striking university lecturers were asking for N92 billion in extra allowances and the government can not fulfill that now, because they are trying to cut public expenditures. If the demands of the university lecturers are met and “we continue to pay them salaries and allowances we will not be able to provide infrastructure in the universities”, she said.

ASUU goes on nationwide strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday Monday July 1st commenced indefinite nationwide strike. ASUU national president Dr Nasir Isa Fagge told newsmen yesterday that they are embarking on the indefinite strike because 'The Federal Government reneged in the Memorandum of Understanding MoU signed with ASUU in 2009 to pay lecturers their earn allowance.'

"The strike starts today (Monday) and it is going to last for as long as the Federal Government wants it. The Federal Government has refused to implement some of the issues contained in a 2009 agreement it had with us. What we are demanding as the earned allowance is not more than N12, 500 per person, yet government is saying it cannot afford such." Fagge said

According to Fagge, the Federal Government, in 2009, promised to pay lecturers N12,500 per month as earn allowance but never did. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, are also on strike

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