younglee's Blog

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan (UI) chapter has called on the Federal Government to scrap the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The Chairman, Dr. Deji Omole, who spoke in Ibadan yesterday said the board has outlived its usefulness and reducing the standard of offering admission to students, hence, it must be scrapped immediately to allow universities set a new standard of admission. Omole, who bemoaned the board for the problems being encountered by candidates to register for the examination said the nation could no longer trust the future of the younger generation to a body that failed to conduct mock examination. Omole said he had expected the Registrar of the Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede to resign after the board had disappointed the whole nation by failing to conduct a mock exam. He said, “Since Prof Oloyede did not consider it appropriate to resign after failing the whole nation, I think the Minister of Education, Malla...

The Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) says it has uncovered at least 700 teachers with fake certificates. Chairman of the Board, Stephen Odey, disclosed this to reporters in Calabar, the state’s capital, at the end of a verification exercise for teachers. “I can authoritatively confirm to you that, we have uncovered about 758 teachers with fake certificates and by that exercise, we have also uncovered about 700 ghost workers in Cross River State Teaching Service. “We are saving the state from paying salaries to people that are non-genuine staff,” Mr Odey said. “SUBEB will be saving this state close to 60-70 million Naira monthly from the just concluded exercise,” he added. The Chairman vowed that his administration would not relent in riding the state of unqualified persons posing to be teachers.

Katsina State Governor, Bello Masari, has estimated that his administration needs about 45 billion Naira to reposition the education sector in the state. According to him, low school enrollment is a major concern for his administration. He said 13,000 classrooms need to be constructed while at least 15,000 teachers need to be employed. The Governor highlighted the requirements when he received a team from the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The UNICEF officials, as well as gender activists were drawn from nine states in northern Nigerian which include: Bauchi, Niger, Kebbi, Adamawa, Borno, as well as Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto and Katsina states. The representatives were gathered together to renew their push for increased girl-child education in northern Nigeria. They also used the opportunity to ask the governor to invest in free education and encourage it up to the secondary school level. In response, he noted his administration’s commitment to achieving...

Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, says the government will not lower the admission cut-off mark for the 78,000 candidates that sat for the National Common Entrance Examination on April 8, 2017. Adamu, shortly after monitoring the exams in Abuja, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to providing quality education at all levels. On his part, the Registrar of the National Examination Council of Nigeria, Professor Charles Uwakwe, who accompanied the Minister, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the examination. Meanwhile, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has announced an extension of the registration for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The development follows a call by the House of Representatives for a one-month extension to the deadline given to candidates. The call was made in view of the difficulties being faced by some prospective candidates of the UTME in the p...

The Governor of Oyo State, Mr Abiola Ajimobi, says he is collaborating with his Osun State counterpart, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, to ensure that academic activities resume at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, latest by the end of January. The governor dropped the hint in a statement by his spokesman Mr Yomi Layinka, after a meeting with the national, zonal and state leadership of the students’ unions in his office, on Friday evening. Ajimobi said that the decision was reached after another round of discussions by the stakeholders including Aregbesola and LAUTECH Vice Chancellor, Professor. Adeniyi Gbadegesin, aimed at finding a lasting solution to the debacle. The university had been grounded for close to eight months due to the strike by the academic and non-academic staff of the university over unpaid salaries and emoluments. Meanwhile, in another development, the statement added that Ajimobi had ordered the immediate reopening of the five secondary sc...

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the membership of a Federal  Government team to renegotiate the 2009 agreement with the staff unions in the Federal Universities, Federal Polytechnics and Federal Colleges of Education. This is aimed at engendering sustainable peace and industrial harmony in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. The 16-member team is chaired by Dr. Wale Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Babalakin, who was adjudged the best pro-chancellor at the time of the negotiations in 2009, headed the agreement implementation committee then. In a related development, President Buhari has also approved the reconstitution of the governing councils of University of Port Harcourt and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, which were dissolved in the recent crises that engulfed the two institutions. The new governing councils would serve for a term of four years, in the first instance, effective from December 28, 2016...

The Nigerian Senate has set up a committee to address the industrial crisis between the Federal Government and officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Setting up the committee on Wednesday, Senate President Bukola Saraki said it would liaise with the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office to look into the outstanding financial demands of the union. Dr Saraki set up the committee during a meeting with ASUU officials in Abuja. He told members of the union that the Senate was mindful of the longstanding issues between the union and the Federal Government, but stressed that the upper chamber wanted a resolution of the problem. ASUU is embarking on a one week warning strike to protest the failure of the Federal Government to implement terms of the 2009 and 2013 agreements. Academic activities were shut down in most institutions across Nigeria on Wednesday, as a result of an industrial action by the union to push their demands. The directive for the n...

As the 7-day warning strike declared by the national body of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) enters its second day, a faction of the lecturers at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun state have boycotted the nationwide strike. Channels Television’s visit to the university revealed that students are currently having their first semester examination for the 2015/16 academics session under the supervision of the lecturers. Speaking on the strike and their reason for not joining, the chairman of the Committee of Deans in OAU, Professor Adeagbo Amusan, said that the boycott was in the interest of the students, who had wasted so much time since the start of the session due to incessant strike. “It’s a unanimous decision that much as we are aware of the directive of NEC, we would want our examinations to go on unhindered. We key into the national body of ASUU but we have some local issues to sort out here and we don’t want to externalize our internal aff...

President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to give government more time to sort out the shortfalls in salary payment and other related issues affecting the education sector. President Buhari made the plea as the visitor at the grand finale of the 68th Founders’ Day and convocation ceremony of the University of Ibadan which took place at the International Conference Center, Ibadan. Represented by the Director, Tertiary Education at the Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Fatimah Ahmad, President Buhari decried the standard of education which has left a vast majority of the people poorly educated. Describing the trend as unhealthy and saddening, the President reiterated his administration’s commitment to revamping the sector. Mrs Ahmad added that government was in dialogue with the affected unions and would continue to explore means of amicable resolutions. A total of 442 graduates bagged doctorate degrees in various fields wh...

A new Vice Chancellor, albeit in acting capacity, has emerged for the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State. He is Professor Anthony Elujoba of the Faculty of Pharmacy. His emergence comes barely 24 hours after the Federal Government ordered the Senate of the school to use its internal mechanism in selecting a new Vice Chancellor. There has been series of protests against the former Vice Chancellor, Prof Bamitale Omole, who has been accused of mismanaging resources of the institution. In a letter addressed to the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, President Buhari directed the Senate not to consider any of the candidates who earlier contested for the position. The Senate of the institution approved the appointment of Professor Anthony Elujoba as the acting VC. Workers and students of the institution recently trooped out in jubilation following the dissolution of the school’s governing council and the suspension of the sel...

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja said that his administration is talking to Niger Delta militants through oil companies and law-enforcement agencies to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region . Speaking at a farewell audience with Mr. Michael Zinner, the outgoing Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria at the State House, President Buhari said that government is studying the instruments of the Amnesty Programme inherited from the previous administration with a view to carrying out commitments made that were undelivered. “We understand their feelings,” the President said, adding that “we are studying the instruments. We have to secure the environment, otherwise investment will not come. We will do our best for the country,” he affirmed. The President used the opportunity to thank the government of Germany for its continuing support to Nigeria in the efforts to tackle insecurity and the on-going rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced citizens in crisi...