With this development, the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), might be called off since retirement age was one of the disputed issues.

The bill, however, fixed the retirement age of other academic staff below the rank of professor and non-academic staff at 65 .

Immediately after the passage of the bill, Senate President, David Mark, said that, “we have passed the bill into law to meet the demands of ASUU. There is the need to get ASUU back to the classrooms so that our children can go back to their classes”.

He further explained that, “there are serious constitutional issues to be addressed and we have to pursue them and unless we do that, we may be confronted with problems in the future and that is why we have to take cognisance of section 318 of the constitution.”

Mark commended his colleagues for their commitment with regard to the passage of the bills, expressing the hope that ASUU would reciprocate the gesture by calling off its three-month strike.

The Senate, however, refused to pass the section of the bill that guarantees payment of salaries to university professors after retirement despite the arguments by some senators that retired professors should enjoy pensions like retired military officers.

Senator Uche Chukwumerije, who sponsored the bill, stressed that in the course of the committee’s deliberations, memoranda were received from ASUU as well as other stakeholders and that based on the inputs, the committee resolved to first amend the bill to make room for separate Acts that would take care of the needs of universities, federal polytechnics as well as colleges of education at the same time.

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1. This is the second time in two weeks I will address you on the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector. In the last seven days, the nation has witnessed a disruption of economic activities. Although, the economic imperatives for the policy have been well articulated by government, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) went ahead to declare a nationwide strike.

President_Goodluck_Jonathan

3. At the inception of the deregulation policy, Government had set up the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee to liaise with Labour and other stakeholders to address likely grey areas in the policy, but despite all our efforts, Labour refused the option of dialogue and also disobeyed a restraining order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.

4. However, following the intervention of the Leadership of the National Assembly, and other well-meaning Nigerians, Labour accepted to meet with government, but this yielded no tangible result.

5. It has become clear to government and all well-meaning Nigerians that other interests beyond the implementation of the deregulation policy have hijacked the protest. This has prevented an objective assessment and consideration of all the contending issues for which dialogue was initiated by government. These same interests seek to promote discord, anarchy, and insecurity to the detriment of public peace.

6. Government appreciates that the implementation of the deregulation policy would cause initial hardships and commends Nigerians who have put forth suggestions and credible alternatives in this regard. Government also salutes Nigerians who by and large, conducted themselves peacefully while expressing their grievances. Let me assure you that government will continue to respect the people’s right to express themselves within the confines of the law and in accordance with the dictates of our democratic space.

7. Government will continue to pursue full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector. However, given the hardships being suffered by Nigerians, and after due consideration and consultations with state governors and the leadership of the National Assembly, government has approved the reduction of the pump price of petrol to N97 per litre. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has been directed to ensure compliance with this new pump price.

8. Government is working hard to reduce recurrent expenditure in line with current realities and to cut down on the cost of governance. In the meantime, government has commenced the implementation of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment projects: including the Federal Government- assisted mass transit programme which is already in place, and job creation for the youth.

9. Furthermore, the legal and regulatory regime for the petroleum industry will be reviewed to address accountability issues and current lapses in the Industry. In this regard, the Petroleum Industry Bill will be given accelerated attention. The report of the forensic audit carried out on the NNPC is being studied with a view to implementing the recommendations and sanctioning proven acts of corruption in the industry.

10. Let me assure Nigerians that this administration is irrevocably committed to tackling corruption in the petroleum industry as well as other sectors of the economy. Consequently, all those found to have contributed one way or the other to the economic adversity of the country will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

11. My dear compatriots, I urge you to show understanding for the imperatives of the adjustment in the pump price of petrol and give government your full support to ensure its successful implementation. I further appeal to Nigerians to go back to work and go about their normal duties as government has made adequate arrangements for the protection of life and property throughout the federation.

12. Government will not condone brazen acts of criminality and subversion. As President, I have sworn to uphold the unity, peace and order of the Nigerian State and by the grace of God, I intend to fully and effectively discharge that responsibility. Let me add that we are desirous of further engagements with Labour. I urge our Labour leaders to call off their strike, and go back to work.

13. Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must collectively safeguard its unity.

14. Thank you. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR
President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria

President Jonathan and Labour Leader

However, he has been proved to be wrong, times are changing and people see what is happening in other countries such as the Arab spring that has toppled dictators like Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Also with the help of western powers, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was deposed and killed.

The foregoing should have made the government to thoroughly consider before making a monumental decision like the total removal of petroleum subsidy which has led to the increase of transportation and virtually everything in a country where majority of the people live below poverty line.

As a result, apart from the protests that broke out immediately, a day after the fuel price increase, the organised labour, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC started a nationwide strike with rallies. The civil society is also involved in the strike.

But the government is still insisting that it would not revert to N65 as demanded by the NLC and TUC before they enter into negotiations. And the government also insisted that the NLC must end the strike before they start negotiations. So there is a stalemate.

In any event, the issue of the removal of subsidy came to the limelight with the N18, 000 minimum wage that was signed into law last year before the April elections. The president and governors agreed to pay it before the elections, but it is yet to be implemented.

The governors complained that they didn’t have enough money to pay the minimum wage, so they pushed for the removal of the fuel subsidy. Though the tune has now changed that they would use the money for developmental projects, the question is, can they still do that and pay the minimum wage?

People are sceptical, believing that the money would be diverted. For example while the federal government has come out with its reinvestment project, we have not heard any such plan from the states, much less the local governments, making people to be more suspicious that the fund will be another milking cow.

In a democracy, the people’s will should prevail, and if the government wants to introduce an unpopular policy it should enlighten and educate the people. As reports indicate, many people don’t even know what fuel subsidy is, they feel the government is out to punish people.

The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in defence of the government said there were adverts in the newspapers about it, but how many Nigerians read newspapers? Enlightenment in Nigerian languages and in the rural areas would make people at least know what the government is doing.

But to spring this suddenly on the people and expect them to make sacrifice without a whimper, or with a whimper then they would skulk away to suffer in silence is an insult to the people. The government should credit them with intelligence and common sense, especially now that people are aware of the billions in the budget for the president’s food and cars among other luxuries and the jumbo salary of legislators.

While the protest goes on, the government is raising alarm that politicians have hijacked it for their selfish end, so also hoodlums. But are the opposition politicians not part of Nigeria, are they not also affected by the government policies? And the so- called hoodlums are they not Nigerians and the product of Nigeria? This is not however condoning lootings, killings and arson.

Many have lost their lives through shootings by the police and the Inspector General of Police; Hafiz Ringim said without remorse that those killed were hoodlums. Shouldn’t they be arrested and tried, since these people are unarmed?

It is wrong for the government to assume that other Nigerians don’t have feelings enough to join the protest, blaming NLC for instigating people, does it means people don’t know where it pinches them?

If the government learns anything from this protest it is not take Nigerians for granted again, and it should go back to the drawing board.

The appointment of the former most beautiful girl in Nigeria which the President put as belonging to the special category is coming barely a week after her husband, Chief Ojukwu died in a London Hospital.

Also on the list of those submitted to the Senate for consideration as ambassadors were former national secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and ex-Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Madueke for Abia State; the financial secretary of PDP, Alhaji Tukur Mani from Katsina State; permanent secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Biodun Nathaniel Olorunfemi from Kogi State; and former Minister of Aviation, Mrs Fidelia Akuabata Njeze from Enugu State.

For more names, read: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/bianca-ojukwu-madueke-olorunfemi-make-envoys-list/

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Senior officials in the interim government, which ended his 42-year rule two months ago but had labored to subdue thousands of diehard loyalists, said his death opened the way for a declaration of “liberation” after eight months of war.

His body was expected in the long-standing rebel stronghold of Misrata, officials said as their Western sponsors held off from confirming that Gaddafi, a self-styled king of kings whom they had lately courted after decades of enmity, was dead at 69.

After Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril confirmed his demise, the new national flag, resurrected by rebels who forced Gaddafi from his capital Tripoli in August, filled streets and squares as jubilant crowds whooped for joy and fired in the air.

In Sirte, a one-time fishing village and Gaddafi’s hometown that grandiose schemes had styled a new “capital of Africa,” fighters danced, brandishing a golden pistol they said they had taken from Gaddafi.

Accounts were hazy of his final hours, which also appeared to have cost the lives of senior aides. But top officials of the National Transitional Council, including Abdel Majid Mlegta, said he had died of wounds sustained in clashes.

FINAL HOURS

One possible description, pieced together from various sources, suggests that Gaddafi may have tried to break out of his final redoubt at dawn in a convoy of vehicles after weeks of dogged resistance. However, he was stopped by a NATO airstrike and captured, possibly three or four hours later, after gunbattles with NTC fighters who found him hiding in a drainage culvert.

NATO said its warplanes fired on a convoy near Sirte about 8:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. EDT), striking two military vehicles in the group, but could not confirm that Gaddafi had been a passenger.

Accounts from his enemies suggested his capture, and death soon after from wounds, may have taken place around noon.

One of Gaddafi’s sons, heir-apparent Saif al-Islam, was at large, they believed.

NTC official Mlegta told Reuters that Gaddafi had been wounded in both legs early in the morning as he tried to flee in the convoy which NATO warplanes attacked

“He was also hit in his head,” he said. “There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.”

There was no shortage of NTC fighters in Sirte claiming to have seen him die, though many accounts were conflicting. Libyan television carried video of two drainage pipes, about a meter across, where it said fighters had cornered a man who long inspired both fear and admiration around the world.

After February’s uprising in the long discontented east of the country around Benghazi — inspired by the Arab Spring movements that overthrew the leaders of neighboring Tunisia and Egypt — the revolt against Gaddafi ground slowly across the country before a dramatic turn saw Tripoli fall in August.

LIBERATION

An announcement of final liberation was expected as the chairman of the NTC prepared to address the nation of six million. They now face the challenge of turning oil wealth once monopolized by Gaddafi and his clan into a democracy that can heal an array of tribal, ethnic and regional divisions he exploited.

The two months since the fall of Tripoli have tested the nerves of the motley alliance of anti-Gaddafi forces and their Western and Arab backers, who had begun to question the ability of the NTC forces to root out diehard Gaddafi loyalists in Sirte and a couple of other towns.

Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, was toppled by rebel forces on August 23, a week short of the 42nd anniversary of the military coup which brought him to power in 1969.

NTC fighters hoisted the red, black and green national flag above a large utilities building in the center of a newly-captured Sirte neighborhood and celebratory gunfire broke out among their ecstatic and relieved comrades.

Hundreds of NTC troops had surrounded the Mediterranean coastal town for weeks in a chaotic struggle that killed and wounded scores of the besieging forces and an unknown number of defenders.

NTC fighters said there were a large number of corpses inside the last redoubts of the Gaddafi troops. It was not immediately possible to verify that information.

More Pictures:

Gadaffi bleeding from the mouth

(Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by David Stamp)

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IMO Election results

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said the winner of the gubernatorial in Imo State between the incumbent Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the leading challenger, Rochas Okorocha of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, will only be determined after re-run polls in the local government areas where election was declared inconclusive yesterday.



Governor Ikedi Ohakim

Kayode Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman, INEC told P.M. NEWS this morning that the commission is upholding the declaration of the election as inconclusive by the Returning Officer.

He said re-run election will be conducted only in those local governments where the polls were declared inconclusive. The re-run election, he said, will have to be conducted latest by tomorrow.

This is to meet the constitutional requirement which stipulates that elections must be held 30 days to the end of the tenure of the office holder.



Okorocha

The tenure of all the current elected office holders will end on 29 May.

Professor Enoch Akubundu, INEC Returning officer for Imo State gubernatorial election had said yesterday that the final results of the election could not be announced because only results from 24 out of the 27 local government areas in the state have been collated.

According to him, it is necessary to collate the results from all the local governments in the state since the two leading candidates are running neck and neck.

The two leading candidates were in a photo finish in the results of the local governments declared before the announcement by the Returning Officer.

Rochas Okorocha of APGA had won 12 local governments out of the 24 declared, while Ohakim had won in 11 local governments and was leading in Oguta with 12,216 against APGA’s 4,449 when the Returning Officer for the local government declared that there were no elections in some wards in the area.

The Returning Officer therefore declared the election in Oguta inconclusive. He added that there were also no elections at Ngor Okpalla LGA while in Mbaitoli, Ohaji/ Egbema LGAs, the elections were also inconclusive also because some wards were cancelled due to what the Returning Officer described as irregularities.

“In view of the closeness of the race, the governorship election in Imo State is hereby declared inconclusive. It will be inappropriate for me to announce the result that is inconclusive,” said Professor Akubundu who added that “so I won’t be able to declare a winner in the governorship election in Imo State”, declared.

P.M.NEWS, however, gathered that Franklin Mathias the Returning Officer for Ohaji/ Egbema LGA who claimed that there was no election in the area was confronted by party agents with results from the wards which he duly signed.

Franklin did not deny that he signed the results. It was gathered that the Franklin has been handed over to the Police.

P.M.NEWS gathered that supporters of Okoroacha had descended on the collation centre this morning, calling for the release of the remaining election results.

Meanwhile, Owerri, the Imo State capital is still smarting from the tension-soaked governorship election that ended in a stalemate last night.

A combined team of mobile policemen and some Army personnel are now patrolling the streets of the capital to keep the peace, as opposition party supporters reject the outcome of the election.

Elections are now pending in the remaining four LGAs which will decide the winner between Okorocha and Ohakim who are now running neck-and neck.

In the three councils of Ohaji-Egbema, Oguta and Mbaitoli, elections were voided in many wards due to widespread irregularities. In the remaining one, Ngor-Okpala, elections did not hold at all because polling materials arrived very late.

The INEC office in Owerri says it is now awaiting the decision of the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on a date for the rerun of the election in the affected council areas. But it is not likely to hold before the weekend, INEC’s spokesperson in Imo, Samuel Bassey, told P.M. News on phone this morning.

Drama and tension characterised the proceedings yesterday at the INEC collation centre in Owerri. Before the returning officer discontinued the announcement of the results, party agents of the APGA and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) accused him of pandering to external pressure to skew the results in favour of Governor Ohakim of the PDP.

The opposition party agents and those of the PDP exchanged verbal attacks while the event was being transmitted live on national television, but security men promptly waded in to calm the situation.

The camp of the APGA candidate, Okorocha has expressed the confidence it would win the contest if the rerun ordered by INEC is allowed to be free and fair.

An APGA chieftain, Martins Agbaso, told P.M.News “the will of the people cannot be changed. We have proven to them (PDP) that we are more popular than they thought.”

The Governor Ohakim’s camp has also said its chances are “very bright.” Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Henry Ekpe, told P.M.NEWS on phone this morning that “the four council areas in question are all PDP strongholds, and we are positive we would be victorious during the rerun.”

— Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja & Tokunbo Olajide/Owerri

It said a rerun would be fixed for a date to be announced soon.

The decision was announced at a press conference in Awka by the newly appointed Returning Officer for Anambra Central, Prof. Charles Esinone. The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, also attended the briefing, where he told newsmen that Esinone had been replaced the former RO, Mr. Alex Anene.

The major candidates in the election are a former governor of the state, Dr. Chris Ngige (Action Congress of Nigeria); ex-Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili (All Progressives Grand Alliance); and the incumbent, Chief Annie Okonkwo (Accord Party).

The declaration of the result ran into a deadlock when Anene said on Sunday that he was being pressurised by officials of the state government and APGA to declare Akunyili as the winner of the poll.

He had told newsmen in Awka that the interests promised him a house, scholarship for his children and N10 million if he declared Akunyili as the winner of the election and accepted the ‘mutilated’ result from Njikoka Local Government Area.

He said he rejected the gifts and was quitting the assignment because his conscience would not allow him to announce a mutilated result.

Ngige swiftly petitioned INEC, asking it to cancel the result in Anaocha Local Government Area because 22,000 votes were allocated in it to Akunyili.

However, at a separate briefing at her campaign office in Awka, Akunyili said that before the election, Anene was arrested with fake poll monitors and later released on bail. She alleged that instead of going to report to the police, Anene called journalists and raised allegations against her party.

Source: Punch