By Olanrewaju Sodiq

This is, honestly, one of the few articles I happen to be all smiles while writing. A beautiful smile indicates happiness right? Of course I am happy. Happy that Nigerian youths have finally realized the need to try life outside the mundane “College/University education alone solves all” ideology. An ideology that has been in existence since time immemorial; pre-installed in the minds and brains of many, by parents, guardians, predecessors, unwarranted need to “fit-in”, the society, and lots more.

Recent outbursts on Nigeria’s largest online forum, www.nairaland.com (hereinafter Nairaland) by youths, who seem to have been augustly visited by the supposedly unavoidable friend one could ever have -a friend who’s dreaded by all, a friend that preaches nothing but the truth- “Mr. Reality”, incited this write-up. Or perhaps, let me say the fact that having a career has been successfully differentiated from having a job, served as an inspiration too. Just to inform those who don’t know, www.diffen.com definition of career goes thus: Career is the pursuit of a “lifelong ambition” or the general course of progression towards lifelong goals. Job, still as reported by diffen.com, is an activity through which an individual can earn money. It is a regular activity in exchange of payment.

If, by chance, you still hold the opinion that rants by these “fed-up” youths are overrated, I strongly recommend a rethink. Have you ever wondered why there seem to be an increasing number of online job search portal? Or why there are numerous job scam tales? Maybe you should count the number of times you've come across a job acquisition testimony and do a numerical comparison. Still not convinced? A trip to a nearby bookstore should do the magic. Make enquiries on how many copies of “Interview Questions & Answers” and other job acquisition related books are sold weekly. Only then, you can understand their plight.

This, in a sense, is for that Joe who has been labelled as lazy by friends, family and almost everyone he relates with. The Joe that pictures reading 2 pages of any book as cumbersome. That Joe who has decided to add the present situation of Job in the country and the newly-found ideology about school to his library of excuses of being unsuccessful in any field. Suli Breaks defined success as a ladder, which only few of us will find, and even less of us will have the strength to climb; afraid of the prospect of spending our whole life climbing. Also, the phrase “Readers are Leaders” is one that has profound meaning than the three words it embodies. A genuine leader reads till the soul gets separated from the body, till his name get written in gold in the book of history. For only those who read are the ones being read about.

This is for that lass currently topping the class. Your aunt gave you an inkling of the pathetic state of the job market, now all you want to do is lose hope and give up? Trust me, you won’t love the taste of regret. Reality only requires you to put your eggs in some other baskets, not leaving everything in one. Or worse still, throw the whole eggs away. Do not let the wheel of someone else’s life steer yours, don’t let their failure story get the best of you. They can say what they want but don't let that distract you from achieving your goals.

This is also for that Unemployed graduate, that sleeps and wakes right next to his curriculum vitae. That graduate who has walked round the whole city of Lagos, made a million phone calls to family, friends and even foes. Dear brother, this is not the time to shred that CV into tiny pieces. It’s just a “trying time”; every human experience one. Rather, it’s the time to explore, time to try something new. Lower you ego and meet that friend who once offered to tutor you on Programming, or that aunt that own a fashion design outlet. Trust me, they’ll definitely understand.

I can also see that lady friend of mine who has a long list of ex-classmates working as employees for top companies in the Banking and Oil sector. Hey miss, this is definitely not the perfect time to establish a comparison chart of your life and theirs in your head. In fact, there’s no perfect time for such. Fate still exists in the dictionary just because it is real. It exists, and forever will! In the words of Winston S. Churchill, “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks”. That comparison mindset you have is, literally, that dog you’re wasting your stones(time) on. Instead, you should use those stones to build the Rome you had always wanted to have. Write more aptitude tests, put in more effort because sometimes, only one more effort is required to break that jinx.

This is also for that 23 year old, who seem to be considering making a U-turn on the decision to further his education; going for masters. All because a friend gave you the numbers of unemployed person possessing a masters degree according to some false figures from gullible peoples' Bureau of Statistics? I really urge you to think twice. If possible, thrice. Did the friend give you figures on successful people in possession of a masters degree? No he can’t; because they’re uncountable! You desire the degree to better yourself, right? Then for the sake of you, please don’t turn. Think about it, if everyone was an entrepreneur, who will treat you when the illness comes? Who will teach your kids the right use of words? Who will fix your car when it breaks down on the way to your wedding? Think.

On a concluding note, while the fact that one could get inspired in the wrong way is profoundly undermined, the need to always check what works best for one, I strongly advise. Fingers will forever remain unequal, pebbles in a tonne of stones, also, aren’t equal. Engineers, Cobblers, Teachers, Drivers, Scientists, Students, Employed, Unemployed, Entrepreneurs, Lawyers etc. possess the power to change the world; because it all boils down to the person(s) with the best ideas. Again, in the words of Suli Breaks, “Google was once a scrap of codes, Skyscrapers were once slabs of stones”. Ideas are life changing. Sometimes all you need to open that door is one more good idea. Old ideas saved the world, current one sustained it, but only the crazy ones will change it.

A middle aged woman, Gloria Sule, has been allegedly duped by a fake spiritualist, Francis Kalu, after she allegedly paid N2.1m to him to prepare charms for her to become famous in the Nigerian movie industry.

The incident, which happened in Lagos State, western Nigeria, has pitched Gloria against Kalu after the charms failed.

Apart from allegedly defrauding her, Kalu invaded her privacy by stripping and bathing her under the false pretence of empowering her spiritually.

Trouble started after Gloria discovered that she had been duped.

When she requested for the refund of her money, Kalu refused and the police had to be contacted to wade into the matter.

According Gloria, she was introduced to Kalu whose shrine is located at Abule Ado area of Lagos.

During the encounter, Kalu asked her to request what she wanted to achieve in life and she told him that she needed spiritual empowerment to become a popular movie star.

Kalu promised to fulfill her dream and told her that she would pay the amount and thereafter she would embark on spiritual exercise to equip her.

He told her the rituals involved him stripping and bathing her with some spiritual materials which she agreed after paying the money.

To convince her, Kalu gave her a time frame when she would accomplish her desire.

Gloria waited in vain as all the promises failed and the police had to be invited to arrest Kalu. After investigation, he was charged to Ejigbo Magistrate’s court.

The police at Area ‘M’ Command, Idimu, that arrested Kalu charged him with breach of contract, invading her privacy, fraud and stealing under the Criminal Code.

When Kalu was arraigned in court, he pleaded not guilty.

The presiding Magistrate, Mrs J.O.E. Adeyemi granted him bail with two sureties in like sum

He was remanded in prison custody at Kirikiri pending when he would fulfill his bail condition.

The matter was adjourned till 21 September, 2015.

The Federal Government has discretely released some funds to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to boost their operational capacities in a bid to step up its anti-corruption war.

President Muhammadu Buhari who approved the release of the funds to the anti-graft agencies has ordered the re- opening of some corruption cases pending in the courts since 2007.

The funds, according to New Telegraph, were meant primarily to enable the two anti-agencies to carry out diligent prosecution of cases involving some state governors who have been indicted for corruption.

Buhari, upon assumption of office three months ago, had received briefings from the antigraft agencies where the heads of ICPC and EFCC blamed paucity of funds for the slow pace of their operations and inability to secure convictions on high profile cases.


A source at the EFCC told the newspaper that the President had then ordered the anti-graft agencies to set up a special committee to review the various cases that have either been hitherto declared closed or just lying fallow.

The anti-graft agencies have beamed the searchlight on many former governors, since the inception of the Buhari administration.

“I cannot tell you how much has been released but it is true that our capacity has been boosted. The committee is already working. It is the reason you have seen some actions from us in recent times. But we have not started massive invitation of these high-profile individuals because we want to build up very tight cases against them such that it would be difficult for them to escape,” the source told the national daily.

The urge to forcefully have carnal knowledge of a married woman has led to a man's private part
being cut off after he met his match in the woman.

The incident happened in a community in Ikono Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, according to a reader who sent the report exclusively to Pulse.
According to the report, the woman identified as
Mrs Iniabasi Okon took that drastic step when her husband's best friend, Linus Ibok , trailed her to the farm on Saturday, September 5, after he had escorted her husband, a petty trader to join a vehicle going to Aba, Abia State, to purchase items for his shop in the village.

"Iniabasi was not surprised when Ibok went to meet her in the farm, thinking he wanted to help her as he was almost like a member of their family but the shock came when Ibok confessed undying love for her but when she told him in plain terms to leave the farm or she would report him to her husband, Ibok decided To Molest her.

But he did not know what the woman had in stock for him as she stealthily used her machete to chop off his randy manhood.
After that, she ran to the village and inform other
villagers who rushed to the farm to meet Ibok in a pool of his blood with his sliced manhood.

He was rushed to an hospital where he is currently receiving treatment while he will have to face the village elders whenever he is well enough."

Tension is mounting in states that have collected bailout packaged for them by President Muhammadu Buhari as outstanding salaries remain unpaid there.

A total of 27 states owing several months of workers salaries applied for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) packaged special soft loan of between N250billion and N300billion. Out of the states that have collected the money, only Kwara has announced using it to settle workers salary arrears.

The mounting tension is against the background of reports that some governors are diverting the bailout money for other purposes outside salary payment which was the stated reason for which the money was made available to the affected states.

The national leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress on Friday told Saturday Tribune that workers had been directed to shut down any state that refuses to settle all outstanding salaries after collecting the bailout funds.

Also, the presidency declared on Friday that settlement of unpaid salaries of state workers was the sole reason the president arranged the soft loans for the states.

Speaking with Saturday Tribune on phone, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande said “the president made the intervention with the motive and purpose of alleviating the suffering of state workers who were being owed months of unpaid salaries. We don’t want to enter into any argument with any governor on that money ( but) as far as the president is concerned, payment of outstanding salaries is the purpose for which the money is meant.”

The Vice President’s office oversees the administration of the intervention fund.

The CBN had, in separate letters, informed each of the states that have received the bailout money that the funds were released “ under the salaries bailout credit facility” while it added that  the loan was to be repaid over a period of 240 months at 9 percent interest rate. The letter, a copy of which was sighted by Saturday Tribune, was signed by Dr. Mudashiru A. Olaitan, acting director of the apex bank’s Development Finance Department.

A breakdown of the loans is  as follows: Abia- N14.152b; Adamawa- N2.378b; Bauchi- N8.60b; Bayelsa – N1.285b; Benue – N28.013b; Borno – N7.680b; Cross River – N7.856b; Delta – N10.036b; Ebonyi – N4.063b; Edo – N3.167b; Ekiti – N9.604b; Enugu – 4.207b; Gombe – N16.459b; Imo – N26.806b; Katsina – N3.304b; Kebbi – N0.690b; Kogi – N50.842b; Kwara – N4.320b; Nasarawa – N8.317b; Niger – N4.306b; Ogun – N20.00b; Ondo – N14.686b; Osun – N34.988b; Oyo – N26.606b; Plateau – N5.357b; Sokoto – N10.093b and Zamfara – N10.020b.

The CBN, in announcing that it had approved that banks should lend money to requesting states to pay workers’ salary arrears explained that specific figures were attached to the facilities to be disbursed to the states because “every state is to come up with its specific needs in order to access the facility from the commercial banks.”

The National Executive Council (NEC) had  at its June 29, 2015 meeting directed the CBN, “in collaboration with other stakeholders, to appraise and consider ways of liquidating the outstanding staff salaries owed by states and local governments.”

 

We’ll confront govs, shut down states —NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned state governors not to divert the bailout,  saying that the organised labour is now set to take the battle to the doorstep of any state governor who fails to pay his workers after collecting the bailout funds.

To this end, the congress on Friday directed its state councils and workers to completely close down any state that fails to pay the backlog of salaries owed them after the release of the bailout by embarking on stikes and organising protest rallies to demand for accountability and good governance.

Already, the congress said it has directed and put all its state councils on notice that any state government that refuses to pay the salary, or any state that contemplates reducing salary or diverts the bailout from the Federal Government to other use besides paying the salary arrears, should be closed down.

In an exclusive interview with Saturday Tribune in Abuja on Friday, President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, warned state governors who are contemplating not paying the money or diverting it to other use, that the congress would take the battle to their doorstep.

He added that the National Delegates and the National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC had since resolved that after the issue of corruption had been dealt it by the congress, the next issue on the agenda to be confronted is the failure of states to pay salaries.

Comrade Wabba described as false the issue being raised by some of the governors that the bailout could be used for other purpose order than the payment of salary arrears, warning that the bailout is basically for the payment of salary arrears and should not be diverted for any other purpose.

“I don’t want to believe that any right thinking governor will raise this issue because a lot of them have confessed to the fact that the primary purpose of the bailout is for them to pay salaries.

“Certainly, I am telling you that we are sending a warning signal and we have said clearly that anywhere salaries are not being paid after this bailout is released, they should not continue to offer service. First, they should withdraw service and also protest and demand for accountability and good governance,” he said.

On the claim of some governors that the bailout was a loan to be used at the discretion of the states, Comrade Wabba said: “At the Council of State meeting where the decision was taken, Mr. President said emphatically that the bailout would be given to states to enable them to pay liability of salaries. So, what we are aware and which some state governors have also comfirmed is to the effect that, that money is meant first to pay the arrears of salaries.

“I am happy to appreciate and recognise some governors who, even when they collected the money engaged our state councils and worked out processes of paying. One of them is Bauchi State, and then Adamawa State; they engaged our state councils in formal meetings where decision was taken on how to disburse the salaries and they also disclosed fully what they have collected.

“To me it is far from the truth; and specifically if we have such states, we will also visit the states and organise a rally to debunk what they have said and we are ready to do that.”

He added: “Already, we have put our states on notice, including Osun, where we are aware the governor has promised now to pay all the five months. That is our next point of call, we have told our people anywhere they don’t pay, or anywhere they contemplate reducing workers salaries, they should close down the place immediately.

“As I am talking to you presently Ebonyi is already on strike, Imo has already addressed the issue because the governor saw how they protested and we told them whatever they need to do, they need to do that, including pensioners. We have told pensioners that we are going to meet them. Some of them are also ready to protest to whatever length to ensure that this money is not carted away.”

Comrade Wabba stated that many of the governors were very corrupt, hence their claim that because the money was a loan they would not use it to pay salaries, stating that their move to divert it to other use was to give them another opportunity to corruptly enrich their pocket with the money.

He said: “It is also part of corruption we are talking about. In most of the states, why salaries are not being paid is not because of the shortage of funds, it is about their priority. Most of the governors that have paid are also giving us those information, so it is not true.

“They have a responsibility to pay salary, the workers have already earned this salary by our national laws. It is forbidden for a worker to work in excess of 30 days without being paid, it is a law. It is expected that after the end of every 30 days a worker is entitled to his wages, so it is a debt.

“So if workers have worked and government has seen reason to give a bailout, I don’t think people should misplace the priority as to why that decision was taken because it was very clear. Even the CBN has made it very clear. So, if we have specific cases where it is still an issue, it is part of the decision we have  taken that after this national rally on corruption, we will confront those governors and deal with the issue.”

 

Osun workers reject payment of half salary for March, insist bailout is for salary

Workers under the aegis of Osun State Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC), comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), among others on Friday in Osogbo rejected the plan by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration to pay them half salary for March 2015 out of about eight months salaries owed civil servants in the state.

Reacting to the statement made by the state Head of Service (HoS), Mr Sunday Owoeye that government had directed that half of March salary be paid to civil servants, the labour unions said there was no basis for such development, after the government had sought and got about N35billion bailout funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay all outstanding salaries.

In a joint letter addressed to the governor, copies of which were also forwarded to the Speaker, House of Assembly, the SSG, Accountant General, Director, Department of State Security (DSS) among others, the labour unions also warned that the bailout funds received by the state be used to pay their eight months outstanding salaries.

The letter reads in part, “it was on record that bailout funds of N34.988 billion was released to this state on Thursday 3rd of September, 2015, according to the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele and instead of government fulfilling her own side of the deal by carrying out section 3(f) of MoU signed with the labour on the 13th and 29th July respectively, reverse was the case”.

“The information released through the Head of Service on the payment of outstanding salaries  on Wednesday was completely opposite the spirit of existing MoU which had generated palpable tension among the workers and all the entire people living in Osun State.

“That government should effect immediate implementation of the MoU signed on Monday 13th July, 2015. That labour movements in the state reject in its entirety the payment of half salary as announced by the Head of Service on Wednesday, 9th  September, 2015 and should not be paid into worker’s individual account”.

It continued, “that all the arrears of salaries and pensions should be paid from the already released bailout funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria which it is meant for. That Mr Governor should direct the Accountant General  of the state and Accountant of the Ministry of Local Government not to release half salary into any worker’s individual account”.

 

Governors must not be allowed to embezzle bailouts —Afenifere

In its own reaction, Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere says it is miffed that “some irresponsible governors have refused to pay workers their salaries from the perpetual indebtedness called bailout recently arranged by the Federal Government.”

According to a press release signed by Yinka Odumakin, national publicity secretary of the body and made available to Saturday Tribune, “the callous disposition of such governors has confirmed our fears that the whole idea of the bailout without ascertaining what happened to the monies meant to pay workers salaries in the first place is an encouragement for financial recklessness and waywardness of the governors which led to the quagmire.”

“The governors who are now holding to the funds meant for workers  embezzled their past, are denying  them their present and putting their children and grandchildren into indebtedness.

“Rapacious governors concerned must not be allowed to get away with this heinous crime against the workers. It would make a joke of the anti-corruption war if they are allowed to do with the bailout what they did with their states allocations meant to pay the salaries now turned into humongous debts.

“The NLC which is marching around against  corruption now has specifics on its hand to mobilise against the governors who want to sentence them to perpetual penury,” Afenifere said.

 

Benue PDP warns Gov Ortom not to use workers’ salaries to siphon state funds

THE  People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State on Friday called on Governor Samuel Ortom to stop using the salary arrears of workers in the state to defraud the state.

The publicity secretary of PDP in the state, Honourable Godwin Ayihe at a press briefing said that the salary arrears owed workers in both local governments and  the state civil service were a little above N19billion as against the N28billion being claimed by the governor.

Governor Ortom had at a media parley early in the week explained that the Federal Government’s bailout of N28billion to the state was to settle the salary arrears of workers both at the state and local government levels.

 

Bailout: Ogun to spend N18.9bn on payment of workers deductions

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has said that the sum of N18.9bn obtained by his administration from the Federal Government as bailout would be used to settle 10 months backlog deductions owed workers in the state.

He insisted that any state that cannot pay its workforce is a failed state, saying his administration is struggling to pay workers salaries.

Amosun stated this while addressing members of the Labour Movement comprising the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and the Nigeria Labour Congress at the end of their rally on promotion of good governance in Nigeria, at the Arcade Ground, Governor’s Office, Abeokuta.

 

Niger House approves N6.8billion  bailout loan

Niger State House of Assembly has formally given the governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, the approval to access the N4.3billion bailout fund meant for the state.

The approval was sequel to the letter written to the house by the governor and read by the Deputy Speaker, Hon Hussein Ibrahim.