The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities (COPSUN) has proposed that labor and pay be removed from the Constitution’s exclusive legislative list, allowing state governments to exert proper control over their employees.

The committee, presided over by Mallam Yusuf Ali, SAN, said the structure and operation of the country’s federalism about public institutions established and owned separately by the federal and state governments under different legislations has been a major problem of state universities in a communiqué issued at the end of its 52nd Quarterly Meeting held in Abuja.

State governments should be able to negotiate pay with their employees, according to the report.
adding that the rights of trade unions to demand for welfare of its members should be based on employer-employee relationship.

The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) to de-emphasize strikes as the major tool of negotiation with the federal government.

While observing that the disruption of the academic calendars had adversely affected the quality of the nation’s universities, their products and research outputs, the committee said the core values of education have been negatively impacted by the instability in the university system resulting in falling standards.

The committee announced that as its own contribution to the reform of tertiary education in Nigeria, an international conference would be organised before the end of the year to consider the various challenges facing universities and proffer appropriate solutions.

Aisha Buhari, the First Lady, on Monday asked wives of Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police to always support their husbands in carrying out their responsibilities to the country.

She made the remarks while greeting service chiefs’ spouses on a familiarization visit to the State House in Abuja.

She claimed that providing such assistance will enhance their spouses’ morale and strengthen their dedication to fighting crime in Nigeria.

The first lady also urged relevant authorities to ensure a large-scale recruitment of security personnel in order to increase the security forces’ manpower.

While commending the efforts of the Federal Government in the prompt payment of the benefits of slain security personnel, the first lady urged the authorities to sustain the tempo.

Responding, Mrs Vickie Irabor, the President, Defence and Police Officers Wives Association (DEPOWA), pledged their support and commitment to the first lady in her quest to providing services to the less privileged in the society.

Irabor expressed determination to work in synergy with the first lady to ensure peace in the land.

“We know it is not easy; we have come to you to show our support, because you are a pillar of support to us in the security family,” she said.

Our correspondent reports that in attendance were wives of the Chief of Army Staff, Mrs Salamatu Yahaya; the Chief of Air Staff, Mrs Elizabeth Amao and the Chief of Naval Staff, Mrs Nana Gambo.

Others are wives of the Inspector-General of Police, Mrs Hajara Alkali-Baba and the Director-General, Department of State Services, Mrs Aisha Bichi.

According to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, 90 percent of money laundering occurs in the real estate sector.

Speaking on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, the anti-corruption agency leader claimed that although the industry is monitored via the special control unit, more needed to be done.

Bawa, “One of the problems we have now is the real estate. 90 to 100 percent of the resources are being laundered through the real estate.”

He said there are so many issues involved, but that they were working with the National Assembly to stop what he called “the gate keepers” as there would be reduction in looting if there is no one to launder the money.

Bawa, the EFCC boss, gave an example of a minister who expressed interest in a $37.5 million property a bank manager put up for sale.

He added that: “The bank sent a vehicle to her house and in the first instance $20 million was evacuated from her house.

“They paid a developer and a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle, where the title documents were transferred into.

“And he (the lawyer) is posing as the owner of the property. You see the problem. This is just one of many; it is happening daily.”

Former Militant Commander and head of the Biafra Customary Government (BCG), Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, has called the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) a criminal.

Dokubo accused Kanu of utilizing the “Biafran fight” as a business endeavor in a video he posted on social media.

Kanu, he claimed, had been diverting cash intended for the Biafran cause.

According to him; “They are now telling us India, Russia etc. This is how they audit accounts. This is what Biafra will look like under the criminal Nnamdi Kanu.”

“They claim that they brought money to Cotonou to give to me — N20 million. We are waiting for them to bring the evidence. They came to Cotonou to meet with me and I hosted them. They did not bring a dime.

“How is that an audited account? Why do Igbo people allow you, a conman, to be conning them? Igbos, you have to rise. He wants to destroy Onyeama. He wants to destroy Ekweremadu. He wants to destroy everybody and the Igbo people are keeping quiet.

“Biafra is your business now, you have no other avenue for gainful income. It is a pity how Igbo people have fallen for this evil, but your time is up.

He continued; “I am out for you. And I will get you. I just asked that our people be allowed to vote and you sent your dogs. I’ve broken their teeth.

“Nnamdi Kanu, I’m not in your category but for this, I will surely bring you down. I will destroy this evil empire that is working as a hindrance to the restoration of Biafra.”

Kanu is yet to react to the allegations made by Dokubo.

The Niger Delta former militant commander is not the first to level allegations against the IPOB leader.

Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), has repeatedly described Kanu as a fraud.

Suspected bandits killed 12 persons in Maikujera, Sokoto state’s Rabah local government district.

ASP Sanusi Abubakar, a spokesman for the Sokoto Police Command, confirmed the attack, saying it happened around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.

According to him, the assailants killed 12 persons.

He claimed, however, that no one had been kidnapped by the bandits.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, unidentified gunmen believed to be bandits were reported to have stopped the Sokoto-Gusau road once more.

According to a motorist who was among those stranded, the gunmen stopped the road between Bimasa and Lambar Bakura and operated for about two hours.

“Many of travellers had to stop at Bimasa until the bandits left,” he said

However, ASP Abubakar could not confirm the attack.

President Muhammadu Buhari has been challenged by Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, to bring a restructuring bill to the National Assembly.

The issue came after Buhari said in his Democracy Day speech that the National Assembly is responsible for reforming the country, as some Nigerians have demanded.

In response to this, Afenifere’s Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, issued a statement yesterday urging the President to present the restructuring and power devolution bill to the legislative branch as soon as possible.

Doing this, the group noted, would “Nigerians to believe that he meant what he says.”

On the president’s claim that his administration has not done badly in the last six years, Afenifere declared that “Nigerians were far better off in virtually everything in 2015 than they are presently.”

“For the President to claim that the country is better now than in 2015 clearly shows that he is not in touch with reality or that he has a different measurement when comparing the two eras,” he added.

The body regretted that the president confessed the seeming helplessness of his administration in combating the insecurity that was about to consume the country presently.
“I am more pained than anyone can imagine with the ongoing security challenges because… they have increased the hunger, pain, and anger in the land,” the president said.

President Buhari does not need to tell us all of this since we already know and feel it.

What is required of him is to take actual action to address the issues he so eloquently outlined.”

According to what he (the President) confessed to telling Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State when the latter came to him with images of the destruction during the #EndSars demonstration in Lagos, the President was also accused of being insensitive.

Afenifere accused President Buhari of shifting blame and responsibilities when pressed on what his government ought to do.

“Were this not to be so, he would not have hidden his inability to confront insecurity problems on the excuse that state governors are allegedly pocketing allocations meant for the local government councils in their respective states.

“Also, he would not have sent Governors Seyi Makinde and Rotimi Akeredolu of Oyo and Ondo states back to go and face the insecurity problems in their states when he knew perfectly well that the tools to tackle the problem are not within the control of these governors.