Nigeria's Ex-Vice President, Atiku's University Sacks Over 400 Staff

The American University of Nigeria owned by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday sacked over 400 staff.

This comes three days after another of Atiku's companies, Gotel Communication, a media outfit, sacked 46 staff on Workers Day.

President of AUN, Dawn Dekle, signed the sack letters seen by SaharaReporters, stating that the university no longer required the services of the affected staff.

Some of the disengaged workers told SaharaReporters that they were fired without severance benefits despite serving the university for about 10 years.

However, Vice President, University Relations of the institution, Abubakar Abba Tahir, denied the allegation.

He said, "Ask them to show you their disengagement letters.

"Until now, AUN has operated a student-staff ratio which balance had continued to affect the sustainability of the university.

"It would not be realistic for AUN to continue to anchor its administrative structure on an over-bloated personnel whose role do not have significant effect on the philosophy of a development university.

"Thus, consequent upon the university’s new Governing Council vote to restructure the institution in line with its agenda for sustainability, a process of workforce rationalisation had been in the pipeline.

"It is now time for the university to look back, look around and look ahead to ensure that realistic and globally competitive administrative practices can be achieved in structure, strategy and focus."

SaharaReporters 

Dino Melaye says he failed Nigerians as a politician

One of Nigeria's most outspoken of politicians says he and his friends have dealt their country a bad hand.

Former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dino Melaye, stopped short of offering an unreserved apology to the masses for governance failure, on Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

Melaye who has been in and around Nigeria’s political circles, has served as member of the House of Representatives, a senator and a governorship aspirant since his nation’s return to democratic governance in 1999.

In a tweet, Melaye shared that the inability of the government to keep Nigerians at home and offer them palliatives as the new coronavirus ravages the world, is an indictment of the leadership and political class of which he is part.

“Everyone who held and is holding any political office in Nigeria whether elective or appointed, including me, have failed,” he said.

“We sold crude oil for 64 years but couldn’t feed our citizens for just two weeks of lockdown. Well, the God of the poor will judge us all. It’s time to reboot.”

President Buhari eased coronavirus restrictions imposed in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun through a national broadcast delivered on April 27, 2020, as the economy tanked and millions complained of hunger.

A couple of states across Nigeria have also eased restrictions, while imposing overnight curfews in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.

Showy, garrulous, in-your-face and flamboyant, Melaye served as senator from 2015 to 2019.

A switch of political camps pitted him against Nigeria’s governing political party, a move that saw him lose a re-election battle to the national assembly.

Pulse

Yar’Adua stands out among Nigeria’s presidents – Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday , wrote a glowing tribute to mark the tenth anniversary since the demise of his boss and former President, Umar Musa Yar’Adua.

Jonathan, who was vice president to Yar’Adua from May 2007 to May 2010 , said the late President left enduring legacies for Nigeria’s democracy .

Yar’Adua, a two- term governor of Katsina State, died in office as President, three years after he was elected in 2007 .

Upon his demise, Jonathan, who was then his deputy, was sworn in as President in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Jonathan later won the 2011 Presidential election and returned to office .

Celebrating his former boss in a statement on Facebook on Monday, Jonathan said Yar’Adua stood out among Nigerian presidents.

He wrote , “ It has been a decade since His Excellency President Umar Musa Yar’Adua was snatched by the cold hands of death.

“ He was a President like no other who lived and died for the sake of his country. He stood on the side of the people, toiling day and night to make their lives better.

“ President Yar’Adua built strong bridges of hope , love, and understanding for which he became a force for national unity and positive change across our blessed land.

“ In many ways, he stood out. He had an accommodating spirit and enormous goodwill that secreted a web around our national fault lines to strengthen the bond; thus leaving for his successors the task of reinforcing the band.

“ President Yar’Adua no doubt left enduring legacies in his wholehearted devotion to the ideals of democracy, respect for peoples ’ rights, freedoms and reason for living as well as the commitment to the rule of law and laws of equity and justice.

“ I will continue to remember President Yar’Adua as a colleague and boss who became my brother and friend.”

Punch

Buratai Led Nigerian Army Kill 134 Boko Haram Terrorists, Arrests 16 Informants In Borno - DHQ

The Defence Headquarters says the Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole (OPLD) have eliminated 134 Boko Haram/Islamic States of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists and arrested 16 informants in Borno.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

Enenche disclosed that the success was recorded in the ongoing subsidiary operation in the North East Theatre of Operation code-named ‘Operation Kantana Jimlan. He said the operation, being conducted as part of the conclusive phase of OPLD, was already recording monumental successes.

According to him, the operation is being conducted preparatory to the final routing of BHT/ISWAP criminals from the Nigerian territory by the troops of OPLD. He said the operation was coordinated by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, adding that it has intensified on various fronts especially within the Timbuktu triangle.

Enenche added that the operation had left the criminal elements and their leadership in complete disarray and thus setting the conditions for the commencement of the final assault on their enclaves and hideouts.

“Several BHT/ISWAP targets were acquired and engaged with precision by Nigerian Army Artillery Regiments across the entire theatre thus delivering accurate fire on the criminals who were seen fleeing in disarray. In a coordinated artillery bombardments on Timbuktu triangle conducted on May 1 and 2, seven Boko Haram Gun Trucks were destroyed while 78 BHT/ISWAP fighters were killed as confirmed by both aerial and human intelligence.

“Within the same period, another successful artillery engagement to Buk in Damboa Local Government Area resulted in the neutralization of an additional 56 BHT criminals. Acting on intelligence that a large number of BHT members were converging at the location, the gallant troops of the Nigerian Army Artillery Regiments acquired and engaged the location with deadly precision, inflicting heavy casualties on them. As confirmed by our intelligence sources, only a handful of the terrorists escaped the location with gun shot wounds, with little chances of survival,” he said.

Enenche further explained that 16 high profile Boko Haram informants fell into the troops’ dragnet within the last two weeks. He said that the arrest of such high profile informants had significantly dislocated the terrorists’ information and supply chains and equally dislocating their communication.

According to him, as the gallant troops continue to overwhelm the criminal elements on all fronts, it is quite apparent that the days of the criminal elements called Boko Haram are indeed numbered.

“Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Buratai, who has been in the Theatre with the troops for the past five weeks congratulated the gallant troops for their resilience, courage and dedication to the noble cause of defending our fatherland against the criminal elements. 

He further urged them to remain focused and ruthless as they take the fight to the fleeing remnants of the enemies of our nation. The general public is hereby encouraged to provide credible information to our Troops as the NIgerian Military remain resolute in tackling the security challenges of the Country,” he said.

Ekiti: New COVID-19 Case Came From Katsina - Health Commissioner

The new covid-19 case recorded recorded in Ekiti State is a visitor from Katsina State, according to the Commissioner for Health , Mojisola Yaya Kolade.

According to a statement issued on Monday, the new case is a female, who entered the state during the lockdown, to visit her husband, who is a military officer, residing in Oye-Ekiti.

“When he noticed symptoms of the COVID-19 infection, he alerted the Taskforce @Ekiti_COVID19, and samples were taken from her for testing. The test result returned positive to #COVID19,” the statement added.

The total number of confirmed cases in Ekiti is now twelve (12), of which nine (9) are active, two (2) discharged, and one (1) death, according to the state.

The Whistler Ng

We may lockdown again if cases spike – FG

The Federal Government has vowed to lockdown parts of the country again should there be explosion of coronavirus cases.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said although it expected some lapses in compliance to safety precautions, it was worried corporate organisations, especially banks on Monday flouted the NCDC’s guideline for infection prevention and control.

Speaking during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, the NCDC boss said: “Initial reports are not too pleasing across the country.

“When we say take responsibility this time, yes we are addressing individuals but we really needed to address corporate Nigeria.

“One of the biggest groups that we have allowed to restart business today were banks.

“When you limit the number of branches that open, everybody goes to the one branch that is open; that becomes counter-productive.

“We can produce all the guidelines in the world but if organisations are not going to come up and support the implementation of these measures and help us manage the risks and focus on a risk-based approach, then our efforts might amount to little or nothing.

“Today we might forgive a little bit because it was the first day. However, we will have infections because of what happened today, no doubt about that.

“But what is more important is how we can learn from the mistakes of today into tomorrow and into next tomorrow, so that by Friday, hopefully they will have normalised some of these things.”

He added: “Yes we knew today will be a problem because for the first time people were let out of their homes but the challenge for us as a society is how we now organise ourselves to mitigate this risk to limit transmission from each other, so that, yes we might have a few extra infections today and tomorrow, but what we dont want is an explosion of new infections.

“If we do have that explosion, there will be almost no choice left for the leadership of the country than to ask all of us to go back into our homes.

“So for the benefits of having a few hours a day of coming out and reopening parts of the economy, there is a price to pay and that price is that we organise ourselves to do this strictly.”

The Nation