The National Industrial Court, Abuja has ordered the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, to pay 110 disengaged staff of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, their entitlements.

In a ruling, Justice Rakiya Hasstrup, raised a sole issue for determination, which was whether there was sufficient material placed before the court to make an order absolute.

The court in addition ruled that the consent of the Attorney-General, needed not to be sought before the payment is made.

Hasstrup stated that the reason was because the Attorney- General was a party in the suit.

The court also dismissed the judgment creditor’s objection that the fourth garnishee acted in malice.

The court in the ruling also discharged the ABU Microfinance Bank, who was the fourth garnishee, as a party in the suit.

Earlier, when the matter came up, counsel to the first and third judgment debtors, Yahaya Mohammed had informed the court that the matter was slated for ruling.

He, however, said that they had filed an application on Tuesday and same had been served on parties.

Mohammed in addition stated that the application was to regularise their process for extension of time and to show cause.

Counsel to the judgment creditors, Femi Adedeji, on his part objected to the application, arguing that the court did not ask the first and third judgment creditors to show cause as parties who needed to, had already done so.

Adedeji further submitted that he was served the process in court after 9am shortly before the day’s proceeding in order to delay justice.

The counsel also said that the last proceeding took place on November 3, 2021 and processes ought to have been served on them earlier.

After listening to both counsels’ submissions, the court dismissed and struck out the applications.

The court stated that in pursuant of rule 15, order 14 of the NICN proceeding, such applications ought to have been filed seven days prior to court sitting.

The judge equally ruled that according to NICN rule, when a matter is set for ruling, no motion was allowed to be brought before it. She then proceeded to read the ruling.

The appointments of 110 ABU staff were terminated in 1996, when the institution was run by a Sole Administrator.

They approached the court in 2012, after failure of the institution to implement the recommendations of various visitation panels, which recommended that they be reinstated and all their entitlements paid.

The court ruled in favour of the staff in 2015 and ordered the university to reinstate them and pay their entitlements, which amounted to N2.5 billion.

Non-compliance with the court judgment necessitated the garnishee order on the institution’s bank accounts in 2017.

However, when the garnishee proceeding was ongoing, the judgment debtors filed for a stay of proceeding as they had filed an appeal before Appeal Court (in November 2018) contesting the 2015 judgment.

The Court of Appeal on its part on May 24, 2021, dismissed the appeal and affirmed the decision of the lower court.

The Kano State Government has approved the constitution of a committee to draft a harmonised retirement age for teachers in the state, effective January 2022.

The state Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, announced this in a statement made available to journalists in Kano on Sunday, stating the approval was part of the outcome of the weekly State Executive Council meeting, which held at the Government House, Kano.

The commissioner however, said while the extension would require increase in personnel cost (salaries) and other remuneration for teachers which were not provided for in the 2021 budget, there was the need to start the new policy this year.

Garba pointed out that the committee had also been mandated to review the scheme and condition of service in the state with a view to accommodating the new retirement age of teachers from 35 years of service and 60 years of age to 40 years of service and 65 years of age respectively.

He added that the council had given approval for the release of N23.3 million for the construction of one block of four classrooms and one block of six-seater VIP toilets at Farawa community in Kumbotso Local Government Area.

Garba also revealed that the council has approved the award of a contract worth N344 million to Harmonise Systems Limited for the procurement of 100 Hyundai 2010 cars under the pilot Kano Bus Mass Transit Project.

He said the council approved the recruitment of 704 forest guards/forest range officers on casual basis for the 404 grazing reserves under the state Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and 300 for the forest estates under the Ministry of Environment.

The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, has said the National Executive Council of the union will decide whether members should go on strike or not over some demands made.

He said the union is still consulting and sensitising members on the issues involved. Speaking in a chat with Vanguard, he said the declaration of Monday, February 7 as a lecture free day was to sensitise members and also show the displeasure of the union with the way government was handling the matter.

“We declared Monday as a lecture free day for members to sensitise our members and let the government know that we are not happy with the manner the issue is being handled. After all this, we will collate views and opinions of our members from across the country.

“Based on what our members say, the National Executive Council, of our great union will meet and decide whether to resume our suspended strike or not. The leaders of the union don’t act unilaterally, we act based on what our members ask us to do,” he said.

On the claim by the government that it is experiencing scarcity of funds and might not meet all the demands of the union, Osodeke noted that everything boils down to prioritizing issues.

According to him, not all the demands have to be met spending money, as some are policy matters, citing the demand of replacing the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS, with the University Transparency and Accountability System, UTAS.

Meanwhile, the zonal leaderships of the union are expected to begin collating views of their branches on the issue this week for onward transmission to the national leadership.

The Lagos Zone of the union, for instance, has fixed a meeting for Tuesday at the university of Lagos, UNILAG.

Recall that only few days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari urged ASUU to take note of the fact that the government is facing liquidity challenge and being under serious fiscal pressure.

He, however, said the government was committed to honouring the promises made to the union and directed the Ministers of Education, Labour and Finance to liaise with the union to ward off any strike by the members.

The Federal Government’s school feeding programme is reportedly collapsing as food vendors no longer turn up in schools.

Findings by news correspondents in Benue, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Enugu, Bauchi and Kano states showed that vendors because of non-payment of their funds had stopped providing food in the schools.

In some states, teachers and pupils told newsmen that when the programme was in operation, it was epileptic with few of the schoolchildren getting food when the vendors turned up.

Some schools in Makurdi, the Benue State capital city, reported that since the beginning of second term in January, the programme had not resumed.

A Professor of Educational Management, Lagos State University, LASU, Prof. Olusola Aina, has admonished university lecturers not to see themselves as experts who need no further training and reengineering in their various fields.

According to him, such thinking is no longer tenable in a fast technologically changing world.

Aina stated this while delivering the 82nd LASU Inaugural Lecture Series titled “Management and leadership in the university: Dilemma or titillation to nation building.”

The professor, a former Chief Resident Training Consultant to the World Bank, also called on the management of Nigerian universities to make efforts at internationalizing their activities through collaborative linkages in research and staff/student exchange programmes.

Doing so, would lead to improved staff capacity through such experiences, he added.  

For universties to remain relevant in today’s world, it has to continually respond to the needs of her societies in time and space.

“University leadership in a competitive society of the 21st Century should have an active R&D centre to coordinate the direction of research in the institution. The centre will additionally focus on creating linkages, collaborations, internationalisation of efforts and mounting of advocacy for industrial cooperation and patenting of research breakthroughs,” he suggested.