ASUU strike: President, Suswam, ministers in crucial meeting

Awuzie| credits:President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday met behind closed-doors with Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State and some key ministers over the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.Suswam is the Chairman of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy Assessment Implementation Committee of the universities.Others, who attended the meeting, included the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa’i;and the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu.The meeting, which was held insidethe President’s office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, lasted for a few hours.No official statement was made available at the end of the meeting.Okonjo-Iweala and Suswam left thepremises, using a gate that allowedthem to evade journalists’ that might have wanted to ask questions.Wogu, who was initially walking towards the Press Gallery, quickly made a detour when he sighted journalists waiting for him and left through the same gate that the minister and the governor had passed through earlier.Rufa’i, however, walked into the journalists’ ambush before she realised it.She initially declined comments on the meeting but when pressed further, she said the government was on course in its negotiation with ASUU.The minister, however, appealed tothe striking union to call off the industrial action in the interest of the nation.“I have not been mandated to speak to journalists on the matter but I can tell you that we are on course. I will only appeal to ASUU to call off the strike in the interest of the nation,” she said.Meanwhile, ASUU on Monday foreclosed an early resolution of the industrial crisis rocking the nation’s university system as the union insisted that it would not callof its industrial action until all its demands were met by the Federal Government.The President of ASUU, Nasir Fagge, insisted that the union was resolute in sustaining the ongoing strike action to ensure that the topical issues affecting the nation’s university system tackled decisivelyonce and for all.He said it was inconceivable for the union to call of the strike without achieving the objectives of the action only to call another one later.The ASUU President, who made the comment while speak with journalists at the Benue State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, said the union decided to continuewith the strike because of the failure of the government to address the issues raised after previous industrial actions were called off.

Most Expensive In Nigerian secondary school in Lagos. over (N4,480, 000.00) per year

Here is a list of elitist secondary schools in Lagos:
1. British International School
Location: 1, Landbridge Avenue, Oniru Private Estate. Victoria Island. Lagos.
Tuition and Fees: (Boarding Annual) $26,750+N200, 000
Additional Charges (at160 per dollar exchange rate) = N4,480, 000.00
Tuition and Fees: (Day) $15,250+
Additional Charges (at 160 per dollar exchange rate) =N2,640, 000.00
2. Lekki British International School
Location: Victoria Arobieke street, off. Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
Tuition and Fees;(Boarding Annual) $19,500+N200, 000 development fee (at N165 per dollar exchange rate)= N4, 000,300.00
Tuition and Fees: (Day) $12,000+N200, 00 Development fee (at N165 per dollar exchange rate) =N2, 911, 300.00
3. Greensprings School
Location: 32, OlatundeAyoola Avenue, Anthony, Lagos.
Tuition and Fees: (Boarding Annual) N3, 185,200 . Additional charges excluded.
Tuition and Fees: (Day Annual) N1, 925,200.00. additional charges excluded.
4. Atlantic Hall, Epe
Location: Poka, Epe.
Tuition and Fees: (Annual) N2,270,000.00. Additional charges like uniforms are excluded from the fees.
5. Chrisland College
Location: No 2A, Ladipo Oluwole Avenue, Ikeja.
Tuition and Fees: (Annual) N2,000,000. Additional charges are excluded.
6. Dowen College
Located in the heart of Regency Town of Lekki, Lagos.
Tuition and Fees: (Boarding Annual) N 2,000,000.00. Additional charges excluded.
Tuition and Fees: (Day Annual) N 1,250,000.00. Additional charges excluded...Life is good but is it not the same final exams all schools are going to write?

ASUU Strike update: Next Meeting with Lecturers Shifted to Tuesday

The consultations between striking university lecturers and the representatives of the Federal Government on August 1 did not resolve the contending issues, but the parties have agreed on setting up of a government committee.

This was revealed by the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Mr. Nasiru Fagge, in a telephone interview with the reporters.

Mr. Fagge explained that the last meeting was ‘an inaugural meeting’ and that the head of the government negotiating team and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Pius Anyim, stated “what he wants to do.”

He said the government delegation set up a sub-committee to source data from the National Planning Ministry on the contentious issues while the government’s meeting with the lecturers would continue on Tuesday.

The striking university lecturers demand that government fully implements the 2009 agreement with ASUU, while the government says it wants to renegotiate some parts of the agreement.

The strike is currently in its fifth week as hundreds of thousands of public university students are kept out of class.

The lecturers, through their various zonal executives, have said that they would not return to class until government agrees to implement the 2009 agreement fully. ....am tired of all these meetings,can't we resume why the meetings continue?
READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/42325.html

Photos: Students Protest In Lagos Over ASUU/ASUP Strike

A part of the Ikorodu Road, Lagos was at standstill as students under the aegis of Nigerian Education Rights Coalition and Coalition Against Commercialization of Education in Nigeria today embarked on street protests.
The protest, which were peaceful in nature, were against the Nigerian government’s insensitivity to ongoing strike by university and polytechnic teachers. The protest began with a handful of people but grew later.
Policemen wer seen trying to break up the protest, however the students remained undeterred and remained peaceful while they firmly protested. Here are photos from the protest.
...I think we need to start a protest in Abuja also

Meet Rev Chris Okotie's rumoured new girlfriend

I said rumoured o, nothing has been confirmed yet, but my sources swear Pastor Chris Okotie has found love again in Delphine Onyii Okoronkwo. I don't know what she does for a living but she's quite popular in the Lagos social scene. According to reports, she has been dating the House Hold of God head pastor for at least three months, though his people claim they are just friends.

Delphine, who is in her late 20's, recently launched a brand new Kia Carens car said to be worth over N8million and people are saying Pastor Okotie bought the car for her. Delphine doesn't attend Chris Okotie's church, she attends pastor Tony Rapu's This Present House church, but visits her rumoured new squeeze at his Opebi, Ikeja home after church service on Sundays.

Rev Okotie, who has vowed never to remarry after ending his 4-year marriage to Stephanie Henshaw in June 2012, was earlier this year linked to another lady called Naomi Hoffman (Read story HERE) though his camp denied the affair.

I know Pastor Okotie's publicist reads this blog...so send us a statement denying this one too...:-). See more photos of beautiful Delphine

Nigerian Graduates with 4.0CGPA out of 4.0 in University of Texas

A 24 year old Nigerian, Uwa Osamede Imafidon, just graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in the US with Masters degree in Microbiology and made a 4.0 CGPA out of the maximum 4.0 CGPA.

Before her sojourn abroad, she had earlier bagged a First Class Degree in Crop Science from University of Benin, as the Best Graduating student in her Department. So proud of her! See photos of her when she was in Nigeria for her first degree, after the cut...

Beauty plus brains = great combination!....type of everybody's girl now cos she is brilliant....GOD HELP ME TOO

Uniabuja medical students protest meets resistance

Their blockade of Airport Road, at least a hundred metres from the school gates, was dismantled by security shortly before noon.The protest disrupted scheduled exams for thousands of distance learning students for a second day.The exams are not likely to hold until next week at the earliest reschedule, Daily Trust has learnt.Security fired gunshots and teargas to disperse student crowds from the protest site, witnesses said.Police, army and a naval unit were among security deployed to hold the junction.Its gates were manned by groups ofmen in mufti, armed with sticks, whom students accuse of assault on the first day of protests on Monday.Daily Trust reporter at the scene went through the armed men, along with full time students, to get access into the school, where activities have shut down.Medical students, protesting for thefirst time over Uniabuja's medical programme lacking accreditation by Medical and Dental Council, accuse the school management of attempts to silence them by deploying "touts" to attack them.Students have also demanded N10million each in compensation for wasted years without hope of ever becoming doctors.One student injured in Monday's protest, said he was assaulted by one of the men armed with a cutlass.Uniabuja authorities have denied using force to keep the school gatesopen."As for beatings, the students were the ones that attacked a security personnel at the gate, wounding him seriously in the process," said the school's information officer Garba WaziriAt the same time it maintained heavy police presence at its mini campus in Gwagwalada.Teams of armed police blocked off traffic before and after Uniabuja's gates at Gwagwalada as the school senate met at noon.UPDATE – 2:30p.m:Uniabuja Senateends impromptu two-hour meeting,resolves that the distance-learning exams disrupted by two days of protest by medical students will continue but cannot immediately resolve the accreditation of its medical school. It also says accreditation is beyond its immediate power and dependent on NUC.