MTN Invested #10bn In CSR In 10 years.

MTN Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of MTN Nigeria, said it has invested over N10 billion in social projects since its incorporation in 2004.

A Director of MTN Foundation, Mr Dennis Okoro gave the figure in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
Okoro said that the investment was made in the key areas of education, health and economic empowerment in 341 locations across the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory.

He said that the foundation was passionate about improving the quality of life in Nigeria and contributing to socio-economic growth.

According to him, MTN Foundation is constantly seeking opportunities to contribute to the development of the communities wherein it operates.

“In line with its continued commitment to support state government’s efforts at reducing the security challenges in the country, the Foundation recently donated security vehicles to the Rivers State Government under the third phase of its Security Support Project (SSP).

“The gesture is in furtherance of the Foundation’s commitment to improving the quality of life in Nigerian communities.

“It is common knowledge that security of life and property is critical to the growth and development of any state and is therefore an area that should not be left for government alone,’’ he said.

The Director said that Rivers State had been a beneficiary of several other MTN Foundation initiatives.

He said that such initiatives include the MTNF Rural Telephone, the MTNF Disability Support, MTNF Learning Facility Support, MTNF Scholarship Scheme for students, Widows Empowerment Scheme and now MTNF Security Support Projects.

Okoro said that through the two previous phases of the MTNF-SSP, the Foundation had presented 115 fully equipped security patrol vehicles with communication gadgets to 19 state governments and the FCT.

“Ondo, Lagos, Enugu, Kogi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kogi and Bayelsa benefitted from the second phase of the project.

“Phase one of the project witnessed the donation of fully kitted security vehicles to Anambra, Akwa-Ibom, Bauchi, Delta, Oyo, Ogun, Jigawa, Imo, Katsina, Kano, Plateau and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

“The third phase will see Rivers, Abia, Benue, Cross River, Edo, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Kwara, Niger, Osun, Sokoto and Zamafra states benefitting from the Foundation’s provision of fully kitted security vehicles to enhance security operations in these states,’’ he said.

The statement quoted Gov. Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers, who was represented by his Deputy, Engr. Tele Ikuru, as commending the MTN Foundation for keying into his administration’s vision of providing adequate security in the state.

It quoted the governor as saying that the initiative would complement efforts made by the government in securing the lives and properties of the state’s inhabitants.

“We are calling on other service providers to emulate MTN and support government’s effort in providing adequate security for residents of the state, as well as the entire country,’’ he was quoted as saying.

Ekiti Workers Strike Over Unpaid Salaries

Workers in Ekiti have began indefinite strike over two months unpaid salaries and allowances by the outgoing Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

Organised Labour Unions, under the leadership of Joint Negotiating Council, also criticised the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress in the State for not protecting the interest of workers.

Addressing journalists in Ado Ekiti, the JNC Chairman, Comrade Oladipupo Johnson, said the August and September salaries had not been paid.

He also said June and July deductions from the workers salaries had not been remitted by the government.

Johnson said, “It is unfortunate to note that in spite of the pronouncement  and promises from top government functionaries, there seem to be no light at the end of the tunnel. Sequel to the following, the workers of the public service had met and directed that no worker should come to work today, October 2, 2014 and this subsists until all conditions are met.

“And any worker who refuses to obey this simple directive does so at his or her own risk since the leaders would not take responsibility for anything that happens.”

Johnson, who said the council had been in dialogue with the Governor in the last three months to resolving the issue, expressed surprise that the workers were not paid even after government received two allocations.

“We don’t want to stay back and allow our people to be dying on the streets because we are gradually becoming beggars. The Government  has not paid  salaries in the last two months, that is why we ask them to be at home and look for alternative way of existence .

“They are owing full salaries  for August and September and 60 percent deductions in the June and July Salaries. And going by evidence we had, the Governor had collected two allocations without remembering that these salaries should be paid.

“We have met with the Head of Service, the Accountant General and other relevant people and what they agreed was that the salaries  will be paid by October 1, 2014.

“But I want to assure you that the workers  will resume to work as soon as the two months salaries are paid as well as the June and July deductions.”

PDP Liars!!! Osun APC Debunks Alleged Discovery of Fake Ballot Papers

OSUN State All Progressives Congress (APC) has debunked the claim by the state Peoples Democratic Party that 11,000 fake ballot papers were discovered in the inspection of electoral documents used in the August 9 governorship poll.

The party’s spokesperson, Kunle Oyatomi, in a statement in Osogbo, the state capital yesterday, said the attention of APC had been drawn to “the blatant falsehood being bandied around by the PDP.

“This claim is nothing, but a joke taken too far by people who are nothing but enemies of progress and development in our dear state. Their past-time is to use all manner of dubious tactics to hoodwink unsuspecting public into believing their good-for-nothing petition has any shred of credibility.”

The Election Petition Tribunal had granted an order of inspection of all polling documents to both the PDP and APC since September 9.

The inspection at the INEC office was in two folds – getting the Certified True Copy of all the result sheets obtained by both parties and scanning the ballot papers for the purpose of forensic analysis.

The APC, in the statement, said: “The only equipment authorised to be brought to the INEC office are the photocopiers and scanners and no other. One wonders how photocopiers and scanners will discover fake ballot as claimed by the PDP liars!

“Our team of inspectors is also on ground inspecting electoral materials and contrary to PDP falsehood, at no time did any PDP representative raised the issue that any ballot paper was fake. So, it is mischievous to state that the INEC was unable to explain the presence of fake ballot papers.

“To buttress the point that the promoters of this falsehood are on a wild goose chase and are all out to entertain themselves, the basis upon which their petition is based is that in almost all the polling units, result sheets were not signed and stamped by the presiding officers, thereby rendering the result null and void.

“However, the certified true copies of the result sheets have shown that the result sheets were signed, stamped and even authenticated by PDP agents in all the polling units being challenged. Curiously, in some units that PDP claimed that election was rigged, it was PDP that had highest scores on the result forms. What an absurdity of a reckless petition?”

The party said the phantom claim of discovery of fake ballot papers was a product of hallucinating minds of dishonorable persons who have no regard for truth and integrity of the judicial process.

It added: “We are in receipt of the Certified True Copy of all Result Forms (EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D and EC8E), particularly Form EC8A across all the polling units in the 30 local government in the state and we discovered contrary to the PDP claim in their petition that all the result sheets were not only signed, they were stamped by the respective presiding officers and countersigned by the party agents, including PDP agents.

“It is therefore a demonstration of crass irresponsibility of the PDP to now turn a mere inspection of polling documents that had revealed nothing untoward to an avenue where they allocate imaginary votes, which they failed to legitimately earn at the August 9 election to themselves and disturb the peace of the state with their odious noise of a victory that will never be.”

The APC urged its supporters to ignore the alleged “falsehood of PDP, which is merely calculated to hoodwink their paymasters in Abuja.”

“For the PDP pathological liars, we wish they will desist from ignoble act of misleading members of the public, an enterprise that ensured their failure at the August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun in the first place,” it said.

Source

VC Charges Stakeholders On UNN Growth

VICE Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Prof Benjamin Chukwuma Ozumba has called for collaborative efforts of stakeholders to enable the institution realize the dreams of her founding fathers.

He stated that though the institution has in the last 54 years contributed in the development of the country through research, development as well as producing some best brains, it must do more to

ensure that certain challenges confronting the country were overcome.

Presenting his first Founders Day celebration address in Enugu yesterday, Ozumba, who was recently appointed the 14th Vice Chancellor of the school, said that staff  and student welfare, environment and campus aesthetics, academic leadership and research, academic discipline and ethics remained his  priority.

  “My agenda is to provide the university of Nigeria the leadership needed to become an academic giant and pace-setter in the quality of its successful research, the level of its innovative teaching and the robustness of its community service among universities in the developing countries”, he said.

He stated that the Founder’s Day celebration was to call to mind the dreams of the founders of the university, stressing that it would offer his administration the opportunity to review the progress so far made and areas of improvement.

Ozumba, said his administration was abreast with challenges facing the university and has constituted a committee to address them.

He said that the committee tagged ‘welfare committee’ would tackle grievances that had affected the process  of development of the institution.

  He announced at the briefing that water had been restored at the Enugu campus of the institution more than 15years after it was disrupted.

On student’s welfare, he promised the provision of better wifi services to enable them access to internet, provision of laptops at subsidized rate as well as work with the Students Union Government (SUG) to achieve set goals.

2015 MDGs Deadline: Nigeria Won’t Cry For Food – Patience Jonathan

With less than a year to the end of the United Nations Anti- Poverty Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan has said that Nigeria will not cry for food as it has halved the proportion of those who suffer from hunger way ahead of the 2015 deadline.

The first lady stated this yesterday in Abuja, at the official launch of Agricultural Empowerment Programme for Rural Farmers, organised by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, during which over 230,000 bags of fertiliser were distributed to farmers across the country.

Dame Patience described the distribution of the fertilisers as a move aimed at bolstering the nation’s productivity as well as contributing immensely to the realisation of Mr President’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda, and commended farmers for their sacrifice which aided the country to attain goal one of the MDGs.

According to her, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2013 acknowledged that Nigeria has halved the proportion of those who suffer from hunger way ahead of the 2015 deadline.

She said, “It is a thing of joy that under President Jonathan, significant improvements have been made in the agricultural sector, particularly in the area of fertiliser distribution. The National Fertiliser Policy for Nigeria is such that fertiliser seeds are now sold by the companies directly to farmers through an e-wallet system”.

Boko Haram Video Shows Abubakar Shekau Alive

A video has been released dismissing Nigeria’s military claim that leader of Islamist group Boko Haram is dead.

In the video, Abubakar Shekau says his fighters shot down an air force jet that went missing three weeks ago.

Last week, the military claimed a man posing as the Boko Haram leader in a video has been killed.

Security analysts have questioned the credibility of the military's claim.

A Nigerian journalist, who has good contacts within Boko Haram, said on his Twitter account that he had it "on authority that Shekau is well and alive".

BBC

13 Days Before Exit From Office Fayemi Appoints 8 New Permanet Secretaries

13 days before his departure from office, Ekiti state Governor, Kayode Fayemi has appointed 8 new permanent secretaries.

According to NIGERIAN TRIBUNE, the Ekiti state government said the appointments were made due to the the need to inject new blood into the state civil service and fill all vacancies occasioned by retirement of some senior bureaucrats.

Meanwhile, Ayo Fayose, governor-elect of Ekiti has kicked against the appointments.

Fayose in a statement issued after the swearing in of the permanent secretaries said, "as much as we are not opposed to people progressing in their chosen careers, one finds the recent appointments questionable.

"It is very ridiculous for Fayemi who has less than two weeks to leave office to appoint permanent secretary for the incoming administration. It shows how evil the All Progressives Party (APC) is.

"In the last four months, the outgoing government has created 19 new local council development areas (LCDAs), employed 3,000 workers without following due process and right now backlog of salaries of workers are yet to be paid and workers are currently on strike.

Reacting to Fayose's claims, Ekiti state Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr Tayo Ekundayo, speaking on behalf of the government said, "I can tell you that we are in government till October 15, 2014 and we will not hesitate to take the proper actions if there are vacancies to fill as long as there is budgetary provision for it,” saying “opposition should not be worried for whatever action taken by our administration, we are going to be held responsible for whatever action taken in the last four years. They should stop crying blue murder when such did not arise.

SOURCE: Nigeria Bulletin