Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says the military government era in the country was more sympathetic to the plight of lecturers than the current civilian administration. He said this at the unveiling of 50 tertiary textbooks published by Nigerian authors under the sponsorship of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), on Thursday in Abuja. “Thank you very much for this honourable minister and all of us who are present here today. I want to thank my colleagues for raising the issues and I think it is very important. I will just say a little thing about what is TETFUND and how did it originate?” “In 1992, the union was on strike and negotiating how we use to do then few years ago with Obafemi and co, and when we finished, the government said how can we fund it and we said challenge us, we will tell you how to fund this agreement. And they challenged ASUU, it didn’t take 3days and we came up with this idea of TETFUND, which was accepted by government then military. I have seen that the military are even more sympathetic… Then TETFUND came into place. The decree was signed 1993. ASUU had to go on strike the third time to ensure that TETFUND board is funded and the money was released.” On the ‘no work no pay’ policy of the Federal Government against striking lecturers which has resulted in eight months of unpaid salaries, Osodeke called on Nigerians to increase pressure on the government to save tertiary education from collapse. While describing TETFund as a brainchild of the union, he commended the agency for transforming the nation’s higher education sector. The ASUU president called for increase of education tax from the current 2.5percent to 10 percent to enable TETFund mobilise more funds to totally address challenges confronting the sector. While decrying the poor attitude of some big companies and wealthy Nigerians on the payment of education tax, Osodeke said there is need to reposition and expand the education tax net to bring about more resources for tertiary education institutions. Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who unveiled the 50 new textbooks said the publications would end the dominance of foreign academic materials in the nation’s education institutions. Adamu who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah, said overtime, Nigeria’s tertiary education institutions became dependent on books published outside the country with the attendant consequences of the herculean processes and unfavourable foreign exchange rate. “It is equally worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in our country leaves much to be desired. It is therefore expected that nourishing the culture of quality authorship and the production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in the diverse subject areas taking cognizance of our local environment and sensitivities but will also safeguard national pride and reduce the demand for foreign exchange.” The minister also urged TETFund and the academia to go beyond publishing in English Language to promoting authorship in local languages in line with the recently approved National Language Policy. In his remark, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, said the fund has set a minimum target of 50 textbooks per year, while assuring that the newly published books would be distributed to tertiary institutions’ libraries at no cost. “All the books we have published so far, the initial publications are going to be distributed to the libraries of our tertiary institutions free of charge. It is the subsequent publications that students will be buying or other researchers will buy,” he said.

  The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has banned cash withdrawal from all federal, state and local government accounts. Modibo Tukur, NFIU director-general, spoke to journalists at a conference in Abuja on Thursday. Tukur said the ban would take effect on March 1, 2023. He said the agency will launch investigations against any public officials engaged in cash transactions after the end of February this year. According to Tukur, the NFIU will collaborate with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to investigate government officials that withdraw cash from public accounts. The director-general added that the directive to go cashless will help to curb corruption in public offices, saying that the country’s money laundering laws as well as other anti-graft laws will be fully applied on erring government officials. He also said the decision was in line with Nigeria’s transition to a fully cashless economy initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Consequently, he said all financial institutions have been instructed to stop cash withdrawals from government accounts from the given date, stressing that defaulters will be prosecuted alongside their accomplices. “The rate of withdrawals above the threshold from public accounts has been alarming, over N701 billion has been withdrawn in cash from 2015 till date,” he said. “The NFIU had told banks and government agencies at all levels to go fully digital by moving online, as all transactions involving public money must be routed through the banks for the purpose of accountability and transparency. “This is not reversible as we are only enforcing the law. As far as we are concerned, Nigeria will become a full non-cash economy by March 1, 2023 this year. “As a consequence, any government official that withdraws even one naira cash from any public account from March 1 will be investigated and prosecuted in collaboration with relevant agencies like EFCC, ICPC and the NPF. “For government exigencies, only the President has the power to grant any waiver to any government official considering the importance of the situation; either for national security, health, or other important reasons.” The implementation of the unit’s decision will come into force about two months after the CBN’s cash withdrawal policy, when weekly cash withdrawals limits will fixed at N500,000 for individuals and N5 million for corporates. The policy is scheduled to take effect nationwide from January 9, 2023. NFIU had earlier announced the government’s plan to stop cash withdrawals from federal, states and local government accounts.

  Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the country’s Defence Minister to order a ceasefire in Ukraine over Orthodox Christmas. The ceasefire will kick in for 36 hours starting at noon on January 6. Orthodox Christmas is traditionally celebrated by many on January 6 and 7. According to the Kremlin’s press service, Putin made the announcement in response to an earlier call by Russian Patriarch Kirill for guns to go silent over the Orthodox holiday. “Due to the fact that a large number of citizens of the Orthodox faith live in several areas of the conflict zone, we call on the Ukrainian side to observe a ceasefire and allow them to visit Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services,” said a statement posted to the Kremlin website. Patriarch Kirill has been an avid supporter of the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine — including telling Russian soldiers that dying for the cause would “wash away all sins.” Earlier on Thursday, in a call with Putin, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked the Russian leader to implement a unilateral cease-fire to support efforts to end the war. In response, Putin repeated Russian demands that Ukraine accepts Moscow’s recent annexation of four regions of Ukraine before serious peace negotiations could begin. The annexation moves have been widely condemned as illegal, and Russian forces have failed to maintain control over the territories.

  The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor says 613 rehabilitated low-risk repentant terrorists will be transferred to their state governments for reintegration into society. Irabor made the disclosure during the fifth Stakeholders’ Meeting of Operation Safe Corridor (OPSC), on Thursday in Abuja. Represented by the Chief of Defence Training and Operation, Maj.-Gen. Adeyemi Yekini, the CDS said the 613 clients are currently undergoing deradicalization and rehabilitation handled by the OPSC. He said that the meeting would exhaustively discuss the Deradicalization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) Programme ahead of the transfer of the rehabilitated clients to their state governments. Irabor said the OPSC was established by President Muhammadu Buhari in September 2015 as a window for willing and repentant terrorists to lay down their arms and undergo a structured DRR programme. He added that the scheme was a multi-agency and humanitarian operation utilising the expertise of over 17 services, ministries, departments and agencies, supported by local and international organisations and friendly nations. The CDS said the successes of OPSC had continued to resonate within the region and in the diaspora, thereby attracting the interest of researchers from far and wide. “It is also important to mention that upon graduation from the programme, each client will be provided some food and personal items, as well as a start-up pack according to the trade learnt during training to enable them to set up small businesses and start a new life.” Irabor recommended that the receiving state governments should provide necessary support to enable the ex-combatants wade through the transitional and most challenging phase of their lives. “We are optimistic that working closely with local and traditional authorities, the states can deploy security apparatus at their disposal to effectively track and evaluate the re-integrated ex-combatants. “I must emphasise that it is critical for all stakeholders involved in the reintegration processes in order to mitigate, or completely eliminate incidences of recidivism,” he said. Irabor said the Armed Forces had significantly degraded Boko Haram and Islamic State terrorists and restricted them to a small portion of Sambisa Forest and isolated islands on the Lake Chad. According to him, through consistent and effective air interdictions along with well-coordinated clearance operations on positively identified strongholds of the insurgents, troops have continued to inflict heavy casualties on the groups and their leadership. “These sustained operations continue to put pressure and confusion within the ranks of the adversary causing many to surrender to the armed forces. “As at today, over 83,000 insurgents and their family members have surrendered, while those captured have been tried and convicted to various jail terms by the law courts. “As we speak, many more captured combatants are being held in several correctional facilities and their trial is ongoing,” Irabor said. The CDS said that the military has been adopting kinetic and non-kinetic methods to win the war against insurgency. “I must emphasise that counterinsurgency operation is dynamic and requires a lot of ingenuity and proactive strategies to achieve success. “One of such strategies adopted by the Federal Government is by extending an olive branch to low-profile members of the insurgent groups who form the critical mass,” he said. The Coordinator of OPSC, Maj.-Gen. Joseph Maina said the programme had successfully processed 1,573 clients comprising 1,555 Nigerians and 18 foreign nationals from Cameroon, Chad and Niger since its commencement in 2016. Maina said that all the foreign clients were transferred to their respective countries for reintegration. He said that the 613 clients were transferred to the DRR camp on Sept. 8, 2022, to commence training, adding that among them were five foreigners from Chad and Niger. The OPSC coordinator disclosed that 19 of the clients have been transferred to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital neurological centre for expert psychiatric management. At the meeting, Maina said it was to work out modalities for the smooth transfer of the clients to their national and states authorities for reintegration after graduation in February. “Specifically, at the end of this meeting, all stakeholders would be fully abreast with activities of OPSC and DRR Programme in particular. “The State authorities and the MDAs would know in specific terms, the roles they would play in the transfer as well as reintegration process of the clients. “Identify and recommend in specific terms affordable resettlement package for the clients and assign responsibility to relevant MDAs to provide. “Determine the mode of community sensitization, camp visitation and community service programmes to take and ratify the graduation date and initiate arrangements for the ceremony,” he said. The Secretary to the Government of Adamawa, Mallam Bashiru Ahmad, said the state had been collaborating with OPSC to bring clients’ parents together and prepare communities to receive them after deradicalisation. He said they were at the stakeholders’ meeting to look at what could be done to ensure the effectiveness of the programme and expressed optimism that the effort would yield the desired result. On her part, Borno Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo, said the state had received the largest chunk of the repentant terrorists since the programme started. Gambo assured that the state would continue to assess the clients even after graduation from OPSC in Gombe to ensure that there were ready for reintegration into their communities. She said the only difference between the Borno model of deradicalisation and OPSC was the military involvement, adding that the Borno model was more civil in outlook. According to her, the repentant terrorists live with their families in Borno camps while the camp in Gombe only allows family visits. She called for more support from the federal government and relevant stakeholders for the state government to achieve its desired objective.