The Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, approved contract awards to the tune of N1,171,354 223,133 for the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Education.
Transportation had the sum of $2,810 674,064.92 (about N1,166,388,236 570) approved for it for the procurement and maintenance of railway rolling stocks, while the Education ministry got approval for printing jobs for the National Examinations Council (NECO) worth N4,965,986,573.89.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, told correspondents after the meeting at the presidential villa, Abuja that the contract, coming with 7.5 per cent tax, was approved to procure rolling stocks for the operation and operational maintenance equipment for the new railway projects corridors in Ibadan to Kano standard gauge and Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow gauge rail lines.
He explained: “Rolling stocks are consumables. They are rolling stocks. When you say rolling stocks they are consumables for the maintenance and operation of the railway. So, currently, anytime you hear sometimes the reason for the break down which was discussed in the cabinet, it is because maybe we have run out of rolling stock. And we also run out of stock for the railway.
“So, with this, we will replace all the rolling stocks. They are essentially the consumables we use to maintain the trains coaches and locomotives.”
On his part, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said FEC the approval for his ministry followed two memos he presented for the printing contract by NECO for the Senior School Certificate Examination awarded to nine contractors.
He added that the contract is for the printing of sensitive, non-sensitive material and supply of other ancillary equipment for the examination.
The Minister also addressed the ongoing strike by university lecturers, saying that he is looking for the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities (ASUU) for declaring a one-month warning strike at a time the Federal Government is attending to their demands.
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Adamu, who expressed surprise at the industrial action, denied that he had been shunning meetings with the union as he maintained that he had indeed be the one summoning them in the effort to resolve outstanding issues.
The university lecturers embarked on the strike last Monday to press their demands, which they claimed the federal government has been reluctant to meet.
He told correspondents that if after several negotiations between ASUU and the government, agreement was still not reached, it is no longer the fault of the government.
Fielding questions, the minister said: “ASUU, unfortunately, they have gone on strike and I am looking for them because all the issues are being addressed.
“The last thing that happened was that our committee looked at their demands but there are renegotiations going on. They submitted a draft agreement which the ministry is looking at.”
Adamu regretted that the decision by the union to go on strike was abrupt in the midst of negotiations.
On the draft agreement with ASUU, he said: “A committee is looking at it. Immediately it finishes, the government is meant to announce what it had accepted. Then suddenly, I heard them going on strike.”
Debunking allegations that he does not attend meetings with ASUU, Adamu stated: “ASUU will never say that. I always call the meeting myself. The meetings I didn’t attend were those that happened when I was in hospital in Germany.
“We want a peaceful resolution. The federal government is ready to meet them on all issues they have raised and if there are so many meetings and the gap is not closing, then I think it’s not the fault of the government.
“There is a solution to this. The negotiations are the solution and that is why I have said that I am surprised that ASUU has gone on strike.”
Asked if the government can reach an agreement with ASUU before the end of the 30-day strike, Adamu further said: “I can’t give you time. I am ready to reach an agreement with ASUU now but since I’m not the only one, I can’t give you time but certainly, we are going to reach an agreement very soon.”
The minister also defended the discriminatory cut-off marks for southern and northern prospective Common Entrance admission candidates for Unity Schools, saying that it is in line with the Federal Character principle.
He said the policy will remain until such a time it is no longer necessary, saying: “I have nothing to say on that. I am not aware of any difference unless it is meant to satisfy the requirements of Federal character. I think the federal character is required for the nation and it is accepted. There is nothing we can do about that. There would come a time when it would not be necessary.”
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami, who also briefed correspondents on the FEC’s approval for his ministry, declined to comment on claim by ASUU that the professorial rank awarded to him by the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), is illegal.
He, however, disclosed that FEC approved the National Policy on the Government Second Level Domain, which he explained mandates federal public institutions, ministries, departments, agencies, and all government
institutions to migrate from using generic domain in their websites and their emails to the government second-level domain under government top-level domain.
He explained: “For example, you will discover today, some government institutions will engage in official communications using private email yahoo.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com and it is an official communication and someone may retire or will complete his tenure or the tenure can be terminated, and he will go with the same email. And in that email, there are many official documents.
“So, this will not be tolerated by the government anymore. Any official communications must be using official email. And that email should not be a generic one. It must be ‘dot government dot ng.’
“What is most important is .ng that is our national identity. There are many categories of the second-level domain, some are for the military. You will see like mil.ng. mil is a short form of Military. Dot ng for Nigeria. You can see .gov.ng. Gov for government and ng for Nigeria.
“So, there are categories of the second-level domain, while our country top-level domain.ng must be there in our websites so that whoever gets access will know that this website is from Nigeria. While for email, it must reflect the official name.
“Furthermore, there are so many benefits of doing that. Number one, our national security. Websites are being created in other countries without domain name and some claim to be from Nigeria. This will go a long way in compromising our cyberspace, which cannot be ignored.
“Two, national identity. Our national identity is key. Any website from Nigeria, particularly for the government must have dot ng. From anywhere, you will know that this is a Nigeria website. And it will go a long way in promoting and improving our global ranking when it comes to human development when it comes to fighting poverty and many more.
If website doesn’t have this when it comes to assessment, many international organisations doing this assessment would not be able to get the correct websites of Nigerian institutions, and this will definitely affect our global ranking. It is because of this. Our national identity is important.
“Number three, global recognition. It will give us global recognition because, in the assessment, they will count and discover how many institutions are from Nigeria what have they been doing, what is their performance, what they have implemented so far.
“So, it is also important. Furthermore, there is transparency. This transparency will also help us in some ways.
“And finally, there is public confidence. If you receive an email, dot government dot ng, you will have that confidence that this is for government institutions. But if you receive an email bearing my name isaaliibrahim@yahoo.com. you may start wondering, is it possible. But if it is dot government dot ng, you will not somebody will not just come and create an email using dot government dot ng without government approval. It will not be possible.”
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