By Our Correspondent

In a bid to improve the welfare of Nigerian workers, the federal government declared on Friday that it has commenced consultations ahead of fresh negotiations on the national minimum wage..

Permanent secretary, federal ministry of Labour and Employment, Dr Kamil Shoretire, who disclosed this during a capacity-building workshop for labour correspondents in Abuja, said that although the government had not announced a timetable for the formal commencement of negotiations, background consultations were already underway.

He said: “We are yet to announce the timetable for that, but background discussions are already ongoing. When it’s time to get the press involved in what has been proposed and what is being negotiated, it will be revealed to you,”.

The permanent secretary stressed that the consultations were part of wider efforts to address wage and allowance issues across different sectors, noting that collective bargaining discussions were also ongoing with workers in sectors such as health and education.

According to him: “Various discussions with health, education and other sectors that have lots of issues in terms of wages and allowances are ongoing and they are being fast-tracked so that the ones that are agreed will reflect in next year’s budget,”.

The permanent secretary also disclosed that the Federal Government had responded to a complaint filed against it by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

He said, Nigeria met the September 1 deadline set by the ILO to respond to outstanding issues raised in the complaint.

“Let me start with the ILO. We have met the deadline. We have responded to the request from ILO. I was there when a complaint was filed by the NLC against the Nigerian government at the ILO on some of the labour issues that are yet to be resolved in the country.

“We responded at the ILO, but we also got that certain areas were not addressed or were pending. So those ones were the ones that we got a deadline on September 1, and we have responded accordingly”, he said.

The NLC had petitioned the ILO at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, alleging violations of workers’ rights under the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, otherwise known as Convention No. 98.

By David Owei, Yenagoa

As part of efforts to enhance the capacity of its staff to effectively lead and regulate the oil and gas industry, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), on Thursday inaugurated its LearnFest Lecture Series, a platform for continuous learning among staff and oil and gas industry stakeholders.

LearnFest, an initiative under the Nigerian Content Academy (NCA), a specialised knowledge-sharing and training arm of the agency, will provide trainings on the mandate and inner workings of the Board.

Attended by all staff at the corporate headquarters in Yenagoa, the three-hour event was focused on raising awareness of the different directorates of the organisation, their constituent divisions and departments, as well as their specific responsibilities and how they function individually and collectively to advance corporate goals and objectives.

In a promo video, the Academy explained that NCDMB’s knowledge is spread across seven directorates and each has its own mandate, processes, expertise, responsibilities, and way of creating value.

It added that knowledge becomes more powerful when it does not exist in silos but moves from one department to the other with handshakes of different units.

According to the Academy, LearnFest is intended to help staff understand “how everything fits together,” the big picture, with respect to the mandate of the Board as well as institutional processes, practices, culture, and relationships. “When we understand what others do, we collaborate better, support one another better, and work as one integrated ecosystem,” it added.

In opening remarks at the event, the Director, Capacity Building Directorate, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, stated that the LearnFest Lecture Series was informed by the need to create an understanding of Nigerian Content tools and processes among staff and other oil and gas industry stakeholders.

Industry players, he explained, need to understand and interpret the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, operational principles as enshrined in the NCDMB Guideline for Nigerian Content Human Capital Development Implementation Strategy, the Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate (NCCC), Nigerian Content Plan (NCP), statutory reporting and matters relating to expatriate quota.LearnFest, he pointed out, “will make our work easier.”

He disclosed that industry operators and service companies, industry associations such as the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), academic institutions, and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), have been writing to the Academy to express interest in sending their staff for the specialised training provided there.

Engr. Bamidele further stated that the NCA is building a faculty, and that the Lecture Series is a way of preparing the grounds for its take-off. According to him, “The people presenting [the lectures] could form part of our faculty,” and those attending the event are expected to give feedback on the suitability of such resource persons for the said roles.

He also said that the Management of the Board has approved the use of the Board’s purpose-built facility in Opolo, along the Opolo-Elebele Road in Yenagoa as a centre for the NCA training programmes.

In the first presentation under the Lecture Series, the Manager, Planning and Policy Development Department, Engr. MofeMegbele, spoke on the theme “Understanding the Activities and Processes of the Planning, Research and Statistics Directorate,” with subheadings such as “Operating Framework for Planning Research and Statistics (PRS),” “Overview of Planning and Policy Development Department (PPD),” “Expatriate Quota,” and “Inter-Directorate/Division Relations,” “Research and Development Programme,” “Technology Commercialisation and Innovation,” “Overview of R&D Infrastructure,” “NOGIC JQS/NOGIC JQS User Communication,” “NCCF Objectives,”and “E-Marketplace and Stakeholders Engagement.”

He said the Directorate comprised two major Divisions, namely, PPD and Research and Statistics Development Division,” both of which are headed by General Managers. PPD, he explained, was established in September 2018 under Section 70 of the NOGICD Act, and has been responsible for “policies and guidelines for internal and external stakeholders,” whose implementation it also monitors.

The LearnFest Lecture Series will hold monthly for the next nine months, with a specific Directorate featured in each edition. Attendance, online and in-person, is mandatory for all staff of the NCDMB, while other oil and gas industry stakeholders could participate in subsequent editions.

By our correspondent

Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, has challenged the government and the media to meet at the point of truth, urging journalists to go beyond headlines and political narratives by independently establishing facts through evidence, investigation and context.

Mbah said government had a responsibility to be transparent about its actions and accountable for its results, while the press must independently scrutinise those actions and report the truth, whether the findings exposed shortcomings or revealed progress.

The governor stated this on Thursday while welcoming over 300 editors to the 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Enugu.

The conference has as its theme, “The Ballot, the Media and the Task of Keeping Democracy Alive,” while its sub-theme is “When Lies Look Real: Detecting and Debunking AI Misinformation Before, During and After Elections.”

Mbah said the relationship between government and the media should not always be defined by confrontation, stressing that both institutions had different responsibilities, but a common obligation to serve the Nigerian people.

“Government must be transparent about what it is doing and be accountable for the results. The press must establish the facts and report the truth.

“Sometimes that truth will expose failure. Sometimes it will reveal progress. The obligation for us both is the same in either case – serving the people of Nigeria,” he said.

The governor urged journalists to deepen investigative reporting, particularly at a time when artificial intelligence and other technologies were making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine and fabricated information.

He said AI could be used to fabricate photographs, clone voices and manipulate videos to make people appear to say things they never said, warning that the development had increased the responsibility of professional journalists.

“My challenge to you, therefore, is simple – go deeper, beyond the surface,”Mbah told the editors.

According to him, rigorous journalism should not involve searching for evidence to support a position that had already been taken.

“Its value lies precisely in its independence: examine the evidence, test competing claims, establish what happened, and report what you find,” he said.

Mbah added that the same standard should apply to government and its critics, stressing that government achievements should not be ignored simply because they did not fit a particular political narrative.

“We have tried to build an Enugu government that is open about what it is doing and clear about what it is trying to achieve. Where we fall short, that should call for scrutiny and be reported. But the same principle applies when the evidence reveals progress,” he said.

The governor also used the occasion to highlight some of his administration’s projects, including more than 1,500 kilometres of roads constructed or reconstructed, over 7,000 classrooms, Smart Green Schools and Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centres across the state’s 260 wards.

He listed other interventions as water infrastructure, new transport terminals and CNG buses, Enugu Air, the revival of dormant industries and the development of a new city.

Mbah said the administration was working to position Enugu as an economic gateway to the South-East, with the ambition of making the state one of Nigeria’s leading economies and a national leader in human development and quality of life.

He also acknowledged the support of President Bola Tinubu and the Federal Government, particularly in areas of roads, aviation, energy and regional development.

The governor urged the editors to use their presence in Enugu to independently assess the developments in the state.

“Take some time to explore the city, speak to the people who live and work here, and get a sense of the direction in which Enugu is moving,” he said.

One of the highpoints of the opening ceremony was the presentation of a plaque for good governance to Governor Mbah by the Guild.