PRESS RELEASE WE CAN’T AFFORD TO FAIL LAGOSIANS, SANWO-OLU TELLS WORKERS

…Promises to Address Concerns of Workforce on Minimum Wage

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Thursday urged workers in the State to brace up and contribute their quota to the development of the State, saying that they cannot afford to fail Lagosians at this critical point.

Speaking at a meeting with Civil Servants and Permanent Secretaries during his familiarisation tour of offices in the Secretariat, Alausa, Governor Sanwo-Olu acknowledged that there were challenges, but urged the workers not to be deterred and imbibe the right attitude to work.

“I just want to say to Lagosians that new things will begin to happen. Yes, there are issues and that is why there is a word ‘issue’. There will be issues, there will be challenges but out of it, looking at all your faces, we cannot afford to fail the citizens at this period.

“So, my charge is this: whatever we know that we are not doing so well even in the period of Ramadan, let’s ask God for forgiveness,’’ he said.

The Governor, who was accompanied by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat and the Head of Service (HOS), Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola acknowledged the rousing welcome from Civil Servants and heads of parastatals who had gathered as early as 8a:m to receive him (the Governor).

Earlier, the HOS had introduced the Governor to the workers after which they accompanied him on a walk to the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, where they sang different songs to his delight.

The Governor also advised the workers to be change agents, assuring them that their concerns would be addressed, but that the workforce must reciprocate his good intention through hard work and innovations to bring about the desired changes and development.

“I know that when we take care of you, you will take care of Lagosians and so those are the promises I want to draw from all of you.

I know all these because I have been here before but let us begin to think and innovate on how we are going to bake a bigger cake; let us begin to think out of the box and when we do that it becomes available for all,” the Governor said.

He gave assurance that issues surrounding the minimum wage would be addressed, promising to ensure that the take-home pay of workers will truly take them home.

“On the issue around the minimum wage, we are going to sort that out very soon and I will make sure that whilst we do the work that we are meant to do, your take home will begin to take you home, but Lagosians have to feel it from day one from the way we speak to them and from the way we take their records.”

PHOTO CLICK :The new governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, with his Deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat and others during the Governor’s tour of the Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja on Thursday, May 30, 2019.

SANWO OLU NOW LAGOS STATE GOVERNOR

Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu was on Wednesday sworn-in as the 15th Governor of Lagos State at the Tarawa Balewa Square, TBS, on Lagos Island.

With the swearing-in, Sanwo-Olu also becomes the 6th civilian governor of Lagos.

At the creamy ceremony, Sanwo-Olu was sworn-in at around 11:40am by the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke.

Earlier, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat was sworn-in as the Deputy Governor of Lagos State by the Chief Judge at around 11:20am after taking the oath of office.

Sanwo-Olu had arrived the TBS at around 10:30am decked in white attire as he was cheered by the crowd of well-wishers.

Hamzat being sworn-in by the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Opeyemi Oke

General Overseer, Mountain of Fire Ministry, Dr David Olukoya led the opening prayer with the Chief Imam of Lagos State.

Alberta introduces bill to change overtime pay, reduce youth minimum wage

EDMONTON — Alberta is cutting the minimum wage for young workers and making other changes to overtime, holiday pay and votes for union certification.

Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative government has introduced a bill, which if passed would reduce the minimum wage for workers aged 13 to 17 to $13 an hour from $15 an hour, starting June 26.

The $15 rate, the highest in Canada, would remain in place for everyone else.

Kenney says the deal still gives a good wage to young Albertans compared to other provinces, while giving employers resources to hire more of them.

“Look — 13 bucks an hour — that’s a heck of a lot more than zero bucks an hour. And that’s the option here,” Kenney told reporters after the Open for Business Act was tabled in the legislature Monday.

“We’ve got 30,000 young Albertans here out of work. We want to get them their first job experience. We’re talking about part-time, teenagers who are typically in high school, working typically 20 hours a week or less.”

Under the former NDP government, Alberta’s minimum wage rose to $15 an hour from $10.20. Rachel Notley, then premier and now Opposition leader, argued the hike was critical because workers were owed a living wage.

Notley said Monday the age-based tier is unfair given that some students may have as many financial obligations as adults, or at least want to start saving for their future education and other necessities.

“Albertans, young or old, deserve equal pay for equal work,” she said. “Rolling back the minimum wage for young people demonstrates a lack of compassion and, quite frankly, a lack of respect.”

The bill also proposes to cancel changes instituted by Notley’s government on overtime, allowing it to be paid out as straight time rather than time-and-a-half.

Kenney said it gives employers more flexibility to give workers more hours, and therefore more pay, if they choose.

“It’s a flexibility tool that we’ve always had in Alberta, until just a year ago,” he said.

Notley called it a major rollback of potential earnings for 400,000 workers, particularly in the oil and gas and construction sectors.

“The average oil and gas worker could lose $2,500 on a 12-week project, if forced to bank that (over)time at straight time,” she said.

There are other proposed changes.

Under the bill, only employees who regularly work on a general holiday will be entitled to receive holiday pay.

The eligibility period to qualify for statutory holiday pay is also changing. Currently, as soon as an employee is hired, they are eligible. Under the proposed legislation, an employee has to have worked 30 days over the preceding year to qualify.

The bill would also restore a mandatory secret ballot for all union certification votes.

And it is proposing to return to a 90-day period for unions to provide evidence of employee support for certification.

Gil McGowan of the Alberta Federation of Labour said the changes to youth and overtime pay are self-defeating.

“Cutting wages and cutting jobs won’t strengthen the Alberta economy. It will weaken it,” he said.

President Buhari, 29 governors inaugurated for fresh four year term.

President Muhammadu Buhari was, on Wednesday, sworn in for a second term of four years in office amidst tight security.
The presidential inauguration took place at the Eagle Square in Abuja.

Two former Nigerian presidents, who opposed the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari were conspicuously absent at the inauguration ceremony.

Ex-presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, both of whom are believed to have supported Atiku Abubakar for the February presidential election, were absent.

No reason has been given for their absence, although the federal government had announced that the inauguration would be low-key.

Major events that would have been part of the inauguration have been scheduled for June 12 which has now been declared Nigeria’s Democracy Day.

Meanwhile, 29 governors have also been sworn in their respective state, either for a fresh four-year-term or the second term of four years as the case may be.

The list of governors inaugurated:

1. Ahmadu Fintiri PDP Adamawa

2. Bala Muhammed PDP Bauchi
3. Babagana Zulum APC Borno
4. Inuwa Yahaya APC Gombe
5. Emeka Ihedioha PDP Imo
6. Abudlraham Abdulrazaq APC Kwara
7. Babajide Sanwo-Olu APC Lagos
8. Abdullahi Sule APC Nasarawa
9. Dapo Abiodun APC Ogun
10. Seyi Makinde PDP Oyo
11. Mai-Mala Buni APC Yobe
12. Bello Matawalle PDP Zamfara
13. Okezie Ikpeazu PDP Abia
14. Udom Emmanuel PDP Akwa Ibom
15. Samuel Ortom PDP Benue
16. Ben Ayade PDP Cross River
17. Ifeanyi Okowa PDP Delta
18. David Imahi PDP Ebonyi
19. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi PDP Enugu
20. Muhammad Badaru APC Jigawa
21. Nasiru El-Rufai APC Kaduna
22. Abdullahi Ganduje APC Kano
23. Aminu Masari APC Katsina
24. Abubakar Bagudu APC Kebbi
25. Abubakar Bello APC Niger
26. Simon Lalong APC Plateau
27. Nyesom Wike PDP Rivers
28. Aminu Tambuwal PDP Sokoto
29. Darius Ishiaku PDP Taraba

PRESS STATEMENT Trudeau Announces $230 Million Investment in the New Tech Supercluster… By: Jared George

Justin Trudeau just shocked Canadian investors to the core by revealing one of the government’s most exciting new investments:

“We’ve been investing massively in AI.”he said

Trudeau went on to explain that artificial intelligence, is a top priority for Canada.

Trudeau announced that the federal government is making a whopping $230 million investment into an AI “supercluster.”

This brand-new supercluster initiative is the first of five massive tech collaborations expected to bring up to $50 BILLION to Canada’s economy over the next 10 years.

And he’s not alone in seeing this AI opportunity as potentially off-the-charts profitable…

• A Shark Tank billionaire says this tech will create the world’s first trillionaire
• Elon Musk is contributing to a $1 billion investment in artificial intelligence
• Even superinvestor Warren Buffett says that it’s “enormously disruptive” and will have a “hugely beneficial social effect”

So what is it about this technology that has our government and some of the most successful investors in the world pouring fortunes into it?

A massive investing opportunity – much bigger than blue-chip stocks like Amazon, Tesla, and Berkshire Hathaway combined – is the way they see it.

In fact, research firm McKinsey & Company projects that this fast-emerging industry will be worth a whopping $19.9 TRILLION by 2025.

That type of growth doesn’t happen very often, and it’s even more rare that everyday investors can get involved on the ground floor.

Because the challenge is that much of the innovation in this industry is coming from privately held companies.

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HOW WE SPENT $22M ABACHA LOOT – PRESIDENCY

The Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment Programmes (SIPs), Mrs. Maryam Uwais, yesterday stated that the Federal Government got N470.8 billion released between 2016 and last year for the implementation of its Social Investment Programmes (SIPs).

Mrs Uwais listed four-broad programmes as the N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT), National Home-Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes (GEEP)

She also briefed State House reporters in after giving an account of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The special adviser, who said that from 2016 till date, the Federal Government budgets annually N500 billion for social investments, explained only N79.98 billion was released in 2016.

She said the N140 billion was released in 2017 and N250.4 billion last year.

She also revealed that out of the N322 million dollars recovered Abacha loot meant for the SIPs, only N22 million dollars had been utilised by her office.

Mrs. Uwais said that at the end of March, the NSIPs had made direct impacts on 12,069,153 beneficiaries and over 30 million secondary beneficiaries, comprising cooks, farmers, families, employees and members of the community.

She said: “Under N-Power, we have 526,000 youth spread across 774 LGAs teaching in public schools, acting as health workers in primary health centres and as agric extension advisors to small holder farmers in our communities.

“Nigeria is fast on its way to becoming the leader in Africa in the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, by feeding over 9.7 Million pupils and still counting.

“Today, we have 103,992 cooks on our payroll, feeding 9,714,342 pupils in 53,715 government primary schools around 31 States. These children are able to eat a balanced diet, towards improving their learning outcomes.

“Also, under the GEEP, we have the FarmerMoni, MarketMoni and TraderMoni.

“For the first two, funds between N10, 000 and N350,000 are paid into the accounts of the successful applicants who belong to a registered cooperative and have a bank account.

“For TraderMoni, petty traders are given a loan of N10, 000 each and upon repayment within six months, the beneficiary becomes eligible for a higher amount, at which point they must open bank accounts.”

The Head of the CCT programme, Henry Ayede, said that using the National Social Register data on poor and vulnerable households in the country, the government currently pays N5, 000 monthly to 872,700 households.

He said that the beneficiaries were identified by the communities to ensure the delivery of the funds to the right beneficiaries.

The Head of the School Feeding Programme, Mrs Bimbo Adesanmi, said that the government was spending about N70 to feed a child under the programme.

She said that the government was able to spend less on nutritious meals by sourcing for all ingredients directly from the farmers without using middlemen.

She also revealed that the government deworms the children benefiting from the programme, every six months to reduce frequency of infections.




EFCC Goes After Tinubu Over Bullion Vans During 2019 Election

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday declined comments about whether it had launched an investigation to find out how former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu, came about the bullion vans that drove into his home in February.

Nigerians have mounted pressure on the anti-graft office to open money laundering probe against Mr Tinubu, after the ruling party chieftain was seen on February 22 receiving at least two armoured vehicles believed to be bearing cash.

The development raised controversies because it came a day to the presidential election on February 23.

Mr Tinubu is a senior leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and a strong ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, who was seeking reelection at the time.

Critics said there was no doubt the vehicles were conveying cash to bribe voters with, especially since such trucks are used in Nigeria almost exclusively to convey cash by banks, government institutions and cash-in-transit firms.

Mr Tinubu’s action was widely deemed contrary to Nigerian anti-money laundering laws, which places a cap of N5 million ( about $14,000) on cash handling by individuals.

The former Lagos governor admitted the next day that the bullion vans were conveying money to his house, but he defended his action as out of public’s interest because he was not a government official.

PHOTO CLICK

See The Moment Theresa May Burst Into Tears As She Resigned As UK Prime Minister (Photos)
Friday, May 24, 2019 politics
The Emotional moment Theresa May burst into tears as she announced resignation as British prime minister.

Theresa May’s after making her speech to resign as Uk Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservatives on June 7 left crying.

In her speech before living she said, “A second woman Prime Minister, but certainly not the last… To have the oppurtunity to serve the country I love.”

Johnnie Walker, the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky, in partnership with DStv Premium, recently screened the long anticipated final chapter of the multi-award winning Game of Thrones at Filmhouse Cinema, Lagos and Silverbird Cinema, Jabi, Abuja.

Hosted by White Walker by Johnnie Walker, the limited edition scotch whisky inspired by the most enigmatic and feared characters on the hit show, the winter-themed event saw guests treated to ice-inspired attractions, including delicious cocktail serves of the White Walker whisky paired with popcorn.



With the unprecedented popularity of #GOT, the pressure for tickets by diehard fans was fierce, causing White Walker to double the screening capacity in both Lagos and Abuja. Celebrity guests who joined in the thrilling evening included Don Jazzy, Uriel and Dr Sid.

Though Game of Thrones’ White Walkers are no longer with us, White Walker by Johnnie Walker is still standing. Purchase your limited edition White Walker by #JohnnieWalker today at Shoprite, Spar, Game and other retail stores near you; also available online at drinks.ng








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