Admin l Wednesday, April 11, 2018
YENEGOA, Bayelsa, Nigeria – The Governing Boards and Councils of the various tertiary institutions in the State have been charged to take full responsibility in the affairs of the institutions and address the concerns raised by the various unions on the implementation of the reforms. The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, in a statement on Tuesday made the call following repeated requests on government to intervene in a matter that is strictly within the purview and power of the governing boards to handle.
The government spokesman said that it had become imperative for the governing boards to take full charge in the affairs of the institution and ensure a holistic implementation of the ongoing public sector reforms in the schools.
Iworiso-Markson recalled that the Miyebo-led Committee held series of meetings with the governing boards and councils where agreements were reached on pertinent issues which included the workforce that each of the tertiary institutions. He stressed that the government decided to commit N630 million as subvention to the six tertiary institutions of the state as fall out of decisions reached during the meetings that subventions should be given to the schools in accordance with standard practice.
He said, “In those meetings, a decision was reached with a clear policy of placing the various tertiary institutions on subvention as is the norm everywhere especially as it relates to government funding of tertiary institutions.
“The government spends a total of N630 million as subventions on various tertiary institution in the state the breakdown of which includes NDU: N350m; Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education: N100m; College of Health Technology Otougidi: N40m; The Polytechnic Aleibiri N50m; University of Africa N75m and International Tourism Institute N15m.”
Iworiso-Markson advised union leaders to be wary of the antics of disgruntled politicians on a mission to use them to destabilize the polity.
He called the attention of the unions to the activities of mischief makers with plans to incite the public against the government through the utterances of Labour Leaders.
He enjoined the union members to adhere to the rules guiding the operations of the public service by “exploring the proper channels to seek redress rather than resort to granting interviews to the media with the intent to blackmail and incite the public against the government.
