City Crime
C’River Cassava Plant To Produce Commercial Starch, Flour
The Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade says the state’s Cassava processing plant will produce commercial starch and modified flour.
The cassava processing factory is located in Obubra because Obubra is the largest producer of cassava in Cross River State and Cross River State is the largest producer of cassava in Nigeria,” he said.
Describing Cross River as Nigeria’s new industrial hub, Ayade expressed delight that his fellow governors had seen the wisdom in industrialising their states and had started copying his industrialisation policy.
He, however, advised them not to copy Cross River State wrongly.
“What I have done in Cross River State is to set up so many factories and each factory is sited in a location consistent with the source of raw material. I am happy today that I can see some of my colleague governors rapidly copying all of my industries and I hope they are careful not to copy an industry that is not applicable in their local circumstance.
“For example, if you put a cocoa processing factory where you don’t grow cocoa, then it doesn’t add up, so you have to be careful which industry you copy from Cross River State, otherwise you will be copying a wrong industry,” Ayade said.
Explaining the essence of industrialisation, the Cross River State number one citizen said, “I am happy to see that gradually, almost all the governors are beginning to realise that creating industries is better than creating roads.
“Roads don’t create jobs, but when you create factories, people supply raw materials, people do logistics and delivery, when they start making money, they start paying taxes, then from the profit, these taxes government will use to do roads.
“In China, roads are now gradually becoming private roads. So public roads are now hardly in use because people will use shortcuts, well-maintained roads to go through. It is a model I have found applicable in Cross River circumstance and I think it has worked very well.”
The governor further disclosed that the over 30 factories he had built are at the phase of market launch.
He noted that the industrialisation drive of his administration was ushering Cross River State into a prosperity agenda never before witnessed in the state.
By: Friday Nwagbara, Calabar
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Workers in the nation’s telecommunication-s industry, under the aegis of the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association, PTECSSAN, will today begin an indefinite nationwide strike over sack, and poor working conditions, among others.
Among the employees going on strike include field maintenance engineers, transmission engineers, customer service engineers, fibre engineers, and other critical staff.
There are fears that the strike could disrupt telecommunications services nationwide if not resolved quickly.
The Tide’s source gathered that PTECSSAN, has pending issues with no fewer than 39 telecoms servicing companies including the sack of three of its members by Specific Tools & Technology Limited.
The 39 companies provide critical support services to the telecommunications operators in the country.
The Tide’s source was informed that the union had earlier given a seven-day strike notice to the affected companies to address its demands or risk indefinite strike.
Among PTECSSAN’s demands include immediate recognition of the fundamental right of the employees to freely associate with the union, immediate recognition of the union as negotiating body for the employees on workers welfare and immediate remittance of membership dues into the union’s account as earlier provided.
The demands equally are immediate recognition of the years of service of these workers, immediate commencement of appropriate pensions deduction and remittance of same as required by the Pension Act, immediate approval of the National Health Insurance Scheme that covers the employees, their spouses and four of their dependents, immediate enrolment of Union members in the Group Life Insurance as stipulated in the Pension Reform Act 2004, Section 9(3).
The union is also demanding immediate implementation of leave and leave allowance in accordance with the international best practices, immediate negotiation on review of salaries of the workers to meet the economic reality in the country today, and immediate provision Operational Vehicles or in the alternative immediate negotiation on review of the Self Drive/Self Rental to meet the economic reality in the country today.
Also in the union’s demands are immediate stoppage of 24-hour job and introduction of work hours in line with the international best practices, immediate stoppage of work overload (combining passive tasks to theirs) on the workers, and immediate adherence to occupational health and safety for the workers in line with international best practices.
Announcing the commencement of strike, General Secretary of PTECSSAN Abdullahi Okonu said “We have made every effort to engage with employers, but our legitimate demands have been disregarded.
“This strike is a last resort to protect our members’ rights and well-being. We urge the public to understand our position and support our struggle for fair treatment.”
While pleading with Nigerians to bear with the Union throughout the period of the strike, PTECSSAN “assures that it will engage with employers and the government to resolve the issues, but the strike will continue until their demands are met.”