News
Senator Accuses Banks of Turning Female Marketers to Sex Slaves
The Senate, on Thursday, considered a bill seeking to stop employers in the private and public sectors from engaging employable Nigerian graduates as casual workers.
The Prohibition of Casualization Bill 2020, is sponsored by Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP, Ondo Central).
Akinyelure while citing the banking industry as a hub for casualisation, blamed banks for turning female marketers into harlots and sexual slaves in a desperate attempt by them to keep their jobs and meet unrealistic deposit targets.
“Casualization of Nigerian graduates in the Nigerian labour market has become a subject of great concern as more workers continue to groan under this immoral strategy of cutting cost by employers rendering them inferior to their counterpart in other countries of the world.” He said
According to him, “Statistics from the Nigeria Labour Congress shows that many workers in the telecommunications, oil and gas sectors are engaged as casual labourers by employers of labours.
“Other sectors with thousands of casual labourers include mining, steel, banking and insurance.
“In all these sectors, staff outsourcing and casualization have become the order of the day as such workers no longer have regularised employment terms and, therefore, Nigerian graduates are treated as second class citizens in their own country of origin while foreigners from underdeveloped Countries from Asian, Indian, Pakistan, Lebanon with less qualification to Nigerian graduates are placed as managers above Nigerian graduates in many Private and even Government establishments in Nigeria.”
Akinyelure raised alarm that the scourge of casualization of employment in Nigeria is gaining grounds in an unprecedented proportion, intensity and scale.
“The increase in the spread and gradual acceptance of this labour practice in the Nigerian labour market has become an issue of great concern to stakeholders,” he lamented.
“Employers of labour is increasingly filling positions in their organizations that are supposed to be permanent skilled workers with casual employees.
“The trend has been largely attributed to the increasing desperation of employers to cut down organisational costs and thereby taking advantage of large numbers of unemployed graduates roaming the streets of our major cities in Nigeria.
“Mr President and Distinguished Colleagues, engagement of large attendants of the work force on the basis of visualization has become worrisome in the Nigeria labour market.
“Mr. President, let me re-emphasize that on daily basis, these workers are recruited at the gate and tired at will, in spite of the fact that these workers continue to generate enormous profits for the various establishment they work for, they remain classified as casuals and subjected to deplorable and inhumane working conditions.
“Apart from the fact that these categories of workers are working under spate of uncertainties, casualization also reveals a brutal work growth process similar to slave labour,” he said.
Akinyelure while citing the banking industry as a hub for casualization, blamed banks for turning female marketers into harlots and sexual slaves in a desperate attempt by them to keep their jobs and meet unrealistic deposit targets.
“Mr. President, in Banking and Insurance Industry for instance, many young graduates particularly female are employed as Marketers and given unrealistic Customer deposit ceiling targets running into millions. They are hired and fired at will when such unrealistic targets are not met.
“The female among them who are desperate in keeping their jobs turned to harlotry and sex slavery, moving from one office to the other looking for invisible customers who had staunch of fund to enable them meet their targets Mr. President, it is high time this evil and devilish act is stopped,” the lawmaker fumed.
Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South), while re-echoing Akinyelure’s observation said, “Our girls have been turned into what we cannot imagine. Most of them have been asked to look for funds, and when come us, I always tell them, I do not even have the funds to eat, how can I have funds to keep with you in the bank?
“And they will never be promoted if they don’t bring in such funds, and this is a banking industry that is privately owned, yes, but has made so much profit, and from the profit they could at least take the few that they can manage properly, rather than take a lot that they will be giving pittance.”
The lawmaker, therefore, harped on the need to have a legal framework to ensure that casualization does not exist.
“If you must take workers, take the number you can on proper emoluments,” she said.
On his part, Senator Ajibola Basiru (APC, Osun Central) while citing the position of the Supreme Court – which gives employers the power to hire and fire – called for caution in the way the bill is tweaked, adding that the National Assembly “must make a distinction in making the prohibition between employment in the public sector and employment in the private sector.”
Ovie Omo-Agege, deputy Senate President, on his part, while throwing his weight behind the bill, lamented the treatment of casual workers by oil companies operating in the country.
Another lawmaker, Mohammed Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), said, “I think we need to be a bit careful with this bill, reasons are not far fetched.
“Both in the public sector and the private sector, when we talk about casualization, there are certain organizations even in the public sector that require the services of casual workers.
“I give a simple example with the Independent National Electoral Commission. When election period comes, they engage close to about 700,00 to 900,000 people, who they engage all over Nigeria for the purpose and conduct of election.
“A lot of manufacturing firms today, if they say they are going to engage everybody as a permanent employee, even the graduates, because there are certain functions that just unskilled personnel cannot be able to handle, you need to have somebody that has requisite qualifications.”
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks charged the Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity to strike a balance in the bill to ensure that casual workers in the country are not made victims of layoffs.
“The fact remains that we need employment for our people, especially our teeming youth on one hand.
“On the other hand, we don’t want discrimination.
“If we say no casualization at all, some of our people could be victims of layoffs, and, of course, we know what casualization brings. You don’t have any entitlements outside of what you’re given immediately.
“So, we need to strike a balance to ensure that those who have to be employed on Adhoc basis – like one of our colleagues tried to show in INEC recruitments for example – and even in some of the sectors, don’t suffer too much, but that we emphasize getting permanent and pensionable appointments or employment opportunities for our people.
“I think government has a role. While government cannot employ everyone, we have the responsibility to create the environment or climate for employment opportunities to be available, either in government MDAs, or because the economy is good; private sector could engage even more than the government can do.
“So, we have the opportunity now to take this matter before the Nigerian public, and whatever we feel is the general view is what we should try to reflect when we finally pass the bill as we wish to, because this is a very important and indeed a sensitive bill because we need to have a balancing Act.
“If you say no casualization in Nigeria at all, there’ll be consequences definitely. And, if you don’t say anything about it, some people will just be suffering – in the words of the sponsors of this bill – from the very devilish and evil treatment of those who employed them.”
The bill after scaling second reading was referred by the Senate President to the Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity to report back within four weeks.
Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading champion of entrepreneurship, has announced the opening of applications for its 2025 Entrepreneurship Programmes.
It asked both aspiring and existing entrepreneurs from across Africa to apply for a chance to receive world-class training, expert mentoring, and non-refundable seed capital funding to scale their businesses.
Programmes open for application are: Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Programme: the flagship TEF Entrepreneurship Programme which is open to all entrepreneurs across Africa with innovative business ideas or existing businesses not older than five years.
This year, there is a special emphasis on businesses leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and green initiatives. Applicants must be at least 18 years old.
Secondly, the IYBA-WE4A Entrepreneurship Programme: Launched by the Tony Elumelu Foundation in partnership with the European Union (EU) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), IYBA-WE4A stands for Investing in Young Businesses in Africa – Women Entrepreneurship for Africa and is exclusively for women entrepreneurs with green business ideas or existing green businesses in Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, and Togo.
Applicants must be at least 18 years old, with businesses not exceeding five years in operation.
Thirdly, Aguka Ideation Programme: The Aguka Ideation Entrepreneurship Programme is a partnership with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, UNDP Rwanda and the Rwandan Ministry of Youths and Arts to support young Rwandan entrepreneurs between 18 -30 with business ideas with a seed capital of $3000, with the aim of nurturing and developing innovative concepts into viable enterprises.
Application Details: Platform: Applications are to be submitted through TEF’s proprietary digital hub, TEFConnect. Application Period: January 1, 2025 – March 1, 2025. TEF urged interested applicants to complete and submit their applications well ahead of the deadline.
On eligibility, it said the programme is open to African entrepreneurs with scalable business ideas or existing businesses not older than five years while applicants must be at least 18 years old.
For more information about the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s transformative work and the success of our African entrepreneurs, it advised applicants to view “our Impact Report, which highlights the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s achievements and contributions to Africa’s economic growth; African Entrepreneurs’ Success Stories, showcasing the inspiring journeys of Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs and Annual Reports, offering insights into the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s strategies and outcomes.
Recall that The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and increasing women economic empowerment.
Founded in 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation is committed to empowering African entrepreneurs as a catalyst for the continent’s economic transformation.
Besides, since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has provided up to 2.5 million young Africans with access to training on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed over USD$100 million in direct funding to over 21,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 800,000 direct and indirect jobs, and generated over USD$4.2 billion in revenue.
The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.
Management of Zinox Technologies Limited, foremost African digital conglomerate, has demanded public apology from Mr. Femi Falana SAN, over alleged defamation and reputational injury inflicted on the company and its representatives by Falana and his client, Benjamin Joseph, the CEO of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, an Ibadan-based computer firm.
In a statement on Sunday, Zinox referenced recent news items in the media relating to certain charges filed by Falana, purporting to act on a fiat donated to him by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, attorney general and minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whom Zinox said may not have been properly briefed.
“We are sure that if the circumstances of this case were made available to the respected Honorable Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, he would not have granted the purported fiat to Femi Falana,” Zinox said in the statement.
In the news reports, Falana was said to have filed a suit before Honorable Justice A. O. Ebong of the FCT High Court in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 in November 2024, a suit Zinox said was based on the same claims which various courts had in the past dismissed as falsehood and baseless.
“Our initial reaction was to ignore these publications as the usual campaigns of calumny that have been orchestrated against Zinox since 2014 by one Mr. Benjamin Joseph, the Managing Director of Citadel Oracle Concept Ltd, the client of Mr. Femi Falana SAN. However, we are persuaded to respond by the consideration that once falsehood is sustained over time, it tends to acquire the garb of truth.”
Zinox said the case arose from a contract between Citadel and Technology Distributions Limited over the supply of computers to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), stressing that the matter has no bearing whatsoever with Zinox and its promoter, Mr Leo Stan Ekeh.
“Firstly, we are shocked that Femi Falana would include Zinox in his purported fiat/charges, a company that has nothing to do with the transaction or allegations. For the records, we want to state as follows:
“Zinox has never been invited by any investigative agency, including the police and the EFCC, on these allegations. There is no report either by the police or the EFCC or any investigative agency where the name of Zinox was mentioned as a suspect. There is no judgment or ruling of any court where Zinox was mentioned as having anything to do, whatsoever, with the transaction or the allegations, the basis of the fiat/charges. Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, the Chairman of Zinox, has never made any statement to the police in the course of any investigations and has never been mentioned in any court proceedings or judgment as part of any investigations relating to these allegations. Indeed, he has never met with Benjamin Joseph before,” the statement said.
Zinox cited instances in which Mr. Joseph lost the case and its adjunct suit. In a petition/case Mr. Joseph reported since 2013 and for which the Inspector General of Police charged him for false information in charge no.CR/216/16, he was unable to prove his allegations for more than 8 years .
In another case filed by the EFCC at his instance against his partner, Princess Kama, in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, Honorable Justice Danlami Z. Senchi of the FCT High Court (as he then was), dismissed as false all the allegations made by Benjamin Joseph, and imposed the sum of N20 million as damages against him for false petitioning in relation to these same allegations.
Zinox alleged that the current charges said to have been filed by Falana on the basis of a fiat from the Attorney General is the third in a row as he had earlier filed charge no.CR/469/2022, which was struck out by Honorable Justice C. O. Oba of the FCT High Court, by an order dated 8th November 2022.
In what appears to be forum shopping and abuse of court process, “he filed the same charges before Honorable Justice A. S. Adepoju of the FCT High Court, which charges were, once more, struck out by the Honorable Court on 19th March 2024, with Honorable Justice Adepoju holding that: “This matter was brought in dead, extinct and should be confined into the dustbin of history…I hold that the instant suit is an abuse of the process of court and it is hereby struck out accordingly,” the statement said.
Zinox said it was shocked that a “learned Senior Advocate in the person of Femi Falana, would, yet, proceed to file the same charges before Honorable Justice A. O. Ebong of the FCT High Court in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 in November 2024.”
The statement said: “It is, therefore, very clear that the deliberate intention for instituting this new charge by Femi Falana SAN, to include the name of Zinox and its Chairman and other persons who were never part of the investigations, is to embarrass them, harm their reputation, and thereby damage their businesses. In the circumstance, we hereby demand a public apology from Mr. Femi Falana SAN, if he is unable to produce the evidence demanded above.
“We, therefore, assure all our business partners, stakeholders, and friends, that we are not ruffled by these spurious allegations. While our lawyers are set to defend the present charges purportedly filed by Femi Falana SAN, we shall not fail to explore all legal remedies against persons associated with the orchestration of these false allegations and publications against us,” Zinox said.
World Health Organization (WHO), has declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, a global health emergency.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general, WHO, made the announcement at a press conference in Geneva.
WHO’s emergency committee on the epidemic had reportedly met Thursday afternoon and recommended designating the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, PHEIC.
The decision had been “almost unanimous,” Didier Houssin, chair of the emergency committee, said at the press conference.
“The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries,” Tedros said at the press conference.
“Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems and which are ill-prepared to deal with it. Let me be clear, this declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China. On the contrary, WHO continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”
Tedros also outlined recommendations made by the emergency committee to control the outbreak, including accelerating the development of vaccines and drugs and combatting the spread of misinformation.
This is the sixth time WHO has used that label, Public Health Emergency of International Concern, PHEIC. since the designation was introduced 15 years ago.
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