Minimum wage:Presidency gives update after meeting with labour leaders

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu,yesterday met with the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba, as part of efforts to convince organised labour to call off their industrial action. Shehu was at headquarters of the NLC in Abuja where he urged the labour unions to see reasons and call off the strike. The presidential aide, who issued a statement after the visit, assured that the federal government was taking steps to get the unions to call off the strike. According to him, the federal government has already accepted labour’s demands to reconvene the tripartite meeting on the proposed new national minimum wage. The Presidency on Friday stepped up efforts to convince labour unions in the country to call off their strike following the earlier meeting at which the government accepted their demand to reconvene the tripartite meeting on the proposed new national minimum wage. The presidential aide revealed that the meeting between the labour leaders and the representatives of the employers of labour had been scheduled to reconvene on Oct. 4. He said: By its tripartite nature, the committee is made up of persons from the public sector, (Federal and State Governments) and the private sector made up of the largest private employer group and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA). Shehu stated that invitation letters had since been dispatched to all the participants. “At the moment, the Presidency understands that the combined leadership of the unions, having met and deliberated on the position of the government had now set in motion a process of consultations with their constituent members to determine their next line of action. “The Presidency wishes to assure that the federal government is taking every step necessary to get the unions to call off the strike,’’ he maintained. SOURCE:Dailypost Nigeria Awonuga Oyinlola

NiMet predicts thunderstorms, rains across Nigeria Monday

By Awonuga Oyinlola The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted chances of scattered rainfall and thunderstorm activities over most parts of the country today. NiMet’s Weather Outlook by its Central Forecast Office (CFO) yesterday, predicted prospects of rains over the central cities like Yola, Jalingo, Mambilla Plateau, Lokoja, Markurdi, Jos, Kaduna and Bauchi during the morning hours. It predicted cloudy morning over the remaining parts and prospects of scattered thunderstorms later in the day with day and night temperatures of 26 to 33 and 15 to 23 degrees Celsius respectively. The agency predicted that Northern cities would experience partly cloudy to cloudy conditions in the morning hours. It also predicted prospects of scattered thunderstorm over the northeast, Kano, Maiduguri and Dutse in the afternoon with day and night temperatures of 34 to 36 and 21 to 24 degrees Celsius respectively. According to NiMet, Southern cities will experience rains over Enugu, Obudu, Ogoja, Calabar, Uyo, Eket, Ikom and Yenegoa with cloudy conditions over the remaining parts during the morning hours. “These conditions are likely to persist later in the day with chances of thunderstorms over most places on the inlands while rains will prevail over the coastal axis. “Day and night temperature values are expected to be in the range of 28 to 32 and 20 to 23 degrees Celsius respectively over the southern region,“ NiMet predicted. Source (NAN) Awonuga Oyinlola

The right pronunciation of 'Fasten'

By Awonuga Oyinlola English is a very interesting language, its inconsistencies add certain twist to it. As a result, the speakers are encouraged to study more and adapt to the new words coined. As if that is not hard enough, some people have to learn to use the right words in the right context. Nigerian's official language is English; an average Nigerian has to be able to speak this language in order to communicate with people from other tribes. 'Fasten'- Some Nigerians do not know the 't' in these word is silent. Even teachers who train pupils often mispronounce word and teach the young ones the wrong thing. This word is pronounced as 'fasin' not 'fasten' as commonly used 'Fasten your seat-belt-incorrect' but 'fasin' is the correct pronunciation for the term. Source: Naija.ng Awonuga Oyinlola, Balogun Oluwafemi.

By the way, How do you pronounce bathe now?

By Awonuga Oyinlola The word bathe is a very common one in the sense that almost everyone has a bath regularly.There is however an irony with bathe.The rate at which it is used is almost the same as it is mispronounced.That is why I asked the question in the topic of this lesson The problem has its root in the fact that bath and bathe are usually interchangeably used rightly or wrongly.To complicate the matter some experts say while bath is strictly a noun, bathe is essentially a verb. Indeed, in British English bath is also used as a verb while bathe also assumes the role of a noun in one or two contexts.The grammar of the word is not our focus here but we can quickly exemplify this observation: E.g She wants to have a bathe now (correct) She wants to bath now (correct now as a verb) Are you sure she wants to bathe now (correct as a verb) In bath the letter produces a long vowel /a:/, but in bathe while we also have a long vowel, it is not the /a:/ type indeed in bathe what we have is a diphthong, which is a combination of two vowel sounds. In this wise the a in bath is not to be pronounced as the /a/ you have in sea, bat and bath. It is also not the /a:/ in star, bard or pass.Rather, it is /ei/, the type you have in lait, late, waste, and freight it is thus pronounced as bEIthe. What this means is that when you want to have a bath and say you want to baf or bat you are committing double errors.You should therefore take time to further study the correct articulation of both. Source:Punch/Awonuga Oyinlola