Fred Itua, Abuja
Minister of Labour, Productivity and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has apologised to the leadership of the National Assembly over last week’s face-off between Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo and the joint Senate and House Committees on Labour, Productivity and Employment.
Ngige tendered the apology when he led a delegation from the ministry to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the National Assembly, Abuja, yesterday.
“Having visited your domain to the Joint Committee on Labour, Productivity and Employment over some issues of the Special Public Works Programme of the Federal Government, a programme that was designed by the executive with the legislature, if the executive makes a proposal and it is not funded, then that proposal will be dead on the table. We deeply regret the incident that happened; the altercation that followed, between my minister of state and members of the joint committee.Therefore, we decided that as a team, we would come with full force and give the necessary information that we need so that we can fast track this programme which was designed from the office of the President before the COVID-19.
“We must work hand-in-hand without acrimony or even drawing a very rigid line of who has this power and who doesn’t. That is the only way programmes of government can be made sustainable and executed for the benefit of our people. In the Seventh Senate, the National Assembly didn’t have a rancorous relationship with the executive of Dr. Ebele Jonathan, even though some of us were in opposition parties.
“We came to the Eighth Assembly, we had a very terrible experience for the legislature and executive, because when you go into such wars, wars are fought with bullets, and you do not know who these bullets will touch. Many people became casualties to the extent that even the head of the legislature at the time had to be taken to the Code of Conduct for criminal charges and trial.
“Today, in the Ninth Senate, we are enjoying a robust relationship with the legislature. Some of us who have passed through this institution, will do everything possible to maintain that relationship. Therefore, Mr. President, I apologize on behalf of my ministry for what took place last time, and I hope this apology will be taken by members of the committee and the entire National Assembly, because I’m aware and I know that a committee is a representative of the whole. The committee room is an extension of our hallowed chambers,” he said.
Lawan explained that the decision by the National Assembly to approve the sum of N52 billion as requested by the executive for the Special Public Works Programme was mainly out of confidence in the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to implement accordingly.
He stated that the Ministry of Labour, Productivity and Employment only has a supervisory role to play in the implementation of the programme designed to recruit 774,000 Nigerians.