Ngige Apologises To NASS Over Keyamo’s Conduct
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has apologised to the National Assembly over last week’s outbursts of the Minister of State for Labour, Mr Festus Keyamo.
The bone of contention was the N52 billion Special Public Works Programme of the Federal Government.
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The minister and lawmakers had disagreed over the modalities for executing the programme, which was introduced to engage 774,000 unemployed youths in the country.
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) had been mandated to implement the recruitment process.
However, a session between senators and Keyamo last week to discuss the modus operandi of the programme turned awry and ended in a shouting match.
While the lawmakers accused Keyamo of hijacking the employment programme from the NDE, the minister alleged that the lawmakers were plotting to take over the project.
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He said their aim was to recruit their political followers and close allies. In the end, the meeting ended abruptly with Keyamo walking out of the session.
He insisted he would not sit in camera with the senators to discuss any issue on the recruitment, saying that all discussions must be done publicly.
However, on Tuesday, Ngige apologised to the Senate Joint Committee, saying that the ministry regreted the incident which took place between the minister and the committee.
He said, “The position paper put out by my Minister of State is not sacrosanct.”
Recall that the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his address on the matter, had insisted that the NDE must be allowed to implement the programme.
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He said, “The ministry of Labour has the full support of the National Assembly, but the NDE must be allowed to handle the implementation of the programme as stipulated in the law.
“You will do everything possible for your ministry to continue to have a decent and cordial relationship with the committees that oversight the ministry.
“This National Assembly can support you very very well, but it can stand tough if its will is tested.”
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