The Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, at the weekend met with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock over the worrying security situation in the Southeast.
The duo also briefed the President on labour issues including the recent strike embarked upon by the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, PASAN that paralysed legislative and judicial activities in the country for two months before the strikes were called off.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said that issues concerning the face-off between the Kaduna State government and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, was also discussed at the meeting with the President.
Recall that the leadership of the NLC had complained to President Buhari that the Kaduna State government had allegedly refused to obey the terms of Agreement reached between the two parties after the Federal Government through the Minister of Labour and Employment intervened to broker a truce in the industrial dispute between the two.
Senator Ngige said that it was resolved that there was no need for another round of industrial disharmony between labour and the Kaduna State government especially as the country was faced with serious security challenges.
On the security situation in the Southeast, Ngige said, “We also looked at the security situation, especially in my zone, the Southeast and we made some proposal to him, based on the yearnings of the people, and what the government also wants.
“And we are following up with dialogue which at the end of the day is what will happen. We have to talk, we have to discuss. And part of the discussion starts also tomorrow (Saturday). The Minister of Defence, Minister of Interior and the Service Chiefs were in Enugu earlier last Saturday and we are going to do follow-up meetings on that again starting from tomorrow.
“We briefed him and he accepted that dialogue is the way to go in all these. Like I keep on saying there is a very tin line between perception and reality, so certain things should be done, at least to assuage the feelings of the people in the area and make them not to feel unwanted so that area was also discussed. “
The Minister further said that his mission at the State House was to brief the President on developments in the labour ministry with regard to the industrial action embarked upon by some unions.
He said, “I have to see him to appraise him with labour industrial milieu especially when you know that the judiciary and parliamentary workers JUSUN and PASAN respectively had been on strike that lasted for two months, we achieved a truce, through up an agreement and we have till today summit his own copies of Agreement to him.
“We are going to monitor the agreement. He is very interested in that.
