Buhari’s Minister Reacts To Oshiomhole’s Ultimatum

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has criticised the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, for asking his ministry to constitute and inaugurate board members of federal agencies and parastatal.

Oshiomhole, in a letter, had given the Ngige one week within which to constitute the board of the parastatals and agencies under his ministry.

The parastatals and agencies are the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Productivity Centre (NPC), and Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS).

Reacting in a statement, Ngige insisted that he would not constitute the Board of NSITF within the one week ultimatum given by the party chairman.

The minister also doubted that the letter could have emanated from the ruling party’s chairman.

The statement reads in part: “Three agencies have been reconstituted and members were inaugurated on March 8, 2018, in conformity with a presidential directive. All the three boards are currently operational.

“The only agency left out was the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), which, before the directive, had been enmeshed in major issues of corruption, involving about N48 billion, comprising Federal Government and employers’ contributions to the Employees’ Compensation Fund, plus some non-remitted PAYE taxes, which were carted away through well perfected sleaze operation. This resulted in the agency coming under the EFCC’s investigation/prosecution of members of the former board and some of her serving officials.

“An Administrative and Financial Panel of Enquiry was instituted with a presidential approval as a follow – up to the criminal investigations. This was followed by a House of Representatives Committee on Labour and Employment probe in March 2018, which is still ongoing.

“Comrade National Chairman, you are aware of this situation and you had broached this issue with me during your campaign period, when I visited your campaign office. Due to the fact that a lot of the information available to me as a minister are classified, I had told you that I will brief you later and, at our last meeting, during a function on Saturday, July 7, 2018, I had sought for an appointment for the next day, so I could brief you on the situation.

“I’m not oblivious of the fact that you are a very interested party in the matter because having served as chairman of the NSITF board before the last board, and as a former Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, you would be interested in the tripartite colouration of the board being maintained.

“More so, as labour still remains your base constituency. Mr. Chairman, a lot of the classified information from the EFCC, the Auditor-General of the Federation’s “spot check” report for an organisation with an account that has not been audited for five years – 2013 – 2017, are not within your purview. In view of all these damaging reports, I had a presidential permission not to inaugurate this particular board at the time we did the others.”