Daybreak, Politics, Entertainment, Sport

Tag: Chris Ngige

  • Ministry of Labour and employment to train 37,000 unemployed graduates

    Ministry of Labour and employment to train 37,000 unemployed graduates

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, represented by Mrs Tilda Mmegwa, the senior Special Assistant to the President on job creation, says most youths are unemployed because of lack of functional skills.

    He said this while declaring open a one day trade job, career and employability Fair, on Thursday in Abuja organized by the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) with the theme: “Promoting Employability, Skills Development and Decent Work”.

    According to him ,the Nigerian government is conscious of the fact that most of the unemployed are those without functional skills, thus, all stakeholders must be actively involved in preparing the African workforce for the ‘future of work’; therefore the strategy is to equip the unemployed youths
    with market -driven skills, which will facilitate their access to self or paid employment.

    He said, Therefore the ministry is scheduled to train 37,000 unemployed graduates,1,000 in each of the states of the Federation and and the FCT on soft skills and marketable resume and in the coming months train 3,500 unemployed youth in various locations including fashion design, catering, event management, solar panel and CCTV installation, among others.

    Our Correspondent spoke with some of the participants, who commended the organisers of the fair, also said the fair had given them the opportunity of a one-on-one career counseling and also job interviews.

  • FG Don’t Have the Funds to Meet ASUU’s Demands – Ngige

    FG Don’t Have the Funds to Meet ASUU’s Demands – Ngige

    The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, has stated that the Federal Government does not have the funds to meet its obligations in the agreement signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

    Ngige said the government was considering a renegotiation of the terms of the agreement with ASUU, in the effort to end the ongoing strike by university lecturers.

    The minister made this known while appearing on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television monitored from Abuja on Thursday.

    When asked if he agreed that the government had failed to fulfil its side of the agreement with ASUU, Ngige said no.

    On when the conflict would end, the minister said, “I am hoping that ASUU should do the right thing and contact their members on the renegotiations that we have had in the last two weeks. First, the issue of earned academic allowances, we have agreed, giving a timeline to the NUC to go back to the old template used in working out the 2021 earned academic allowance – 10.8 per cent of personnel cost.“We want them to go back very quickly and use that same formula and get us what we are supposed to pay in 2022. That is agreed by everybody.”

    On revitalisation of the universities, Ngige said “the amount is not very clear, what has been paid.” He said the actual amount paid is being determined.

    On the release of N1.3tn between 2013 and 2018 to revitalise the universities, with N200bn released in 2013 and only N70bn released in the last seven years, the minister, who noted that government is a continuum, stated that the N1.3tn was promised by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration. According to him, oil was selling at between $100 and $120 per barrel then, while the revenue of the federation was rich.

    “The government now says ‘we don’t have the money to pay it.’ This was the agreement between 2016 and 2017,” he said, adding that the government still does not have the funds to fulfil its side of the bargain.

    Ngige said the government is now calling for renegotiation of the agreement with ASUU, “unless you want us to go and take money from TETFUND and deceive you as it was done in that period, and place it for you on the table.”

    Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Education has constituted another committee to renegotiate the 2009 agreement with ASUU.

    Announcing the reconstitution of the renegotiation team, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in a statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations in the Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, emphasised the need to speedily bring to conclusion the outstanding issues in the 2009 agreement.

    The statement read in part, “The Federal Government has reconstituted a team to renegotiate the 2009 agreement it had with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

    “Reconstituting the team, Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, said there was a need to speedily bring to conclusion all outstanding issues in the 2009 agreement in order to achieve the desired peace on our campuses.

    “The Chairman of the reconstituted 2009 FGN/University-based Unions Agreements Re-negotiation Team is Prof Nimi Briggs, Pro-Chancellor, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo.

    “Members of the team include Lawrence Patrick Ngbale, Pro-Chancellor, Federal University, Wukari (North-East); Prof Funmi Togunu-Bickersteth, Pro-Chancellor, Federal University, Birnin Kebbi (South-West); Senator Chris Adighije, Pro-Chancellor, Federal University, Lokoja (South-East); and Prof Olu Obafemi, Pro-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Minna (North-Central).

    “Others are Prof Zubairu Iliyasu, Pro-Chancellor, Kano State University of Science & Technology (North-West); and Matthew B. Seiyefa, Pro-Chancellor, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island (South-South).

    “The team will be inaugurated by the minister by 12noon, on Monday, March 7, 2022 at the minister’s conference room, headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja.

    “All advisers and observers in the Federal Government/University-based Unions 2009 Agreements Re-negotiation Team are expected to attend the inauguration.”

  • Buhari now ready to dialogue with South-East over agitations – Ngige

    Buhari now ready to dialogue with South-East over agitations – Ngige

    The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige has said President Muhammadu Buhari has accepted the adoption of dialogue to address agitations in the South-East.

    Ngige revealed this on Sunday, while speaking with State House correspondents, after meeting with Buhari in Abuja.

    There have been agitations from parts of the South-east for secession, with the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) well in the forefront of the fight.

    However, Ngige claims the federal government is working out some modalities to ensure that the people of the region do not “feel unwanted” in Nigeria.

    “We also looked at the security situation, especially in my zone, the south-east, and we made some proposals to him based on the yearnings of the people, and what the government also wants.

    “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. Part of the discussion starts tomorrow. The minister of defence, minister of interior, and service chiefs were in Enugu last Saturday and we’re going to do follow-up meetings on that.

    “We briefed him and he accepted that dialogue is the way to go in all this,” Ngige said.

  • Why Meeting With Judiciary, Parliamentary Workers Failed To Hold – FG

    Why Meeting With Judiciary, Parliamentary Workers Failed To Hold – FG

    The meeting with the leadership of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) was postponed, the Federal Government has said.

    Although the meeting was scheduled to hold on Tuesday in Abuja, it failed to take place as the leaders of the unions staged a walkout from the venue.

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, explained that the meeting was postponed to enable the government’s negotiating team harmonise all issues from the Memorandum of Understanding reached at separate meetings with tiers and arms of government.

    Amid the ongoing nationwide strike by the judiciary workers, the leaders of the unions staged a walkout from the reconciliation meeting with the government and representatives of the state governors after waiting for over an hour at the conference room of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, where the failed meeting was to be held.

    Chanting solidarity songs as they left the conference room, the striking workers refused to listen to pleas from the permanent secretary who informed them that Ngige was holding a meeting with the government team in his office.

    It was the second failed meeting scheduled with the minister in the series of discussions aimed at resolving the impasse between the government and the judiciary workers whose strike has paralysed activities across the courts in the country.

    Defending the action of the government while briefing reporters in his office, Ngige said it became necessary to ensure the meeting with the unions came with a Memorandum of Action that would be implementable with timelines.

    “There is no point rushing to do a meeting that will be fruitless. The judiciary, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and even the Presidency are involved in this negotiation because the meeting held yesterday (Monday) was at the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.

    “The arising documents are not yet properly harmonised; it will, therefore, not be fruitful to hold a negotiation where people speak from irreconcilable positions.  It won’t help us, and it won’t help the unions either,” the minister was quoted as saying in a statement by a spokesperson for the ministry, Charles Akpan.

    He added, “The reason is to ensure that the agreement reached at the end of our meeting here is put into action, with timelines for implementation.

    “So, if we don’t have a paper that is ready to go, then there will be no point for the talk shop.”

    Ngige alleged that the unions’ leaders were in a hurry despite being informed of the little time needed for him to round off a meeting with the government team.

    “It is better done properly so that the governors can implement whatever agreement we enter into. The governors hold the ace because they hold the sovereign in their respective states, even though they are sub-nationals, but they run the government of those states,” he said.

  • FG threatens to stop salaries of SSANU, NASU members

    FG threatens to stop salaries of SSANU, NASU members

    The Federal Government has threatened to stop the salaries of non-teaching workers of universities for embarking on an indefinite strike.

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen Chris Ngige noted that Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act 2004 and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) statutes permit the government to stop the salaries of workers when they are on strike.

    He warned the government would not hesitate to invoke the laws if the unions fail to observe the rules guiding social dialogue.

    Ngige said that the ongoing strike by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Allied Institutions (NASU), contravened Nigeria’s labour laws and the statutes of ILO.

    The Minister noted that declaration of strike during negotiation was an act of intimidation, not allowed in labour negotiations, as doing so employees are tying the hands of the employers to the back.

    He said these in his opening remarks during a social dialogue between the unions and the Federal Government on Thursday.

    The Joint Action Committee of SSANU and NASU commenced an indefinite strike on February 5, 2021 over the failure of the federal government to resolve issues in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System and disparity in the sharing of the N40 billion Earned Allowances, among others.

    Ngige said it was wrong for the unions to proceed on full blown strike when the government had already apprehended it according to sections 7 and 8 of the Trade Dispute Act.

    He recalled that SSANU and NASU issued Trade Dispute Notice (TD3) to the government under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee (JAC) and government called them and started discussion on Tuesday February 2.

    The Minister said after extensive discussions on two out of the seven issues in dispute, the unions requested for adjournment to confer with their members, only to proceed on full blown indefinite strike while negotiations had commenced.

    He said: “You asked for an adjournment, we gave an adjournment and you used the period of adjournment to go on full blown strike. That is not right. It is not social dialoguing.

    “It is against ILO statutes. The ILO statute says you have a right to go on strike and your employer has a right not to pay you and use the same money to keep the enterprise going.

    “A lot of water went under the ground and I asked our ministry to write you officially and let you know that what you did is not in conformity with the Trade Dispute norms and as in our labour laws. You have replied too and the Permanent Secretary has brought to my attention your reply and I am not very happy about it.

    “Example of why I am not happy is that you were given instances that ASUU while on this table, declared strike. You don’t use a bad example to showcase what is the norm.

    “Why should you as a union that is labour friendly and has experienced people in trade dispute management, toe that line?

    “You want me to start applying to Mr. President for a compassionate waiver against Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act. That is not fair.

    “We are permitted by Law to stop payment of wages during the period of strike. It is in the labour laws. I didn’t make the law and President Buhari didn’t make the law. These are laws we made here in 2004, ‘the Trade Dispute act’.

    “That is why I am insistent that no matter what happens today, I must do this conciliation with you. But if you opt out, there are options left for me. I can transfer this conciliation.

    “There are levels. I can transfer to National Industrial Court suo moto (direct) or Industrial Arbitration Panel. That is the second level.

    “But if you come here for conciliation, don’t take me for a ride. Don’t take the conciliator for a ride at any level because we don’t have judicial powers like IAP or NIC. But this is our first level of conciliation and the rules of conciliation must be observed by all. The rule must be observed by all and that rule is that if there is an apprehension following your notice, you finish the discussion.

    “At our last meeting we had a 7-point agenda, we discussed two of them and you asked for an adjournment to come back to negotiation table.

    “That adjournment is not a period for you to go on strike. I want us to finish the rest if you wish. If don’t wish, then I refer you to IAP or NIC. When you finish, the judgment will be transmitted for me for execution.”

    General Secretary of NASU, Peter Adeyemi, said that the unions repose their confidence in him.

    Adeyemi said the unions have supported the government and they should not be compensated with the denial of the rights of their members.

    “How do you explain that you gave N40 billion to a sector and N10 billion was given to three unions. You cannot beat us and tell us not to cry,” he told the Minister.

  • Universities to reopen in January- Chris Ngige Reveals

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, says Nigerian universities that have been on strike since March this year, will reopen by January 2021.

    The minister disclosed this while speaking at a function in Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State today December 21.

    “We have met about 98 percent of the request of ASUU. Some 5 to 2 percent is what you can call promissory notes. So, I am very hopeful that by midnight today, there are some works we are supposed to get on to do. They also have some work they are supposed to do on their own side with their people.

    “Tuesday, we will meet in the afternoon and we will compare notes. We will put everything on the table and compare. I believe that we might have come to the end of the strike when we meet tomorrow.

    Well, it is a journey of a thousand miles which you will have to take one step first. Tomorrow, all things being equal, we will agree now to agree because we were disagreeing before.

    We disagree to agree and agree to disagree formerly. But tomorrow, I hope we will agree to agree. Once we do that, schools will re – open in January,” the Minister said

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, says Nigerian universities that have been on strike since March this year, will reopen by January 2021.

    The minister disclosed this while speaking at a function in Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State today December 21.

    “We have met about 98 percent of the request of ASUU. Some 5 to 2 percent is what you can call promissory notes. So, I am very hopeful that by midnight today, there are some works we are supposed to get on to do. They also have some work they are supposed to do on their own side with their people.

    “Tuesday, we will meet in the afternoon and we will compare notes. We will put everything on the table and compare. I believe that we might have come to the end of the strike when we meet tomorrow.

    Well, it is a journey of a thousand miles which you will have to take one step first. Tomorrow, all things being equal, we will agree now to agree because we were disagreeing before.

    We disagree to agree and agree to disagree formerly. But tomorrow, I hope we will agree to agree. Once we do that, schools will re – open in January,” the Minister said

  • ASUU agreed to call off strike Dec 9 – Ngige

    ASUU agreed to call off strike Dec 9 – Ngige

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has faulted the statement released by the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi.

    Ogunyemi in the statement claimed that the federal government has failed to deliver on its promises, DayBreak recalls.

    The federal government noted that the timelines had been complied with and “faithfully implemented”.

    Ngige in a statement released through his media on Tuesday, titled, ‘We have kept our promises to ASUU-FG’ disclosed that ASUU at the last meeting agreed to call off the nine-month-old strike before December 9.

    “The truth of the matter is that a ‘gentleman agreement’ was reached at the last meeting in which ASUU agreed to call off the strike before December 9, 2020, and the Minister, in turn, agreed that once the strike is called off, he would get a presidential waiver for ASUU to be paid the remainder of their salaries on or before December 9,” Ngige stated.

    The minister further stated that he had reached out to the Minister of Education on getting a waiver on the issue of ‘No Work, No Pay’ under section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act.

    Ngige said the statement was false and discomfiting for ASUU to wrongly inform the public that the government agreed to pay all withheld salaries before it will resume work, stressing that the timelines attached to the various offers made to the union had been complied with.

    The minister stated,“For instance, the Federal Government promised to constitute a Negotiation Committee for the 2009 Agreement and has fulfilled it with the last week’s inauguration of the committee that has Prof Muzali as chairman.”

    READ ALSO: NANS to shut down all private varsities for ASUU strike – President

    “The N40b Earned Academic Allowances have also been processed just as the N30b revitalization Fund, bringing it to N70 billion. Likewise, the Visitation Panels for the Universities have been approved by the President but the panel cannot perform its responsibilities until the shut universities are reopened.”

    “The gazetting is also being rounded off at the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation while the Ministry of Education is ready to inaugurate the various visitation panels.”

    He added that the president has shown that it is not all out to starve the lecturers to death as some of them were claiming.
    He disclosed that “they were paid for February and March after which it was extended to April, May and June, months they were on strike on compassionate ground, bringing it to five months.”

    The statement added,“The minister later invited ASUU to a virtual conciliatory meeting which they turned down. He further requested them to show good faith over the five months salaries government made to them by returning to the classroom and start virtual and online teaching as being done by private universities, while government sorts out the rest of their requests, they also refused.”

    “It is, therefore, unbelievable that ASUU President claimed that government agreed to pay outright the entire money of the period of the strike to them, even for staying at home and refusing to do either virtual teaching or research.”

    The government said the outstanding salaries to ASUU was for July, August, September and October “as no federal public servant has been paid for November 2020.”

    The minister said it is baseless for ASUU to claim it cannot go back to school on an empty stomach while the government had on compassionate grounds paid five months salaries out of the nine months they had been on strike.

    “ASUU is fully aware of the principle of No Work, No Pay of section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act under which many unions like National Association of Residents Doctors in 2017 and Joint Health Sector Unions in 2018 among others, have lost salaries as a result of the strike,” he noted.

    Ngige asked the university teachers to go back to work, pledging that the Ministers of Labour, Finance and Education would put up a memo to deal with the outstanding salaries for four months.

    “Asking the government to pay these four months before it goes back to work means ASUU is placing itself above the law of the land and no government will encourage it as it is a recipe for chaos in the labour milieu,” the minister said, adding that the FG would continue to engage the union in the spirit of social dialogue.

  • ASUU strike will end soon – Nigerian govt

    ASUU strike will end soon – Nigerian govt

    The federal government has assured that the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would soon end.

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

    He disclosed that the Ministries of Finance, Education, Labour and Employment and the Office of the Accountant General will meet with the union.

    “The issue of ASUU will soon come to an end. Two reasons – ASUU have called the Federal Government represented by Finance and the Accountant-General Office and their direct employers, the Ministry of Education to come for the test”, Ngige said.

    The nationwide industrial action started in March.

    ASUU top officials have repeatedly stated that the strike is still in force.

    The body wants implementation of the 2012 agreement.

    ASUU is also against government’s insistence that all lecturers must enroll on the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).

  • FG urges Resident Doctors to suspend strike

    FG urges Resident Doctors to suspend strike

    The Federal Government on Tuesday, urged the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), to suspend its ongoing industrial action across the country.
    Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment said this in a statement signed by Mr Charles Akpan, Deputy Director, Head, Press and Public Relations in Abuja.

    Ngige said that it was imperative for NARD to suspend the industrial action as the government had already addressed six out of the eight demands listed by the association.

    He said the government will reconvene a conciliation meeting between NARD and Federal Ministries of Health, and Finance, Budget and National Planning on Wednesday at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to avert the ongoing strike.

    According to Ngige, by Labour Laws and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions, when issues are being conciliated, all parties are enjoined not to employ arm-twisting methods to intimidate or foist a state of helplessness on the other party; in this case, your employers, the Federal Ministry of Health.

    He, therefore, appealed NARD to respect the country’s laws and suspend its industrial action, while noting that a high percentage of the Association’s demands had already been addressed.

    “This is coupled with the existence of a pending case in the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) instituted by two Civil Society groups against NARD, the Attorney -General of the Federation, and the Ministers of Health, and Labour and Employment.

    “NARD had no reason to embark on an industrial action, ”he said.

    He also stated that the groups, Citizens Advocacy for Social Rights (CASER) and Association of Women in Trading and Agriculture (AWITA), had also asked for an interlocutory injunction against a further strike by NARD.

    He added that all the parties had already appeared and exchanged court processes.

    Ngige said that in spite of lean resources occasioned by the effect of COVID-19 on oil output, the federal government had already spent N20 billion on the Special Hazard and Inducement Allowances for Medical and Health Workers for April, May and June 2020, with a few outstanding payments to some health workers for June 2020.

    He also said that the federal government has expended N9.3 billion as premium for Group Life Insurance for Medical and Health workers, as well as for all civil and public servants in federal organisations that are Treasury funded, to run from March 2020 to March 2021.

    He disclosed that the federal government have appropriated the sum of N4 billion in the Special Intervention COVID-19, while N500 billion in 2020 appropriation for the funding of Medical Residency Training and intended to do same in the ongoing 2021 Budget.

    The minister further stated that N4 billion has been processed for payment.

    Ngige also said that the matter between NARD and the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital has been resolved, while the resolution of the issue of State Governments not addressing the consequential adjustment to the new minimum wage, and low patronage of Residency programme were ongoing.

    He said plans were on for the conciliation meeting between NARD and Federal Ministries of Health, and Finance, Budget and National Planning to be held on Wednesday at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.