Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige
By Our Reporter
The presidency has given kudos the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige for ensuring a swift resolution of the devastating labour crisis that engulfed Kaduna State between Monday , May 17 and Wednesday, May 19, 2012.
The Presidency also described Ngige as an excellent Labour administrator whose wealth of experience and versatile knowledge of governance at different tiers and arms of government, immensely contributed to the deft resolution of the complex issues, involved in the autonomy for the legislature and Judiciary.
The commendation came in the opening remark by the Secretary of the Presidential Implementation Committee on the Autonomy of the Judiciary and Legislature and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Nigeria Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, at the meeting. Enang said, “let me congratulate you for the manner you resolved the Kaduna labour crisis without causing harm to both sides. We know what it was for three days. I had the opportunity of being around and have seen what you have done. “I think it is one of the greatest things you have been able to do lately. This is because in the history of this country, Labour has never marched on one state with the weight it marched on Kaduna. But you settled it and every party is now happy.”
Speaking on the resolution of challenges of autonomy for State legislature and the Judiciary, he revealed that the Minister made his deep wealth of knowledge and experience available for the committee to draw from . “ Let me extend profound gratitude to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who gave us the greatest cooperation and directly by that, to the Minister of labour and Employment. This is because he has shown the greatest expertise and proficiency in the handling of this PASAN/JUSUN issue. “I want to thank you so very much because in this matter, you became a judge, you became a lawyer, you became an accountant. You also brought your experience as a former governor of a state and as a Senator. “And fortunately for us , we came to learn at the feet of a person who practiced this about twenty years ago without Executive Order 10. So we thank you very much and thank God for making you a Minister at this time and on this matter. “As a governor , you acted and practiced exactly what is contained in the Executive Order 10 we know today. It became very easy for you bring that past experience to bear on the work we did. “In drafting and bringing out what we have agreed, which we are likely to sign today by the grace of God, you brought all your experience . In the course of conceiving the agreement , we took into consideration the constitution , Executive Order 10, the proposals from all sides and distilled by the committee chaired by the minister.
Enang blamed past administrations for turning blind eye to the autonomy of the legislature and the judiciary. “ We struggled for this thing for 21years now since the Constituion of Nigeria , 1999 was promulgated . The autonomy was there . It was said not to be clear and was clarified, and clarified , but it was not obeyed by our brothers
In a related development, the Federal Government also said the implementation of financial autonomy for the state legislature and judiciary will commence next week. Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige disclosed this in his office Thursday night after a conciliation meeting to resolve the strike of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, and Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, PASAN.
A Statement by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations in the Ministry, Charles Akpan quoted Ngige as saying the striking legislative and judiciary workers would call off their prolonged strike as soon as implementation started.
