Suspension Of Strike ‘Depends On ASUU’, Says Ngige

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, believes the suspension of the strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), is dependent on the union.

Ngige made the comment when he featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, calling for the varsity lecturers to be considerate.

“It depends on ASUU. The ball is in their court. They should go and meet the Benimi Briggs Committee and look at what the committee is doing and make further inputs so that the work can be accelerated,” he said during the current affairs show.

Ngige, also said that all the roads constructed by his successors in Anambra have been washed away because they were poorly done by inefficient contractors.

According to Ngige, all the roads constructed in Anambra by Peter Obi and Willie Obiano were of inferior quality except the ones he (Ngige) constructed as governor from 2003 to 2006.

While Obi was Anambra governor between 2007 and 2014, Obiano was governor from 2014 until last month when he handed over to Chukwuma Soludo.

Speaking on Thursday night about his short-lived time as Anambra governor before he was sacked by a court order, Ngige said, “The most important thing was that I was a governor and I touched the lives of the people. It is not how long but how effective, what did the people benefit from me? When you get to that stage, you will know. All the notable roads there (in Anambra), are the roads constructed by Ngige between 2003 and 2006.

Asked about the ones constructed by Obi, he said, “They are all washed off; those ones are gone. They didn’t last more than five years, they are gone.”

Asked about the roads constructed by Obiano, the minister said, “Those ones are also gone.”

Ngige said it was only the roads he constructed that are still standing “because I used reputable contractors and I inspected the jobs myself with the commissioner for works”.

Both Ngige and Obi (of the Peoples Democratic Party) are focal presidential aspirants from the South-East geopolitical zone.

With the clamour for Southern Presidency after the regime of the incumbent, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in May 2023, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as well as other stakeholders in the zone have demanded that the Presidency be zoned to the South-East.

The zone has also alleged injustice, noting that other zones in the Southern region have had a piece of Aso Rock’s pie since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 but the two main parties – APC and the PDP have ruled our zoning as they hold their presidential primaries in May.