The Federal Government has resolved to adopt the dialogue option in settling the escalating insecurity in the Southeast region.
This resolution was disclosed to State House Correspondents over the weekend by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ngige also said he and Professor Gambari further briefed the President on developments in the Labour sector, especially the faceoff between Kaduna State government and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the recently suspended industrial actions by judicial and legislative employees nationwide.
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.
“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).
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“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 tiny 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,” he said.
On the recently called-off industrial actions by the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), the Minister said he, alongside the Chief of Staff, had briefed the President on the details of the process that led to the recent ending of the strikes, by handing him a copy of the agreements reached with the unions.