TheNewsGuru

Tag: Ngige

  • Buhari directs Gambari, Ngige to address JUSUN strike

    Buhari directs Gambari, Ngige to address JUSUN strike

    President Muhammadu Buhari has directed his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, as well as the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, and other relevant stakeholders to address the problem with the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).

    He explained that this became necessary to ensure the issues raised by the judiciary workers, who have been on a nationwide strike since early April, were resolved to resume activities in various courts across the country.

    Senator Ngige briefed reporters on Friday after a meeting with the President at the State House in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

    He noted that the meeting was to intimate President Buhari on the industrial actions by various unions in the country.

    The minister said he also briefed the President about ongoing efforts by his ministry and resolutions reached, including a review of hazard allowance.

    More to follow…

  • Judiciary workers stage walkout from meeting with FG as minister fails to show up

    Judiciary workers stage walkout from meeting with FG as minister fails to show up

    Members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) on Tuesday staged a walkout from the reconciliation meeting with the Federal Government and representatives of the State Governors.

    The striking judiciary workers staged their walkout 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.

    The workers, who sang solidarity songs as they left the conference room, refused to listen to pleas from the Permanent Secretary who informed them that the Minister was holding a meeting with the government team in his office.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the failed meeting is the second in the series of meetings scheduled with the Labour Minister and aimed at resolving the impasse between the government and the judiciary workers, who are demanding autonomy for the judiciary.

    On Monday, security officials at the National Assembly had refused to allow members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to gain entrance during a protest

    The lawyers had been on a peaceful march in solidarity with judiciary workers who are protesting financial autonomy.

    Meanwhile, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has said it will ensure the implementation of financial autonomy for state legislative and judiciary institutions by May 2021.

    Chairman of the NGF, Dr Kayode Fayemi gave the assurance after a meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari at the Statehouse on Monday.

    He maintained that the Governors forum has never been opposed to the issue of financial autonomy and that the governors, the speakers, and judges are on the same page.

    He further disclosed that upon emerging from a meeting with the Solicitor-General of the Federation, the representatives of the judiciary, the representatives of the Conference of Speakers, and the House of Representatives, an agreement has been reached to implement the agreement no later than May.

  • Resident doctors send letter of appreciation to Ngige for timely resolution of strike

    Resident doctors send letter of appreciation to Ngige for timely resolution of strike

    The leadership of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has commended Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige for prompt resolution of the recent nationwide doctors’ strike.

    NARD, in a letter of appreciation to Ngige by its National President, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, and Secretary-General, Dr Jerry Isogun, commended the Minister for his role as a conciliator, which made the Federal Government to acknowledge their plights and request on time to solve them

    The letter reads: “On behalf of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), we write to express our sincere gratitude for your role in resolving the issues of agitation amongst our members.

    “We also commend you for your outstanding leadership qualities, which have resulted in the timely solutions to the lingering issues in the Health Sector. We are deeply humbled by your steadfastness, especially as it concerns resident doctors.

     

    “Your role as the Chief conciliator is evident as the Federal Government has acknowledged our plights and requested for time to solve them. You are indeed a medical elder of repute. Accept Sir, the assurances of our highest regards.”

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the doctors had on April 1 commenced nationwide strike that grounded health facilities nationwide for 10 days.

    The strike was suspended on April 11.

  • FG, resident doctors meet today over strike

    FG, resident doctors meet today over strike

    The Federal Government will today(Friday) hold another meeting with the leadership of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) over its nationwide strike.

    The government will hope to convince the doctors to put – off the strike, which has paralysed activities in government- owned hospitals.

    Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment announced the meeting in a text on Thursday.

    The meeting will hold at the conference room of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige by 3pm.

    “The Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige will be meeting with Executive of the National Association of Resident Doctors and Representatives of the Federal Government,” the message said.

    The leadership of NARD has remained adamant despite the government paying arrears of medical doctors who are mostly House Officers.

    But in a communiqué on Thursday, the NARD described the statement credited to Dr. Ngige as “spurious misinformation.”

    Admitting that some house officers have been paid, it said many of them are yet to be paid.

    Besides, it alleged the payment was marred by irregularities.

    The association noted the strike became imperative when it noticed the Ministry of Health was not interested in any form of settlement to avert the strike.

    It said the only positive result from the conciliatory meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment was abolition of the exorbitant bench fees being paid by NARD members on outside postings in all training institutions across the country.

    “This”, it said, “is however not yet backed by a circular.”

    The communiqué reads: “All other demands like the immediate payment of all salary arrears including march salaries for its members in all federal (GIFMIS platform) and state tertiary health institutions across the country, upward review of the current hazard allowance to 50 per cent of consolidated basic salaries of all health workers and payment of the outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance, payment of death in service insurance for all health workers who died as a result of COVID-19 infection or other infectious diseases, among other demands are yet to be met.

    “We want to use this medium to reiterate our commitment to the smooth running of all tertiary institutions in the country and the provision of specialist healthcare to Nigerians, but we need to first of all care for our own health and welfare in order to give standard care to our patients. This is in line with our physician oath.”

  • ICYMI: Your comments may bring down Nigeria’s health sector, NMA warns Ngige

    ICYMI: Your comments may bring down Nigeria’s health sector, NMA warns Ngige

    The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), said Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige erred in his claim that resident doctors were not paid by government or institutions outside Nigeria.

    NMA said, in a statement signed by its president and secretary-general Innocent Ujah and Philips Ekpe respectively, that the claim was a hate speech and capable of bringing down the nation’s health sector.

    The doctors said against Ngige’s claim, resident doctors were paid where they worked in the US and UK, as well as other parts of the world.

    “The NMA is totally in disagreement with the way and manner some government functionaries carry out their duties, which is completely insensitive to the plight of the people. Accountability is the fulcrum for good governance in all facets and we do not demand anything less from those charged with the responsibility of governing the people,” part of the statement read.

    According to NMA, government should improve the welfare of doctors and other health workers, saying it was the most sustainable means of delivering quality health care to the people of the country.

    “Perhaps, this will help to reduce the current brain drain being experienced, that is dealing a deadly blow to our health care delivery system, which has made our hospitals to be regarded as mere consulting clinics,” the group added.

    Ngige had said, in an interview with Channels Television on Friday April 2, 2021, that resident doctors were only paid in Nigeria, but not in the US, UK and other nations.

  • NMA backs striking resident doctors, accuses Ngige of hate speech

    NMA backs striking resident doctors, accuses Ngige of hate speech

    The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has declared support for the striking doctors under the aegis of Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

    The foremost medical body also accused the Minister of Labour and Productivity Dr. Chris Ngige of hate speech for the way he spoke during a Channels Television aired on Friday night.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the minister had during the interview said will Federal Government will implement the ‘no work, no pay’ on the striking National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) if they refuse to resume work.

    “By Tuesday, I will invite them back. If they become recalcitrant, there are other things I can do. There are weapons in the Labour Laws, I will invoke them. There is no work, no pay.

    Their employers have a role also to keep their business afloat, to keep patients alive. They can employ local doctors. We won’t get there but if we are going to get there, we will use that stick” the minister said during the interview.

    In a swift response the NMA tackled claims by Ngige who also doubles as a medical doctor. Read press release below:

    PRESS RELEASE
    RESIDENT DOCTORS ARE PAID ALL OVER THE WORLD

    The attention of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has been drawn to a recent live interview granted on Channels TV on Friday, 2nd April 2021, by the Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity, HE, Senator Dr Chris Ngige OON.

    In the interview, the Honourable Minister alleged that in the United States of America (USA) and other developed countries, Resident Doctors pay for their residency training abroad, whereas in Nigeria, the government pays them.

    In as much as we appreciate the efforts being made by the government to resolve the issues that have led to this avoidable and unnecessary industrial action by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) wishes to clarify the misinformation by the Honourable Minister in
    the interview, which is seriously viewed to be a hate speech capable of bringing down the health system in Nigeria and thereby worsening the health care delivery and further escalate the rather unimaginable current brain drain.

    In the United States of America and other developed countries, Resident Doctors work as they are being trained and they are paid by their employers. In the United Kingdom, the employer of Resident Doctors is the NHS, which is similar to what is obtainable in Nigeria.

    Furthermore, Residents also pay to take their postgraduate Medical examinations in the developed countries, which is what also obtains in Nigeria.

    The NMA is totally in disagreement with the way and manner some government functionaries carry out their duties’ which is completely insensitive to the plight of the people.

    Accountability is the fulcrum for good governance in all facets and we do not demand anything less from those charged with the responsibility of governing the people.

    In order to resolve the lingering crisis in the Nigerian health sector, the NMA urges the government to prioritise and improve the healthcare delivery to Nigerians and at the same time improve the welfare of Medical practitioners and other health workers, which is considered the most sustainable means of delivering quality health care to the people who in the first place elected them.

    Perhaps, this will help to reduce the current brain drain being experienced that is dealing a deadly blow to our health care delivery system, which has made our hospitals to be regarded as mere Consulting Clinics.

    The NMA wishes to assure Nigerians that it is willing to partner with the governments towards enhancing quality health care delivery in Nigeria, despite the persistent provocation from its functionaries.

  • FG threatens to wield big stick against striking doctors if…

    FG threatens to wield big stick against striking doctors if…

    The Federal Government will implement the ‘no work, no pay’ on the striking National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) if they refuse to resume work.

    This is according to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who issued the warning on Friday during an interview on on a monitored Channels Television programme.

    “By Tuesday, I will invite them back. If they become recalcitrant, there are other things I can do. There are weapons in the Labour Laws, I will invoke them. There is no work, no pay,” Ngige said.

    “Their employers have a role also to keep their business afloat, to keep patients alive. They can employ local doctors. We won’t get there but if we are going to get there, we will use that stick.”

    Speaking further, the Minister also noted that the current hazard allowance of ₦5,000 for doctors was fixed in 1992, noting that it was fair and just.

    While noting that when the former President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Francis Adedayo Faduyile, drew the attention of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who described the figure as criminal.

    The Minister explained that the Federal Government would review the amount in five weeks’ time, although he didn’t disclose the proposed figure.

    “It is the last NMA President Faduyile that called my attention that the hazard (allowance) was ₦5,000. I raised it with the Finance Minister and the Vice President in the Economic Sustainability Meeting. In fact, to use the words of the Vice President, he said it is criminal, that it shouldn’t happen.

    “The new hazard allowance will be done in the next five weeks. It is in the Memorandum of Action that we signed. Immediately after the Easter break, I will convene a meeting to look at it holistically,” he added.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the resident doctors had on Thursday embarked on an indefinite strike to protest alleged failure by the Federal Government to fulfil its obligations to them.

    They had earlier met with the Federal Government’s team on Wednesday over their grievances, rejected the proposals put forward by the government on how to make up for the shortcomings in the implementation of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between both parties.

  • ‘Governor-do-nothing’: Buhari’s minister blasts Obiano for ‘having time’ to take, post pictures with pet dog

    ‘Governor-do-nothing’: Buhari’s minister blasts Obiano for ‘having time’ to take, post pictures with pet dog

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has come hard on his state governor, Willie Obiano for having the luxury of time to take and post pictures with his pet dog on the internet.

    The furious minister described the governor as an “epicurean and governor-do-nothing.”

    He said Obiano’s idleness was the primary reason he takes and posts ”anyhow pictures” on the internet.

    However, National Chairman of the ruling party in the state; All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Oye dubbed Ngige a “jealous” minister and one of the ”green-eyed politicians” in the country.

    Ngige, at a meeting of APC stakeholders and members of the Registration and Revalidation Committee of the party in Anambra State at the weekend inferred to a picture on the internet in which Obiano posed with a dog. He told the stakeholders and committee members that no busy governor would have such leisure take such picture, except the likes of Obiano.

    The minister berated Obiano and APGA for what he called ”abysmal performance in the state” and vowed that “we will use our broom to sweep him and his party out of Government House.”

    Alleging that Obiano was about to bequeath the people of the state with a huge debt, Ngige boasted that ”we can’t take it anymore.”

    His words:”We want to drive away governor-do-nothing, who’s sitting down there. You can’t be a governor and just cross your legs and be playing music and say you’re a governor.

    ”No work is going on in this state. The people of the state are tired of APGA. We’re tired of bringing people who don’t know their left from right; people who just want to come and learn how to be a governor.

    ”He has only 12 months more to stay and for five months, he’ll be a lame dog governor after the election, from November to March . We have nothing to point at what he has done here, practically nothing.

    ”Yet, they’ve gotten all sorts of money. President Muhammadu Buhari, gave them bailout funds, yet they find it difficult to pay minimum wage and they got budget support yet medical workers, including doctors, went on strike here for nine months.

    ”What kind of government is this? Teachers are on strike, you can’t recruit new ones. We’re going to start this journey today.

    ”We’ll start it with the governor sitting here, governor-do-nothing. It’s only three flyovers he has achieved, and one airport with debt of N180 billion, Is that what you people want?

    “We’ll sweep them and their footprint out from Anambra soil so they can be forgotten. They’ve blocked our way enough.

    ”We have good men in APC. We’re going to give you men who know about infrastructure, not only roads. We’re going to give you a governor that will continue from where I stopped.

    ”APGA’s government has punished the people of the state and people of Igbo land because they’re a stumbling block from getting Anambra to join the national grid of power.

    ”Some of us have been fighting them, but this fight now is fight-to-finish. They have to clear and leave us to go and join the national grid and take the Igbo to mainstream national politics.”

    However, APGA National Chairman said Ngige was just jealous that Obiano had taken the state to an enviable height.

    He added: ”This is jealousy limited. What is wrong with a governor creating time out of his busy schedule to cool off after working hard to deliver democracy dividends to his people?

    ”Is it not said: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?” Let me ask: Which one is better: taking a photo with your pet dog or sleeping with people’s wives – which is the pastime of some of our loud-mouthed and green-eyed politicians?

    ”What about those that do terrible things kept out of the public glare. But Willie Obiano is real and altruistic.”

  • ASUU can’t go on strike again under my watch – Ngige

    ASUU can’t go on strike again under my watch – Ngige

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that he will do everything to ensure that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) does not go on another industrial action.

    He explained that three of his biological children have also been victims of the system, so he is personally committed to resolving the issues.

    “I will not give ASUU the opportunity to go on strike. Because I have three biological children that suffered from this imbroglio that we found ourselves in and about 15 people on my scholarship in Nigerian Universities,” the Minister said on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Wednesday.

    “My three biological children are here in Nigerian Universities. They even went to secondary school here. Two of them are American citizens and I had the option of leaving them to go study in America and enjoy the free education or whatever, but I didn’t. So, I am a committed parent. I am involved, even more than some ASUU members because some of them have their children in private schools.”

    Ngige said this hours after the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) “conditionally” suspended its strike, ending a protracted industrial action that started in March.

    National President of the association, Biodun Ogunyemi made the announcement during a briefing of the union in Abuja on Wednesday.

    Ogunyemi explained that the development followed the agreement reached with the Federal Government and a meeting with its National Executive Council (NEC).

    The suspension of the strike takes effect from Thursday, December 24.

    Meanwhile, the union has stressed that it will not hesitate to commence another strike if the government does not keep to its end of the bargain.

    But Ngige has vowed to do everything possible to ensure that does not happen.

    “I will make sure the government does its own bit,” he said.

    He gave an assurance that the agreement reached is so structured “in such a way that it is a win-win situation for everybody.”

    “For the revitalisation, we have given government up to the 31st of January to pay that. We have also opened the window so that by the end of February, we will sit down again and review all these situations. Nobody is going to keep anybody in suspense.”

  • BREAKING: Varsities will reopen in January – Ngige

    BREAKING: Varsities will reopen in January – Ngige

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has said the Academic Activities in Nigeria Universities (ASUU) will resume back to work in January 2021.

    He says the negotiations between the ASUU and the Federal government had reached 98 percent, adding that it remains only two percent to be completed

    He spoke Monday in Alor, Idemili South local government area of Anambra State, during the launch of Ngige free medical outreach at the Community’s Health Center.

    Ngige said, “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.

    Meanwhile, Ngige said the free medical outreach that was launched in Alor Monday, was equally extended to neighbouring communities like Abatete, Oraukwu, Ideani and Nnobi among others

    He said those with different ailments like hepatitis, eye problems among others should go and be treated free of charge, adding that about 15 medical Doctors in different fields would handle the cases at the Health Center.