Ngige said that he had consulted with both mortal and immortal people and would disclose his position on the 2023 presidency after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ngige gave the hint at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu while responding to a request from a pressure group under the aegis of the South East Progressive Forum who stormed the airport and asked the minister to contest the presidency in 2023.

“This is an ambush. It’s an Easter ambush and anything done in Easter is spiritual. So I thank you people for meeting us here and saying what is in your mind. Make no mistake about it. It is us in the southern part of Nigeria that the presidency is due for. It’s also true, a truism that of all the zone in the Southern Nigeria that is only the South East zone that has not tasted the presidency.

So, that gives much weight to the demand you are making now. Yes, in PDP, they are considering whether it will be North or South. No, in our own, as gentlemen we have already agreed in South.”

The former governor of Anambra State explained that he waited till after spiritual season of lent to enable him consult God in order not to make mistakes before declaring his intention about the presidency.

“In December 31, 2021 I told a group that after the spiritual season of lent, I will consult with my God and Angel and Arch-Angels. Easter is tomorrow and Easter is a resurrection day. We shall rise with the resurrection and after Easter Monday, I will make a pronouncement on my journey to the presidency.

So we have done the consultation with mortal and immortal people and we are going to speak but make no mistake again, anything to be shared, if it is seven, it should be shared equally. If you collect first, collect second and collect again without others collecting, that’s where the problem comes.”

While commending the group for believing in him, Ngige said “I am inviting you on Tuesday to Alor, in Idemili South, that’s where I am going to unveil my intention for the Presidency.”

On the possibility of the South East aspirants presenting a consensus candidate, Ngige said, “the issue of consensus candidate has not arise now. You have to wait untill when all the declarations have been made. Not only the declaration, the buying of forms, when the forms have been bought and expression of interest. That is the official first step on declaration.

“So, after declaration of interest the people will buy the forms and fill, some people will buy form for some people too but that’s when the question for consensus will arise. So until we get to that bridge, we will cross it.”

Speaking earlier, leader of the group Comr, Tony Chime, said the call for Ngige to contest for the number one post of the country was predicated on his track record in governance.

Chime said that though so many people have queued for the position, however, none of them have meet their criteria for the position other than Ngige.

“We know the good things you have done in the south East and Nigeria in general. Our appeal is that you should come and contest for the President of Nigeria. “We know that there are too many people queueing up for this position, but we have screened them individually and collectively, but we have not found the material we needed, hence we are here to appeal to you our brother, father and son to come and deliver us from the problem we are having in this country.”

Both parties signed the agreement at the end of a conciliation meeting held at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The meeting which was presided over by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, discussed the non-implementation of the Minimum Wage consequential adjustment in the aviation parastatals since 2019 and the non-approval/release of the reviewed conditions of service in the parastatals.

Briefing journalists on the agreements reached, Ngige said, “The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission was requested to issue a service-wide circular informing all organisations in the public and private sectors that they are bound to implement the National Minimum Wage of 2019/consequential adjustments. The Ministry of Aviation is to circulate the circular on the consequential minimum wage adjustment to all the agencies under the supervision of the ministry, requesting them to implement the National Minimum Wage consequential adjustment without any further delay and also clarify that this payment became effective from April 18, 2019, when the Minimum Wage was signed into law. The meeting noted that some categories of workers in the aviation sector attract some peculiar allowances, which are not extended to others and stated that those salary structures that are not captured in the Memorandum of Terms of Settlement signed and dated 9th, 14th, 15th 16th, 17th and 18th October 2019 between the Federal Government and organised labour on the consequential adjustment of the other wages, would attract consequential adjustment as agreed during the negotiations of the Federal Government with the labour centres -The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria in October 2019,”

He said the meeting concluded that all the agencies that had not paid the minimum wage allowances should write to the NSIWC through the Ministry of Aviation for consideration/evaluation.

According to him, the NSIWC promised to process all as soon as possible and consequently, the parties agreed that the consequential adjustment of the Minimum Wage of 2019 based on the approved government templates should be implemented on or before the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Regarding the non-approval of the reviewed conditions of service of the agencies under the aviation ministry, Ngige said they noted that the issue was a protracted one, has been ongoing for about nine years.

He said the meeting charged the management to take more proactive steps to conclude the review of the conditions of service to boost the morale of the workers and retain the best technical staff in the industry.

A statement by the labour ministry spokesman, Mr Charles Akpan, said the meeting agreed that by the end of the first quarter of 2022, the aviation ministry should ensure the approval, release and implementation of the renewed CoS for all the workers in the agencies under the ministry.

“In view of the above, the seven-day ultimatum issued for a planned industrial action effective February 8, 2022, is hereby suspended,” it stated.

The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, who said he had yet to be officially put on notice by ASUU, said the government would not allow the union to embark on the strike threatened by the university lecturers on Monday.

Ngige made this known on Tuesday while appearing on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television

He said, “The strike will not happen. For one, I know that the fund to pay with is there and the Ministry of Education has assured me that by Wednesday they would emanate letters to make sure that the disbursement reaches the accounts of the various universities. We are not paying the unions directly, it will get to the universities’ accounts. I will have a meeting with the Minister of State for Education who is the one in charge of the affairs now because the main minister (Adamu Adamu) is overseas on health grounds. I will evaluate the situation with him and we would make sure that the disbursement goes on.”

ASUU has given the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum over the failure of the government to implement the agreement reached with it.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, disclosed in a statement through his media office on Tuesday, titled, ‘We have kept our promises to ASUU – FG.’

The statement was released in reaction to the claim by the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, that the government had failed to deliver on offers made to the union.

Recall that Ogunyemi blamed the FG for union’s failure to call off it nine-month old strike, stressing that the lecturers would not return to classes until their salary arrears were paid.

But Ngige, revealed that ASUU agreed at their last meeting with the government team on November 27 to call off their 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.

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

The minister stated, “The N40b Earned Academic Allowances have also been processed just as the N30bn revitalisation funds, bringing it to N70bn. 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 re-opened.

“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 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, “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 meeting was held to discuss the removal of petrol subsidy and the increase in electricity tariffs.

While the organised labour was demanding the reversal of the hikes in the price of petrol  and electricity tariffs, the Federal Government pleaded for understanding, saying it could not sustain the fuel subsidy.

Although the government team made presentations on its policies, it didn’t specify how the effects of the hikes in electricity and petroleum products would be alleviated.

Meanwhile, the TUC on Tuesday said the indefinite strike and nationwide protest billed to commence from  Wednesday, September 23, would hold as planned.

The congress had issued a seven-day ultimatum to the government on Monday, threatening to embark on an indefinite strike if the Federal Government  failed to revert to the old electricity tariff and the price of petrol.

Olaleye in response to inquiries by The PUNCH, said in a text message at 6:30 pm on Tuesday said, “The ultimatum still stands; no acceptable explanation was presented. Still in the meeting.”

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, who received the labour leaders to the meeting held at the Bouquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, urged stakeholders to join heads and deliberate how Nigeria can survive the economic challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ngige said the meeting is “a bilateral dialogue between us as Nigerians to consider the state of the economy and events that have necessitated recent increases in electricity tariff and the price of petrol.”

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, urged the labour to show more understanding with the government over its policies.

According to Sylva, Nigeria lost about N1billion daily between 2016 and 2019, as a result of fuel subsidy and N3.74billion daily before 2016.

“There are a lot of issues to discuss; from 10 o’clock we haven’t been able to trash out all the things; I think it will be right to set committees to further deliberate and resolve them,” he said.

But the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, argued that the recent hike in cost of fuel and electricity tariffs further aggravated the economic hardship facing Nigerians.

Wabba said workers who have lost their jobs and sources of income due to COVID-19, are being forced to make further sacrifices.

“Those issues that constitute the price are part of the inefficiency in the system which the government hitherto has been paying and christened subsidy. The government cannot transfer the inefficiency to the people. Nigeria should refine its products,” he said.

“At this point, what do you have on the table to cushion the effects on workers – their families because they have been pushed to the wall and already at the edge. Do you have anything for us? So that we can now say that despite these challenges, this is what I have for Nigerian workers that they can have something that can cushion this effect for them.”

According to him, “Already the value of minimum wage had been eroded. The purchasing power parity, when you compare with all West African countries, we are already on the ground.

“That is the reality. In Ghana, compare their minimum wage with our own; in all West Africa countries, including Niger Republic that has just started refining recently, they are now serving us with products. That is not how we ought to be.”

The meeting ended with no agreement reached, while no date was fixed to continue the talks.

Recall that the doctors embarked on indefinite strike, following their demands to resolve issues bothering on group life insurance for doctors and other health care workers, payment of death-in-service benefit to next of kin/beneficiaries, universal implementation of the medical Residency Training Act in all Federal and state hospitals, immediate review of the hazard allowance of healthcare workers and payment of the COVID-19 inducement allowance.

The President of NARD, Dr Aliyu Sokomba confirmed this on Thursday, adding that the union will review the progress made in talks with the Federal Government in two weeks, Channels TV reports.

The resident doctors and Federal Government had on Wednesday reached an agreement in a bid to end the industrial action.

During the meeting which almost took the entire day, NARD had disclosed that it will liaise with the executive council with a view to calling off the strike.

Both parties had been in talks to resolve the issues which led to NARD declaring an end to the country-wide strike.

The Federal said an additional N8.9 billion has been approved to pay up a large chunk of the June 2020 COVID-19 allowance to all health workers across the nation.

This was revealed by Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment on Wednesday.

Ngige stated that the implementation of the payment of the Special Hazard and Inducement Allowance has been concluded, stressing that this has been cash-backed and the mandate sent to the Central Bank of Nigeria for payments to start with effect from September 9.

According to him, this will bring the total disbursement to about N288 billion.