Ngige May Lose Job Over Tinubu; APC Asks The Minister To Resign From Office

By Adesina Soyooye

Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister for Labour and Productivity, is in trouble. He may be forced to resign his position as a Minister if he does not do an about- turn, and/or clarify his statement on who he would vote for in the forthcoming Presidential election.

Ngige’s trouble stems from the Presidential candidate of his Party, the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu. The Party is not sure where the Minister stands on the candidacy of Tinubu and that of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.

Based on that, a member of APC’s National Working Committee, NWC, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, has asked Ngige to either campaign publicly for Tinubu or resign as a Minister under an APC Government.

Ngige earned the trouble and threat to his office all by himself. Answering a mischievous question on National Television a couple of days ago on who he will vote for, between Tinubu and Obi, in the 2023 Presidential election, Ngige shot himself on the foot. He said he had not yet made up his mind who to vote for between the two men. And described both Obi and Tinubu as his friends. The media fed on that.

Ngige: “My choice will be in the ballot box. On the day of ballot, I will make my choice. I won’t tell Nigerians what I will do secretly.”

It is not known if Ngige was joking or not. But that stung. He has not denied the various interpretations given to it by the Media. And now, he is trouble.  Not a few APC members see Ngige’s response to that question as a betrayal. They see it as anti-party.

Tackling Minister Ngige,  Ajaka told him not to play “hide and seek.”  In a statement on Saturday, Ajaka said: “The Presidential Primary election has long ended, and the Party has settled for the choice of Senator Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, hence all the Party leaders should put their ambitions behind them, for now, to deliver the Party’s Presidential ticket.

“It is expected of a serving Minister in an APC Government to be a trusted apostle of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Presidency in 2023, who along other Party leaders, laboured to ensure the enthroment of the same Government in 2015 which they are now serving in.

“Chief Ngige and other APC appointees, especially, in the Federal Cabinet, should not forget in a hurry that they are holding unto the Party’s mandate, hence the need to protect it with whatever it requires. But if they can no longer protect the interest of the APC in public, or that of our Presidential candidate, I think the honorable thing to do is to step aside from the Government formed by the APC.

“With this type of public comments from a sitting Minister in a ruling Party who cannot declare on National Television his choice of Presidential candidate, how on earth is the Party expected to fare in the forthcoming Presidential election?”

Ajaka said such comments as Ngige’s could generate bad blood in the Party, and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to call his Cabinet members to order.

Like Obi, Ngige hails from Anambra State. He was thrown out of office by the Supreme Court, in favour of Obi, after three years in office. Thus Ngige bears the badge of a three-year illegal Governor.