Ngige Meets Buhari, Hints On FG’s ‘Dialogue’ With IPOB, Others

 

By James Orji

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr  Chris Ngige may have succeeded in changing President Muhammadu Buhari’s mind on the use of force to quell the spate of insecurity in the south east.

After meeting the president alongside the Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari on Sunday in Aso Villa, Abuja, the minister said the president has now agreed to dialogue with aggrieved groups from the region on how to restore peace.

The minister spoke barely hours after state governors from the south it said the region wants to remain in Nigeria, contrary to agitation for secession by IPOB elements.

Critics of the government said Ngige needs to disclose whether the president will meet with the Nnamdi Kanu led IPOB, the major protagonist in the violence that has rocked the zone for months.

According to analysts, it will be difficult to achieve peace in the south east if IPOB is left out in the proposed dialogue.

There have been attacks on government buildings across the south-east, leading to the killing of several security operatives. The government blamed IPOB for the violence, even though the group denied the allegation.

President Buhari had, last week, said in an interview with Arise TV that the south east is a dot in a circle in Nigeria, and had ordered security forces to threat secessionists IPOB and their militant arm, Eastern Security Network, ESN, ‘ in the language they will understand’.

But after meeting the president yesterday,  the minister said Buhari has accepted the adoption of dialogue to address agitations in the south-east.

The minister said the president does not want a situation where the east do not “feel unwanted” in Nigeria, and that Buhari has now agreed to look at the issues with a second eye.

Ngige said “We also looked at the security situation, especially in my zone, the south-east, and we made some proposals to him based on the yearnings on the people, and what the government also wants,” the minister said.

“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. Part of the discussion starts tomorrow. The minister of defence, minister of interior, and service chiefs were in Enugu last Saturday and we’re going to do follow-up meetings on that.

“We briefed him and he accepted that dialogue is the way to go in all this. Like I keep on saying, there is a very thin line between perception and reality. So, certain things will be done, at least to assuage the feelings of the people in the area, and make them not feel unwanted.”