The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday, threatened to suspend the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, from the party if he failed to inaugurate the board members of federal agencies and parastatals under his ministry.
Oshiomhole handed down the threat in an interview with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the APC under his leadership would not continue to tolerate ministers who abuse their office and disrespect President Muhammadu Buhari by refusing to carry out his orders.
Ngige had faulted on the constitution and inauguration of the board members of federal agencies and parastatals under his ministry.
The APC chairman, in a letter, had given the labour minister one week within which to constitute the board of the parastatals and agencies under his ministry.
The parastatals and agencies are the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, National Directorate of Employment, National Productivity Centre, and Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour Studies.
But, Ngige, in his reply, explained why he would not constitute the Board of NSITF within the one week ultimatum given by Oshiomhole.
He expressed disbelief that such a letter could emanate from the APC chairman.
Oshiomhole had stated that “we must return to internal discipline. You cannot purport to be an honourable minister and you act dishonourably. Nobody is greater than the party.
“If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party.
“And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep in his cabinet people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers.
“There are no independent candidates in our system. Nobody, I emphasise, no minister is above the party and they have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly disposition.”
Oshiomhole said it was the same “green pen” that made them ministers that also appointed the board members that they are refusing to inaugurate.
He said it was illegal for a minister in a democracy to subvert the powers of the boards because the laws establishing the institutions are clear.
He added, “When a minister sits in his office to appropriate the powers of the board in a democracy — not in a dictatorship — and award contracts that didn’t go though boards, those are clear abuse of office for which they are liable.
“I am convinced that what they are doing is not with the endorsement of Mr. President. Over the period, they have tried to drop the President’s name, but I tell them it is the same authority that appointed these people.
“So, we are informing them that it is either they comply with the President’s instructions or they comply with the party’s position or they go and administer outside the government.
“We have respect for ministers, but only to the extent that they recognise that they are products of a political party and we are not negotiating that.
“If they did that in the past, under our leadership we will not tolerate it.
“They either comply or we will expel them from the party.
“When we expel them, we will find out how a government can keep a rebel in the cabinet.
“There is no question about that.”
