“If the Minister refuses, we will suspend him from the party. We must return to internal discipline. For me, it is the height of mischief for any Minister, 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."
Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said the party will not hesitate to expel Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Productivity, if he fails to constitute and inaugurate board members for federal agencies’ parastatals under his ministry.
Oshiomhole said this on Monday while addressing journalists in Abuja.
“If the Minister refuses, we will suspend him from the party. We must return to internal discipline. For me, it is the height of mischief for any Minister, you cannot purport to be an Honourable Minister and you act dishonourably. Nobody is greater than the party," Oshiomhole said.
“If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. They have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly disposition. 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. No Minister is above the party. It is absolutely illegal for a Minister in a democracy to prey on the powers of the board. The laws establishing those institutions are clear. The boards have procedures to follow.
“When a Minister sits in his office to award a contract that didn’t go through boards, this is clearly an abuse of office.
“I am convinced that what they are doing is not with the endorsement of Mr. President. I tell them it is the same authority that appoints these people. It is the same green pen that made them Ministers that appointed these boards that they are refusing to swear in. We have respect for Ministers but only to the extent that they recognise that they are a product of a political party. They either comply or we will expel them from the party.”
Oshiomhole had written to Ngige asking him to inaugurate all board members appointed under his Ministry but Ngige replied, saying he had inaugurated three boards in the ministry and wasn't in a hurry to inaugurate that of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) because of an alleged N40 billion corruption scandal by the former board.