The President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan is presently at a meeting with the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige and his Minister of State, Festus Keyamo.
At the meeting, Ngige has apologised to the National Assembly over the shouting match between Keyamo and the Lawmakers last week.
Senator Ngige who pleaded that the National Assembly should forgive his Minister of State stressed the need for the wrong to be put aside and allow for them to work together.
According to him “We regret what has happened…we apologise on behalf of the ministry.
“…I hope that you can forgive and forget and move forward…,” he said.
Recall that there was a shouting match between the Senators, members of the House of Representatives and the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Festus Keyamo over the National Directorate of Employment planned employment of 774, 000 Nigerians in the Special Public Works Programme 2020.
The National Assembly had in the 2020 budget appropriated N52 billion for the Special Public Works Programme aimed at employing 774,000 citizens, a thousand from each of the 774 local government areas in the country.
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), according to the lawmakers, is meant to implement the recruitment under a special works programme.
They had accused Mr Keyamo of hijacking the programme from the NDE. The minister hit back, saying they were the ones trying to take over the project.
The committee has since demanded that the programme be suspended until the modalities for the exercise have been explained to the lawmakers.
It also mandated its Committees on Labour and Employment to invite Mr Ngige and other relevant officials of the ministry to brief the joint committee on the modalities for the implementation of the programme.