Keyamo Rules Out Secret Meeting With Legislators!

By Chuks Ekpeneru

Ahead of his rescheduled appearance before the joint National Assembly Joint Committees on Labour, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has vowed not to discuss anything in secret with the lawmakers.

In a statement released ahead of the hearing, Keyamo said that he decided to lay out in written form his presentation to the legislators to avoid any further rancor especially given what he alleged as the behind the scene move by the chairman of the House Committee on Labour, Rep. Muhammad Ali Wudil to control the programe.

Keyamo had engaged the legislators in an argument over their insistence on probing the implementation of the programme saying that their oversight did not extend to giving a direction on the execution of the programme.

Keyamo had walked out on the legislators when they could not come to an agreement.

However, responding to a fresh invitation from the joint committee to resolve the stalemate, the minister in a preface to his presentation ahead of the hearing cautioned that he would not go into any secret meeting with the lawmakers.

In a letter dated Monday, July 6, 2020 addressed to the Joint Committee of the National Assembly on Labour, Employment and Productivity, Keyamo commended them for inviting him for another Interactive Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, July 7, 2020.

He, however, said he decided to make a written submission on issues surrounding the Programme to the Joint Committee ahead of my appearance this time for the following reasons:

 “To properly lay before the Joint Committee and the Nigerian people in writing the modus operandi for executing this Programme as it is the responsibility of my office to supervise the preparation and execution of this Programme by the clear directives of Mr. President conveyed on the 6th of May, 2020.

 “To help the Distinguished Senators, Honourable Members and the Nigeria people to narrow down the issues at stake before the said interaction.

 “To have the opportunity to fully express myself in advance as time and circumstances may not allow me to fully express myself before the Joint Committee. 

“This is because, on Friday, July 3, 2020, in a programme called HARD COPY on Channels Television, the Chairman of the House Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, Honourable Muhammad Ali Wudil have already publicly accused me of flouting certain unknown rules in arriving at the States’ Selection Committees.

“Consequently, I may not be able to get a fair hearing from him, especially as he is the one that has been at the forefront of insisting on controlling and dictating the execution of this programme behind the scene. He also made frantic efforts to stop the inauguration of the States’ Selection Committees through series of phone calls to me.

“It is also to avoid a situation where any attempt to fully express myself during the session or to call in aid provisions of the law and the Constitution as the basis of some of my actions so far may be misinterpreted as an affront to the Joint Committee.

“I would rather express those thoughts here and keep a dignified silence if some of those issues become points of contention again. This is because as a trained lawyer and a member of the Inner Bar (a Senior Advocate of Nigeria), and having sworn to uphold the Constitution as a public officer, I would be doing a great disservice to my primary constituency (the legal profession) and to my God-given conscience if I am made to concede issues that I know are constitutionally, legally and morally wrong just to let “things go on”.

 “Finally, because the main purpose of your powers of investigation under section 88 of the 1999 Constitution is to “expose corruption, inefficiency and waste”, it is important we lay bare our plans for the Programme publicly. “Exposure”, to my mind, will require a public inquiry, not a private one, if we must keep strictly to the provisions of the Constitution.

“Therefore, my writing in advance will absolve me of any accusation of impertinence as I most respectfully regret to say that I would be unable to say anything outside of these submissions in any closed-door session.”

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