President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the sack of Dr Nasiru Mohammed Ladan Argungu as the Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) with effect from December 7, 2020.
This development was confirmed through a press statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020.
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According to a report from News Agency of Nigeria, Garba Shehu revealed that the directive on the sack of NDE DG was given on Friday, December 4, 2020, but took effect from Monday, December 7, 2020.
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The statement pointed out that the Supervising Minister of the Agency, the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, had been directed to nominate an Acting Director-General from amongst the most Senior Directors to take over from Dr Argungu until a substantive DG got appointed by the President.
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Shehu also said that the nomination of the Acting Director-General should be based on competence and seniority in service.
However, the presidency did not give any specific reason for the sacking of the NDE boss.
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What you should know
- It can be recalled that Nasir Ladan had been at loggerheads with the supervising minister for his agency over the implementation of the Federal Government’s Special Works Programme.
- Though the President had issued a directive authorising Festus Keyamo to go ahead with the execution of the programme, despite his disagreement with members of the national assembly who had suspended it, the DG was alleged to have made an arrangement with the federal legislators to proceed with alternative plans on the implementation of the programme.
- The national assembly committees had said that they had approved the programme, expected to see to the employment of 774,000 across the country, and domiciled in NDE. They, however, insisted that Keyamo should not superintend it.
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