“So, I appeal to all of you, forget this thing that you say you will go and block the gate and you will not obey court order. I appeal to all of you, senior staff, management staff and the junior staff, nobody will sit to say you are not entitled to get your entitlement. Except that person is an extremist.
“I appeal to all of you to have a reconsideration and allow peace to reign for the development of the FCT”.
The tough-talking minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) before now, Nyeson Wike made the appeals to workers today, December 29 at an official function where he handed over some state-of-the-art Ambulance buses to hospitals in the capital city. The minister had threatened to dismiss workers who failed to return to work today after the judgment of the National Industrial Court yesterday.
The Minister insisted that his administration had reasonably met the demands of the workers, on the umbrella of Joint Union Action Committee, accusing some people with political interests, of hijacking the labour struggle to sabotage the efforts of government.
He assured the grieving workers that he is ready to dialogue to ensure industrial harmony.
“To workers and some of us who are management staff, who sabotage the efforts of government, I have said that the whole essence is to have dialogue. Where there are problems, you sit down and say these problems, I can solve this now, leave this for me tomorrow and I will be able to do it tomorrow.
“If you make a request or a demand for five items for example and the government says okay, we can take up three items and thereafter, we take up the other two items, if you are really sincere, if there is no objective behind it, there is no way you will not accept. But when you leave it and begin to join issues with us as politicians, we will of course treat you as politicians,
“I can’t sit here as a Minister and I see a political opponent trying to run the administration down using some people. No government will shut its eyes and allow that to happen. This society is not a lawless society”.
The Minister said that the government cannot commit its entire resources to workers welfare because it also needs to fund the ongoing massive infrastructure development across the capital territory.
