The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has given the go-ahead for South-East agitations to be addressed through dialogue.
Ngige, who met with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Sunday, disclosed this while addressing State House correspondents shortly after the meeting.
This followed heightened insecurity in the zone occasioned by attacks on public infrastructures, including security formations and INEC offices, in the past few months.
Although security forces have accused the Eastern Security Network (ESN) run by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as being behind the attacks, the separatist group has vehemently refuted the claims.
However, IPOB and some other groups have continued to push for the creation of Biafra Republic, citing marginalisation of the South-East zone in the Nigerian polity.
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Ngige told the media that the Federal Government has begun to work out some measures to give the South-East a sense of belonging in Nigeria.
“We also looked at the security situation, especially in my zone, the south-east, and we made some proposals to him based on the yearnings on the people, and what the government also wants.
“We are following up with dialogue, which at the end of the day, is what will happen. We have to talk; we have to discuss. Part of the discussion starts tomorrow. The minister of defence, minister of interior, and service chiefs were in Enugu last Saturday and we’re going to do follow-up meetings on that.
“We briefed him and he accepted that dialogue is the way to go in all this. Like I keep on saying, there is a very thin line between perception and reality. So, certain things will be done, at least to assuage the feelings of the people in the area, and make them not feel unwanted,” Ngige said.
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