Buhari had, in a December 8, 2020 statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, directed the removal of Argungu as the DG, NDE with effect from Monday, December 7th, 2020.
Though Shehu gave no reason for the sack, the NDE DG had been at loggerhead with his supervisory Minister, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo over the implementation of federal government’s special works programme, which aims to recruit 1000 people in each of the 774 local government areas.
The Red Chamber, accordingly, asked the president to order an investigation into the causes of the frosty relationship between Dr. Argungu and Keyamo and the impact of such on the implementation of the programme.
The Senate resolutions followed a motion by Senator Hassan Hadejia (APC – Jigawa North East), who noted that while it is within the power of the President to hire and fire such caliber of appointees, his directive on the removal of Dr. Argungu gave room for speculations in many quarters that “some unpatriotic people are scheming to undermine and disrupt the implementation of the laudable Federal Government’s Special Works Programme.”
“This is also capable of creating needless and avoidable leadership crisis at the NDE at this critical time that the Federal Government intends to leverage on the NDE to address the issues of unemployment and youth empowerment in the country,” he said.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said that the National Assembly will continue to support the Social Intervention Programmes of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“The NDE successfully implemented a pilot Programme in six states under the leadership of the DG, and if there are rifts between the DG and his Ministers, I think we should look at the benefits of getting this Programme implemented and resolve the issues that may characterize the relationship,” he said.
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