Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment says President Muhammadu Buhari has accepted that dialogue is the way to go in resolving the situation in the South-East and has, therefore, caused a series of talks to commence.
Ngige disclosed this after a meeting with the president at the presidential villa, Abuja on Friday.
He was joined at the meeting, in which labour crisis was also discussed, by the chief of staff to the president, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
Ngige said: “We also looked at the security situation, especially in my zone, the Southeast and we made some proposal to him, based on the yearnings of the people, and what the government also wants.
“And 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. And part of the discussion starts also tomorrow (Saturday). The Minister of Defence, Minister of Interior and the Service Chiefs were in Enugu earlier last Saturday and we are going to do follow-up meetings on that again starting from tomorrow.
“We briefed him and he accepted that dialogue is the way to go in all these. Like I keep on saying there is a very thin line between perception and reality. So, certain things should be done, at least to assuage the feelings of the people in the area and make them not to feel unwanted so that area was also discussed.”
