774,000 jobs: Public Works scheme remain suspended — Lawan

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has reiterated the position of the National Assembly suspending the planned recruitment of 774,000 persons for Special Public Works Programme.

The federal government had unveiled the scheme to employ 1,000 persons from each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

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The initiative will start October 1 and each beneficiary will be paid N20,000 monthly to carry out public works.

The Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Mr Festus Keyamo, had last Tuesday, engaged in a shouting match with members of National Assembly joint committees on Labour over the membership of the 20-man selection committee.

Consequently, the legislature asked the federal government to halt the programme pending when it is properly briefed on implementation modalities.

Lawan, during an interactive session with journalists on Monday in Abuja, said the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), where the programme is domiciled, and the labour ministry must brief the National Assembly on the modality for the implementation before going ahead.

Lawan said “the National Assembly is saying that programme remain suspended until the executive arm of government comes to explain how they will implement that programme across the states.

“We passed the N52bn and somebody should explain to us how the process of selecting the steering selection committee was done, who were the stakeholders, how were they identified and nominated, and the beneficiaries, how are they going to be selected, how do we ensure the success of the programme?”

Lawan explained that NDE, not the labour ministry, is empowered and has the capacity to implement the programme.

“The ministry doesn’t have the capacity to implement the programme. The NDE has the capacity, and we insist only NDE will implement this programme,” he added.