The Federal Government has described as unacceptable the practice of the states’ selection committees of the Special Works Programme (SPW), considering only indigenes of the state in their selection for the 774,000 jobs.
This clarification was made on behalf of the Federal Government by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, in a tweet post on Saturday, July 25, 2020, through his official twitter handle.
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The Minister while asking the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) coordinators to take note, instructed that every resident of the state irrespective of their tribes are qualified to participate in the programme as every Nigerian must benefit.
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Keyamo in his tweet post said, ‘’We understand some States’ Selection Committees are considering only indigenes for the 774,000 jobs. That’s unacceptable. Anyone who is resident in any Local Government Area in the country, irrespective of tribe, is qualified. It’s one country in which we all live. The NDE coordinators should note.’’
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We understand some States’ Selection Committees are considering only indigenes for the 774,000 jobs. That’s unacceptable. Anyone who is resident in any LGA in the country, irrespective of tribe, is qualified. It’s one country in which we all live. The NDE coordinators should note
— Festus Keyamo, SAN (@fkeyamo) July 25, 2020
The Special Works Programme has been a source of disagreement between the Festus Keyamo, who has the presidential mandate to supervise the programme and members of the National Assembly over its implementation.
Nairametrics had reported that the disagreement made the National Assembly call for the suspension of the programme.
Despite the opposition from the legislature, the Federal Government went ahead to formally kick start the programme with the inauguration of the State Selection Committees in 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory.
The programme which is coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment is part of the federal government’s intervention programmes and fiscal stimulus measures to help cushion the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Nigerians. The selection committees in various states were mandated to select 1,000 participants from each local government.
