774,000 special jobs: Suspend programme for now – Reps tell FG

• …insist Kayemo must use NDE list
• …ask Finance Minister to withhold funds

By Chhristiana Ekpa

House of Representatives on Tuesday mandated the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Kayemo to stop with immediate effect all processes leading to the commencement of the 774,000 special jobs in the public works programme billed to start off January 5, 2021.
The House also mandated the Minister of Finance, Zanaib Ahmed not to release funds for the programme until all issues related to non compliance to due process were resolved.
The chief reason for the resolution reached at the plenary after the consideration and adoption of a motion by Hon. Olajide Olatubosun from Oyo State was that the selection committee at the States level abandoned the list earlier complied by the National Directorate of Employment, NDE for their own.
The House therefore resolved that the list of beneficiaries compiled by the NDE in each state must be used as a basis of selection.
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had in October 2019 approved the pilot programme of the special works for NDE to implement in 8 states of the Federation.
The pilot programme was implemented in 5 Local Government Areas in each of the eight states namely Adamawa, Bomo, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Jigawa, Katsina and Kwara.
Moving the motion however, Olatubusun said “The House is concerned that the state selection committees in most states of the Federation bypassed and ignored the list of beneficiaries compiled by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and forwarded a separate list of purported beneficiaries to the office of the Minister of state for labour.
“The House is greatly concerned that most Nigerians that have submitted their names to the NDE offices in their respective states have been unjustly excluded from this programme which the Minister of State for labour announced will start on January 5, 2021.