There are reports that the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Productivity would not be backing down in its plans to have Festus Keyamo supervise the recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians for the Special Public Works programme.
The Punch Newspaper reported that the ministry has therefore rejected a recent resolution by the both chambers of the national assembly asking the minister of state to remove himself from managing the programme, directing instead that the process be supervised by the National Directorate of Employment.
The newspaper quoted the ministry’s Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, Charles Akpan, as reporting that the resolution of the national assembly would not be affecting its earlier arrangement, telling Punch that “nothing has changed.”
The Senate and the House of Representatives, had at their separate sessions on Tuesday, asked the president Muhammadu Buhari to stop Keyamo from supervising the recruitment exercise.
The national assembly had in June sent Keyamo away from the chamber for raising his voice against the legislators after a disagreement on how the scheme initiated by the presidency to support Nigerians in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic would be managed.
The legislators announced in June that they had stopped the planned recruitment on the grounds that Keyamo had hijacked it from the National Directorate of Employment.
But despite the national assembly’s directive, Keyamo, on July 14, said he had got the approval of the President to supervise the recruitment forcing the senate president, Ahmed Lawan and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila to meet with the president to further discuss the matter.
The current position of the ministry would further complicate the relationship between the legislators and the executives. Many Nigerians- especially those hoping to profit from the recruitment exercise- would be hoping for a speedy resolution of the dispute.
