Members of the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives have rejected the slots allocated to lawmakers in the House for the planned recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians by the Federal Government in its special public works programme.
According to the Minority House Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, the 30 slots per allocated to each lawmaker out of 1,000 possible spaces was too small. In a Tuesday statement, the minority leader said the lawmakers deserve more slots because they are the true representatives of the people.
Although lawmakers and the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, had clashed regarding jurisdiction over the employment scheme, political office holders were offered 15% of the job slots.
According to Dr. Innocent Barikor who is the Chairman of the Extended Special Public Works Selection Committee in Rivers State; “The directive given to us is that every state governor has 40 slots of the job in each LGA; serving senators have 30 each; members of House of Representative have 25 slots; a minister has 30 slots in every LGA in his state of origin.”
The Lawmakers however allege that the formula being used to allocate the job slots is in favour of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) while ordinary Nigerians are at a disadvantage.
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Hon. Elumelu said the 30 slots allocated to members of the national assembly is not a true representation of the people they are elected to represent.
The lawmaker said; “The 30 persons allotment per local government for lawmakers is grossly unfair, inadequate and unacceptable to Nigerians. As the representatives of the people, we are closer to them and they directly interact with us, irrespective of religion, class and political affiliations.
“All Nigerians living in our constituencies are our constituents, irrespective of political leanings. We have a responsibility to protect their interests at all times. As such lawmakers ought to have been carried along on the allotment.
“Moreover, the questions are, what criteria is being used in the job allotments? Given the 30 persons out of the 1000 per local government area allotted to federal lawmakers, what happens to the remaining 970? What answers do we give Nigerians? How do we ensure that the program benefited Nigerians and not enmeshed in allegations of sharp practices as witnessed in the COVID-19 palliative distribution?”
The Minority caucus urged President Muhammadu Buhari to order a review of the implementation process to ensure that the people really benefit from the program.
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