Africa Press-Nigeria:
The 774,000 Special Works Project of the federal government is still generating controversies in the polity, as the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives yesterday rejected government’s offer of 30 job slots for constituents of each member of the House.
Recall that each of the 774 local government areas in the country is to benefit 1,000 slots of the special job project, from which each beneficiary will earn N20,000 monthly.
Control of the project had been a bone of contention between the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, who was originally put in charge of the project by President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly which desired control.
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu, in a statement yesterday, described the allotment of 30 of the 1000 slots per local government, “as grossly unfair and unacceptable by Nigerians and the lawmakers, who are the true representatives of the people.”
He demanded “more transparency and a review of the criteria being used for the allotment, which is alleged to favour certain interests in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to the detriment and disadvantage of majority of other Nigerians.”
Elumelu, who represents Aniocha North/Aniocha South and Oshimili North and South Federal Constituency of Delta State, insisted that the 30 slots allotment to be supervised by a member in each of the local government areas, could not by any criteria be said to be true representation of the people they were mandated to represent.
He noted that the 774,000 jobs were meant for the people and that the people looked up to the lawmakers as major channels through which they would be reached for social and economic empowerment, a situation, which makes the 30 person of the 1000 per local government grossly inadequate.
‘Grossly unfair, unacceptable’
Elumelu 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 are being used in the job allotments? Given the 30 persons out of the 1,000 per local government area allotted to federal lawmakers, what happens to the remaining 970?
