The Honourable Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo, in a press briefing on the extended Special Public Works Program which is approved by President Mohammadu Buhari to engage 1000 youths from each of the 774 Local Governments of the Federation, disclosed that he has established State Selection Committee that would undertake the selection of the beneficiaries of the program.
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) had on the 5th of May, 2020 activated a registration portal on their official website but was withdrawn in less than 24hour, and issued a disclaimer that it has not given approval for such process.
Mr Keyamo furthered that the process of selection of the beneficiaries would be a local affair and should not to be conducted in a room in Abuja hence the establishment of the State Selection Committee.
Having reviewed all the recommendations of this Inter-ministerial Committee, I believe that the selection of the beneficiaries and projects should be a local affair and not be done from a room in Abuja. Consequently, in line with Section 16(1) of the N.D.E Act, I have decided to constitute special committees in each State of the Federation for the purpose of deliberating, selecting and recommending to my office the names of the 1,000 persons from each of the Local Government Areas in the States to be engaged for this programme. The Committees would also identify the projects to be executed in those L.G.As.
These special committees would be known as the State Selection Committees of the Special Public Works (SPW). It shall be a 20-member Committee comprising of the following persons:
(1) A Chairman and Vice-Chairman who shall be indigenes of that State or who are ordinarily resident in that State.
(2) The State Co-ordinator of the N.D.E of that State who will be the Secretary.
(3) One representative of the Governor of that State.
(4) The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria of that State or his representative/nominee.
(5) The State Chairman of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs or his representative/nominee.
(6) The State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers or his representative/nominee.
(7) The market woman leader in that State
(8) Three persons (one from each Senatorial District) representing the traditional institutions in that State. (9) Two persons (one male and one female) from each of the Senatorial Districts of the State (that is six persons) representing prominent youth organisations in those States.
(10) A representative of a prominent Civil Society Organisation of that State.
(11) Two persons representing some peculiar interests in those States.
The Special Public Works program (SPW) is a 3-month paid program initiated by the President Mohammadu Buhari administration which will last from October to December, 2020. The program is aimed at reducing the increasing youth unemployment in the country and ensuring social safety among the youths. No skill or formal education is required in the program.
The beneficiaries of the program will be engaged in sweeping streets, clearing gutters and market squares for a period of 3 months basically during the non-farming seasons.
The Minister for State noted that he would not be unmindful of politics within the States and as such has enacted measures to ensure that political parties would not hijack the selection process.
Let me state clearly that all members of the State Selection Committees would not be persons holding any official position in any of the registered political parties. If any of those listed also doubles as an official of any political party, then the State Chairman of the Selection Committee of the SPW shall fill that position with another person representing that interest. We have stated this in order to make this process as apolitical as possible.
However, we are not unmindful of the fact that political office holders are also representatives of the people. We cannot also totally ignore them in the selection process. We are only trying to guard against some of us hijacking the process solely to service our political interests.
Mr Keyamo also noted that some banks have been selected to open bank accounts for the beneficiaries who would be selected and the data collected would be considered for the purposes relating to employment and Social survey.
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