The House of Representatives and the Senate have asked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to remove the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, from supervising the recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians for Federal Government’s Special Public Works.Both the Senate and the House on Tuesday at their separate plenaries said the National Directorate of Employment should take over the exercise, while the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, should supervise in line with the NDE Act. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Opeyemi Bamidele, brought the motion through a point of order, to the red chamber.He said Keyamo erred in law by taking over an assignment which was constitutionally assigned to the NDE through the Revised 2020 Appropriation Act.He said the federal parliament approved the sum of N52bn for the NDE to execute the exercise, but lamented that the labour ministry, through Keyamo, had hijacked it.Bamidele said, “While recognising the supervisory role of the labour ministry, the Senate notes the need for it in respect of this programme.“We will hold the NDE responsible both for the implementation of the programme and surrendering of accounts for money appropriated by the programme by the National Assembly.“The revised Appropriation Act is a law binding on all arms of governments.”The Senate subsequently resolved that the NDE should take full charge of the implementation, while the ministry would play a supervisory role.The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said the NDE remained the agency recognised to implement the programme. He said, “The Senate will perform its roles by monitoring its implementation very closely.”Spokesperson for the Senate, Ajibola Basiru, said the Appropriation Act should be obeyed.He said, “The Appropriation Act, in making provision for N52bn for the public works, specifically puts it under NDE. There is a world of difference between an agency and a ministerial body.“NDE, to whom the budget was assigned to by law, is not just a draft apartment of government, it was set up to have perpetual succession and corporate existence.“By section 3, it set up a board of management, a board of management comprises the minister in charge of employment, productivity as chairman, but 13 other members statutory provided for.“What that is saying is that the NDE is not a sine qua non to the Ministry of Employment and Productivity and they are not at a par.“What Senate is insisting is that it is not by accident that the budget was domiciled in the NDE and not the main ministry.“In carrying out the budget, in order not to breach the law, the executive must comply with the terms of this.”
The spokesperson added that since Buhari had intervened, “we are not insisting on the suspension of the programme, but we are insisting that the legality and the constitutionality of the programme must be followed to the letter.
