The Minister of Employment Labour and Productivity, Senate Chris Ngige, on Tuesday apologized to the National Assembly and apologised over the recent alteration between the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo and a joint committee of the National Assembly that was carrying out their over-sight function on the ministry.
Keyamo had disagreed with the joint committee on the processes and modalities for implementing the Special Public Works programme of the Federal Government meant to hire 774,000 youths across Nigeria.
The beneficiaries are expected to be paid N20,000.00 per month from October to December 2020.
Ngige tendered the apology when he paid a courtesy call on the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in Abuja.
Keyamo and other top officials of the Ministry were part of the Minister’s entourage.
Ngige said that the position canvassed by Keyamo in his widely circulated letter on Monday is not sacrosanct.
Lawan insisted that all previous actions already taken on the programme by Keyamo are “null and void.”
He said the process of recruiting the 774,000 Nigerians for the programme must start afresh while stressing the right of the National Assembly to demand and know the processes and modalities for implementing the programme.
He added that the programme is strictly to be implemented by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and vowed that the National Assembly would resist any attempt for the Ministry to hijack it.
