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| Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, house of Representatives' Minority Caucus Leader. |
The Minority Caucus in the House
of Representatives has rejected the 30 job slots allotted to each
member of the House for their respective local government areas within their
constituencies, in the Federal Government’s 774,000 public jobs scheme.
The Minority Leader of the House
of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, in a statement on Tuesday, described
the allotment of 30 out 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
The caucus demanded for 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) at the detriment and disadvantage of the majority of other Nigerians.
The minority leader of the
House, who also represents Aniocha North/Aniocha South and Oshimili North and
South Federal Constituency of Delta State, insisted that “the 30 persons
allotment to be supervised by a member in each of the local government areas,
cannot by any criteria, said to be a true representation of the people they are
mandated to represent.”
Elumelu stressed that the
774,000 jobs are meant for the people and that the people look up to the
lawmakers as major channels through which they are reached for social and
economic empowerment, a situation, which makes the 30 person, out of the 1,000
per local government, grossly inadequate.
“The 30 person’s 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? What answers do we give Nigerians? How do we ensure that
the programme benefited Nigerians and not enmeshed in allegations of sharp
practices as witnessed in the COVID-19 palliative distribution?
The lawmakers therefore demanded
for more transparency and consultation in the implementation of the 774,000
public works jobs.
The caucus charged President
Muhamamdu Buhari to immediately order a review of the implementation process to
ensure that the targeted citizens benefited from the programme as intended.
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