The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives has described the 30-job slot allotted to each member of the House for their respective local government areas, in the recruitment exercise for the Federal Government’s Public Works Scheme as unacceptable.
The Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu, made the lawmakers position known in a statement issued on Tuesday, in Abuja.
According to him, the allotment of 30 out of the 1000 slots per local government to each member of the House is “grossly unfair and unacceptable by Nigerians and the lawmakers who are the true representatives of the people.”
The statement titled ‘774, 000 Jobs: Reps Minority Caucus Rejects 30 Slots for Members,’ alleged that the formula used in allocating the slots was in favour of “certain interests in the ruling All Progressives Congress at the detriment and disadvantage of majority of Nigerians.”
Elumelu 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.”
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He observed that the 774,000 jobs were meant for the people and that the people look up to the lawmakers as major channels through which they are reached for social-economic empowerment.
The statement read in part: “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 is being used in the job allotments? Given the 30 persons out of the 1000 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 program benefited Nigerians and not enmeshed in allegations of sharp practices as witnessed in the COVID-19 palliative distribution?”
The caucus, while demanding more transparency and consultation in the implementation of the 774,000 public works jobs urged President Muhamamdu Buhari to “immediately order a review of the implementation process to ensure that the targeted citizens benefited from the program as intended.”
