- Again, 774,000 jobs suffer another postponement
Nigerian government officials will never seize quarrelling whenever the sharing of the proverbial national cake is involved. For obvious reasons, every public official wants to stay at a vantage position on the sharing table to determine who gets what. The result over the years has been chaos in governance, and abandoned projects.
Regrettably, similar ugly scenario is rearing its head in the proposed 774,000 Special Public Works (SPW) programme, and we urge the stakeholders to apply the brake, and save the programme.
Ever since the programme was mooted, it has been enmeshed in controversy, as government officials struggle over who will be in charge or who will get what. The result has been an endless deferment of the starting date of the programme. Last week, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, announced that the programme will start on January 5, 2021, and last for three months. Each of the participants will be paid N20,000 monthly.
Such a programme is needed to cushion the effect of recession on the unemployed Nigerians. As recession bites harder, unemployment rate will keep ballooning, so the SPW will at least provide succour for 774,000 unemployed Nigerians. But we are unhappy that after the imbroglio between the senate and the Minister of State for Labour, the programme is facing more hiccups, as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the minister disagree over who will implement the programme.
For us, while the minister has the responsibility for policy formulation and supervision of the programme, the NDE is best suited to actually implement the programme. With offices in the states of the federation, and a bureaucracy drawing salary from the federation account, it is uneconomical to establish another body to oversee the implementation of the programme. Unfortunately, the sacked Director- General of the NDE was accused of insubordination by the minister and has been relieved of his position, on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Of course, the erstwhile director-general held his position at the pleasure of the president, and had no reason to pander to the legislators at the detriment of lawful instructions of the minister, as alleged. But, having relieved the NDE boss of his responsibility, the implementation of the project should never be taken away from the directorate, which is lawfully suited for such project, instead of an ad hoc committee by whatever name called. To add to the challenges facing the programme, the House of Representatives has ordered its suspension and the recall of the sacked NDE boss.
While the House has the prerogative to pass a motion for the recall of the sacked DG, it is not in a position to enforce his recall. Indeed, unless the DG had petitioned the House over unfair treatment, it should not dabble into what is the responsibility of the executive branch of government. But, the House has raised a fundamental issue, which bothers on annual budgeting cycle. With the programme shifted to start from January 5, 2021, which is a new financial year, can it be implemented with funds warehoused from the 2020 budget?
Ordinarily, at the end of every financial year, unutilised funds are returned to the treasury, unless the appropriating authority approves the extension of the budgetary period. So, will the executive breach any financial regulation, if the programme is implemented in 2021, with budgetary allocation made in 2020, without the approval of the National assembly?
We urge the ministry, the National Assembly and the NDE to harmonise their positions to ensure the implementation of the programme in the overall interest of unemployed Nigerians, who will benefit from it
