How traditional rulers, lawmakers, others shared 774,000 Buhari’s jobs

Nigerians are in for another drama as the 774,000 public works jobs initiated by the Federal Government to create 1000 jobs in all the local government in the country may have been finally hijacked by politicians and highly placed Nigerians.

According to information gathered, Senators, House of Representatives members, traditional rulers as well as governors and ministers have been allocated various numbers of slots.

Throwing more light on the sharing formula, Chairman of the Extended Special Public Work Selection Committee in Rivers State, Dr. Innocent Barikor, every state governor has 40 slots of the job in each LGA; serving Senators have 30 each, members of House of Representative have 25 slots; a minister has 30 slots in every LGA in his state of origin.

Kaduna State Chairman of the Selection Committee, Hajiya Hafsat Baba, said: “Thirteen per cent of the total number allocated to Kaduna is being shared among the elected and appointed political office holders from the state, while the eighty-seven per cent will be given to the people through a random selection committee.”

Fifty slots were allocated to the member representing Gwer East and Gwer West

Minister of State for Employment and Labour, Festus Keyamo, who confirmed the slot reservations, said: “Yes, the figures are true. Fifteen per cent has been reserved for political officeholders. They also have constituents they represent.

“The slots for Senators and House of Representatives members are for the local governments within the constituents/catchment areas that they represent, not the whole state.  It is a very, very small number if you consider that the slots are not up to 150 out of 1,000 per local government. So, you still have 850 per local government. You still have a large number reserved for Nigerians.”

Similarly, 30 slots were allotted to each of the traditional rulers in the eight councils of Delta Central.  For Delta South, 20 slots were reportedly allotted to the Olu of Warri.

Ijaw monarchs under the senatorial district reportedly got 10 slots per six local government areas, while royal fathers of Isoko ethnic nationality received 30 slots for the two Isoko North and South council areas each.

Traditional rulers in Delta North senatorial district were reportedly allotted 40 slots each.

The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) got 10 each across the 25 council areas; market women got 250 slots, 10 for each council area; youth organisations reportedly got 20 slots for each of the council areas, bringing their total to 500.

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The state chapters of CAN and the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs were reportedly given “500 job slots each, 20 per LGA”.

Beneficiaries are to work for three months between October and December. Each will earn N20,000 monthly, doing public works as may be determined. N52 billion has been approved for the project in the 2020 budget.