Festus Keyamo, junior labour and employment minister, on Tuesday said 116,000 slots  of the 774,000 employment was reserved for federal lawmakers to ensure that ‘local leaders’ were part of the recruitment process. 

Following the outbreak of coronavirus and its economic disruption last year, the federal government initiated the engagement of 774,000 Nigerians on special public works programme as a fiscal stimulus measure to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic.  

When asked why close to 116,000 slots were reserved for lawmakers on Channels TV on Tuesday, Mr. Keyamo said it was to ensure that ordinary citizens who are the target of the scheme benefit and avoid the irregularities common with internet recruitment. 

He emphasised that the local leaders who know beneficiaries were involved in the selection process. 

“We wanted to ensure that local leaders were part of the selection process”, Mr. Keyamo said affirmatively. 

Mr. Keyamo added that since the target of the 774,000 jobs are not just people with access to internet, a multi-sectoral approach was adopted to make leaders across different associations part of the selection process. 

“We said look, instead of handling over to politicians and say go and give to your supporters, we brought in a multi-sectoral approach”, Mr. Keyamo said. “The Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria is there, Chairman of Muslims body,  civil society were part of the selection committee, head of market women association were part of the committee etc., that was what we did per state”. 

When implemented, 1,000 persons will be engaged for three months in each of the 774 local government areas in the country.