By Abel Leonard/lafia
Beyond the rift between National Assembly Joint Committee on Labour and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment Mr. Festus Keyamo, the chairman of the selection committee on 774,000 special public works in Nasarawa state, Hon. Kassim Muhammad Kassim takes it to the street and the 13 local government areas in the state to engage unskilled and the unemployed youth in the state.
The exercise which was carried out today when the chairman and his team visited Akwanga, Gudi Nasarawa Eggon and lafia to register and engage unskilled and unemployed youth who are on the street to cushion the effect caused by covid 19 in the state.
The chairman while addressing journalist in lafia said the exercise is done to ensure that some politicians in the state will no that the job is meant for the people, adding that the minister has giving them the go ahead to engage only the people who are unskilled and unemployed in the country.
In his word he said ” I was the first person that took president Buhari to court to seek for second term in the office I saw him as a man of integrity that can change the status of the ordinary Nigeria on the street, he has compassion for the poor that is why he has introduce this programme to ensure that the poor people in the society are carried along to cushion the hardship caused by corona virus in the country.
While the National Assembly Joint Committee holds obligatory roles to perform oversight on the activities of special public works programme with well-intended effects as the underlying assumption, Hon. Kassim reacted effectively saying “It is, to the same extent, morally fit for the Federal Minister to guide the programme administratively and religiously without enabling political clogs in the wheels of the programme implementation process adding that the poor people don’t understand sub sections 2 asking law makers to support the initiative and the minister to sustain the programme which has already started in all the 36 state including FCT.
He further encouraged artisan, farmers, unskilled and others to collect their forms from their local government coordinators and ensure the forms are filled and return to same person, noting that no forms will be collected from any other person except the person assigned. 13 thousand forms has been distributes to the 13 local government in the state to accommodate 13 thousand unskilled and unemployed youth that will be paid 20 thousand naira for three months starting from October to December 2020.
However one of the beneficiary, a student of Nasarawa State University Lafia, miss Esther who sales banana around rail way in Gudi to pay her school fees spoke to day break news saying ‘ I want to appreciate the initiative of president Muhammadu Buhari for touching my life with this, If I am paid #20,000 monthly it will help me to further my school and improve on my business this is the first time we are seeing something like this happening we pray that other politicians will do the same, it will go along way in helping the poor masses in their various community”.
