The Honourable Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr.
Festus Keyamo, SAN has issued a Press Release on “THE
EXTENDED SPECIAL PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME APPROVED BY PRESIDENT
MUHAMMADU BUHARI FOR THE SELECTION OF 1000 PERSONS EACH FROM ALL
THE 774 LGAs FOR TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT DURING THE DRY
SEASON”
In the Press Sighted by Nairalaw (TNL), Keyamo, SAN in
given a background said “Sometime in October, 2019, President
Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the
Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, approved a Pilot
Special Public Works Programme in the Rural Areas. The programme
was domiciled in the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) for
implementation.
“The Special Public Works in the Rural Areas is an employment-
intensive technique acquired and adapted by the National
Directorate of Employment (NDE) from one of the capacity-building
collaborations with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in
the late 1980’s to the middle of the 1990’s. The Project was tagged
ILO/NDE Labour Based/ Light Equipment Methods of Construction,
Rehabilitation and maintenance of Public Infrastructure.
“The ILO itself derived this idea of Special Public Works
programme from several historical templates. According to the
Development and Technical Labour Department of the ILO, these types
of programmes were used during the Great Depression by
industrialised nations to immediately respond to grinding poverty
at the lowest level of society that normally bore the brunt of such
economic upheavals. It was also effectively used during colonial
Africa to quickly respond to situations such as drought and famine
by mobilising the unskilled populace to engage in other labour
intensive infrastructural projects as a means of immediately
alleviating their situation. The concept was later adopted and
developed by most Asian countries like India, China and Bangladesh
to lift their countries out of the league of poor nations. This
programme was one of the main reasons India quickly dropped in the
poverty index and Nigeria overtook India at a point.”
President Buhari therefore approved the program in Nigeria in
line with the need to create jobs in the country and to maintain
social infrastructure.
“The pilot programme earlier approved by Mr. President was
designed to mitigate lack of job opportunities in the rural areas
through a short-term engagement of One thousand (1,000) unemployed
persons per Local Government Area for a period of three (3) months.
It is a dry season/off season transient job programme and was
originally designed for the rehabilitation/maintenance of public
and social infrastructure. Participants were to be paid an
allowance of N20,000 monthly and were to be recruited largely from
the pool of unskilled persons ordinarily resident in those rural
areas.”
The statement reads in part:
“This pilot scheme was approved to be implemented in five local
government areas in eight states namely: Adamawa, Borno, Ebonyi,
Edo, Ekiti, Jigawa, Katsina and Kwara.
Beneficiaries are engaged in:
• Drainage digging and clearance
• Irrigation canals clearance
• Rural feeder road maintenance
• Maintenance of the Great Green Wall nurseries and orchards in
Borno, Jigawa and Katsina States
• Traffic control
• Street cleaning
• Cleaning of public infrastructure like Health Centres, Schools
and the likes.
A total of 40,000 direct transient jobs were expected to be
created in the eight pilot states.”
Festus Keyamo, SAN, also spoke about the “EXTENDED SPECIAL
PUBLIC WORKS ACROSS THE 774 LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF THE
FEDERATION”
He recalled that “on Monday 6th of April, 2020, the Honourable
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning in a Press
conference, announced the approval of Mr President for the
extension of this programme to all 36 states and the FCT from
October- December 2020 as a means of mitigating the effect of the
Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.
“The Programme is also expected to provide modest stipends for
itinerant workers to undertake roads rehabilitation and social
housing construction, urban and rural sanitation, health extension
and other critical services. Hence the directive of Mr President
for the NDE to collaborate with other Ministries with rural
components in their mandates.”
The learned silk inaugurated a Special Inter-ministerial
Committee on the Extended Special Public Works on Wednesday, 29th
April, 2020 pursuant to section 16 (1) of the NDE Act.
Accord to him the “Committee sat for some weeks and in their
collaborative capacity they have proposed a list of projects within
their Ministries that may require the intervention of the Public
Works Programme. Over 3,000 projects and 42,000 Manpower are being
proposed by them. In a Steering capacity, the Committee has also
made certain recommendations to me.”
He review the recommendation of the Committee and resolved to
create special committees in each of the six states who will select
1000 persons from each local government of the six states.
“Having reviewed all the recommendations of this
Inter-ministerial Committee, I believe that the selection of the
beneficiaries and projects should be a local affair and not be done
from a room in Abuja. Consequently, in line with Section 16(1) of
the N.D.E Act, I have decided to constitute special committees in
each State of the Federation for the purpose of deliberating,
selecting and recommending to my office the names of the 1,000
persons from each of the Local Government Areas in the States to be
engaged for this programme. The Committees would also identify the
projects to be executed in those L.G.As. These special committees
would be known as the State Selection Committees of the Special
Public Works (SPW). It shall be a 20-member Committee comprising of
the following persons:
(1) A Chairman and Vice-Chairman who shall be indigenes of that
State or who are ordinarily resident in that State.
(2) The State Co-ordinator of the N.D.E of that State who will
be the Secretary.
(3) One representative of the Governor of that State.
(4) The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria of that
State or his representative/nominee.
(5) The State Chairman of the Nigerian Supreme Council for
Islamic Affairs or his representative/nominee.
(6) The State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport
Workers or his representative/nominee.
(7) The market woman leader in that State
(8) Three persons (one from each Senatorial District)
representing the traditional institutions in that State.
(9) Two persons (one male and one female) from each of the
Senatorial District of the State (that is six persons) representing
prominent youth organisations in those States.
(10) A representative of a prominent Civil Society Organisation
of that State.
(11) Two persons representing some peculiar interests in those
States.”
Festus Keyamo, SAN, quickly clarified that the Committees are
distinct and separate Committee from the State Advisory Committee
under section 5(2) of the N.D.E Act whose functions are different.
He further made the following clarifications:
“Let me state clearly that all members of the State Selection
Committees would not be persons holding any official position in
any of the registered political parties. If any of those listed
also doubles as an official of any political party, then the State
Chairman of the Selection Committee of the SPW shall fill that
position with another person representing that interest. We have
stated this in order to make this process as apolitical as
possible.
“However, we are not unmindful of the fact that political office
holders are also representatives of the people. We cannot also
totally ignore them in the selection process. We are only trying to
guard against some of us hijacking the process solely to service
our political interests.
“As a result and because of the need to be honest before
Nigerians, the State Selection Committees would be instructed to
allot to political office holders like our distinguished Senators,
Honourable members, Ministers and Governors, a number in total not
exceeding ten percent of the total beneficiaries in that State.
This is to ensure that majority of Nigerians who do not belong to
any of the political divide actually benefit substantially from
this programme.
“I am also pleased to inform you that for the purpose of
transparency and accountability in the process, the President has
approved the use of select banks to register and collate data of
the beneficiaries. The banks will open accounts for all
beneficiaries and in the process obtain BVN for those without
accounts. Consequently, all payments would be made from the CBN
directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries. The banks will also
simultaneously register the participants for the Special Works
Programme. Apart from the transparency and accountability this will
achieve, one of the benefits of the exercise is that more Nigerians
would be captured in the financial system thereby enhancing the
financial inclusion drive of Government. Eventually, the data
collated by the banks would be passed on to my office for use in
the programme implementation.
“It is important to note that this data to be collected would be
used for other multifarious purposes relating to employment and
social surveys. Already the National Bureau of Statistics, through
the Federal Ministry of Finance, has requested for an allotment of
ten persons each from the 1,000 persons in each Local Government
Areas to carry out special social surveys and data collation by the
Bureau.
“For the ease of supervision and monitoring of such a large
programme, the President has also approved the deployment of online
technology. The technology will allow for robust supervision of
ongoing works in various local government areas, a reliable
tracking system for all man and materials used and a robust
real-time monitoring system through online feedback mechanism from
citizens, stakeholders and managers of the programme.
“We are already at an advanced stage of discussions and
negotiations with selected banks that will help us to capture,
register and open bank accounts for all the beneficiaries. In the
next few weeks, we shall be back here with the banks to explain to
Nigerians the operational modalities.”
According to Festus Keyamo, SAN, the programme is one of the
biggest social intervention schemes to be carried out within a
short period of time by any government in the history of Nigeria.
It is also unique because it is the very first direct employment
scheme of any government that targets the very bottom of the
economy. Other intervention programmes have been in form of
empowerments. This shows the proclivity of this President to
protect and identify with the very poor. He said the programme will
start on the 1st of October, 2020.
He therefore concluded that in the “next two weeks we will
empanel and empower all the State Selection Committees so they can
commence the onerous task of selection of beneficiaries and
projects locally.
“A website would be developed immediately where information such
as composition and contact of the Selection Committees, list of the
selected beneficiaries and chosen projects would be displayed for
the public.
“We do not want any pressure and lobbying to be directed at my
office. We are passing on the responsibilities to the States
Selection Committees. When we publish the names, everybody would
know who to contact in their different States to make their cases
for inclusion.
“From now till the end of the projects, I will be holding
regular press briefings to update members of the public on progress
so far made.”
The Honourable Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr.
Festus Keyamo, SAN has issued a Press Release on “THE
EXTENDED SPECIAL PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME APPROVED BY PRESIDENT
MUHAMMADU BUHARI FOR THE SELECTION OF 1000 PERSONS EACH FROM ALL
THE 774 LGAs FOR TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT DURING THE DRY
SEASON”
In the Press Sighted by Nairalaw (TNL), Keyamo, SAN in
given a background said “Sometime in October, 2019, President
Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the
Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, approved a Pilot
Special Public Works Programme in the Rural Areas. The programme
was domiciled in the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) for
implementation.
“The Special Public Works in the Rural Areas is an employment-
intensive technique acquired and adapted by the National
Directorate of Employment (NDE) from one of the capacity-building
collaborations with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in
the late 1980’s to the middle of the 1990’s. The Project was tagged
ILO/NDE Labour Based/ Light Equipment Methods of Construction,
Rehabilitation and maintenance of Public Infrastructure.
“The ILO itself derived this idea of Special Public Works
programme from several historical templates. According to the
Development and Technical Labour Department of the ILO, these types
of programmes were used during the Great Depression by
industrialised nations to immediately respond to grinding poverty
at the lowest level of society that normally bore the brunt of such
economic upheavals. It was also effectively used during colonial
Africa to quickly respond to situations such as drought and famine
by mobilising the unskilled populace to engage in other labour
intensive infrastructural projects as a means of immediately
alleviating their situation. The concept was later adopted and
developed by most Asian countries like India, China and Bangladesh
to lift their countries out of the league of poor nations. This
programme was one of the main reasons India quickly dropped in the
poverty index and Nigeria overtook India at a point.”
President Buhari therefore approved the program in Nigeria in
line with the need to create jobs in the country and to maintain
social infrastructure.
“The pilot programme earlier approved by Mr. President was
designed to mitigate lack of job opportunities in the rural areas
through a short-term engagement of One thousand (1,000) unemployed
persons per Local Government Area for a period of three (3) months.
It is a dry season/off season transient job programme and was
originally designed for the rehabilitation/maintenance of public
and social infrastructure. Participants were to be paid an
allowance of N20,000 monthly and were to be recruited largely from
the pool of unskilled persons ordinarily resident in those rural
areas.”
The statement reads in part:
“This pilot scheme was approved to be implemented in five local
government areas in eight states namely: Adamawa, Borno, Ebonyi,
Edo, Ekiti, Jigawa, Katsina and Kwara.
Beneficiaries are engaged in:
• Drainage digging and clearance
• Irrigation canals clearance
• Rural feeder road maintenance
• Maintenance of the Great Green Wall nurseries and orchards in
Borno, Jigawa and Katsina States
• Traffic control
• Street cleaning
• Cleaning of public infrastructure like Health Centres, Schools
and the likes.
A total of 40,000 direct transient jobs were expected to be
created in the eight pilot states.”
Festus Keyamo, SAN, also spoke about the “EXTENDED SPECIAL
PUBLIC WORKS ACROSS THE 774 LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF THE
FEDERATION”
He recalled that “on Monday 6th of April, 2020, the Honourable
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning in a Press
conference, announced the approval of Mr President for the
extension of this programme to all 36 states and the FCT from
October- December 2020 as a means of mitigating the effect of the
Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.
“The Programme is also expected to provide modest stipends for
itinerant workers to undertake roads rehabilitation and social
housing construction, urban and rural sanitation, health extension
and other critical services. Hence the directive of Mr President
for the NDE to collaborate with other Ministries with rural
components in their mandates.”
The learned silk inaugurated a Special Inter-ministerial
Committee on the Extended Special Public Works on Wednesday, 29th
April, 2020 pursuant to section 16 (1) of the NDE Act.
Accord to him the “Committee sat for some weeks and in their
collaborative capacity they have proposed a list of projects within
their Ministries that may require the intervention of the Public
Works Programme. Over 3,000 projects and 42,000 Manpower are being
proposed by them. In a Steering capacity, the Committee has also
made certain recommendations to me.”
He review the recommendation of the Committee and resolved to
create special committees in each of the six states who will select
1000 persons from each local government of the six states.
“Having reviewed all the recommendations of this
Inter-ministerial Committee, I believe that the selection of the
beneficiaries and projects should be a local affair and not be done
from a room in Abuja. Consequently, in line with Section 16(1) of
the N.D.E Act, I have decided to constitute special committees in
each State of the Federation for the purpose of deliberating,
selecting and recommending to my office the names of the 1,000
persons from each of the Local Government Areas in the States to be
engaged for this programme. The Committees would also identify the
projects to be executed in those L.G.As. These special committees
would be known as the State Selection Committees of the Special
Public Works (SPW). It shall be a 20-member Committee comprising of
the following persons:
(1) A Chairman and Vice-Chairman who shall be indigenes of that
State or who are ordinarily resident in that State.
(2) The State Co-ordinator of the N.D.E of that State who will
be the Secretary.
(3) One representative of the Governor of that State.
(4) The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria of that
State or his representative/nominee.
(5) The State Chairman of the Nigerian Supreme Council for
Islamic Affairs or his representative/nominee.
(6) The State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport
Workers or his representative/nominee.
(7) The market woman leader in that State
(8) Three persons (one from each Senatorial District)
representing the traditional institutions in that State.
(9) Two persons (one male and one female) from each of the
Senatorial District of the State (that is six persons) representing
prominent youth organisations in those States.
(10) A representative of a prominent Civil Society Organisation
of that State.
(11) Two persons representing some peculiar interests in those
States.”
Festus Keyamo, SAN, quickly clarified that the Committees are
distinct and separate Committee from the State Advisory Committee
under section 5(2) of the N.D.E Act whose functions are different.
He further made the following clarifications:
“Let me state clearly that all members of the State Selection
Committees would not be persons holding any official position in
any of the registered political parties. If any of those listed
also doubles as an official of any political party, then the State
Chairman of the Selection Committee of the SPW shall fill that
position with another person representing that interest. We have
stated this in order to make this process as apolitical as
possible.
“However, we are not unmindful of the fact that political office
holders are also representatives of the people. We cannot also
totally ignore them in the selection process. We are only trying to
guard against some of us hijacking the process solely to service
our political interests.
“As a result and because of the need to be honest before
Nigerians, the State Selection Committees would be instructed to
allot to political office holders like our distinguished Senators,
Honourable members, Ministers and Governors, a number in total not
exceeding ten percent of the total beneficiaries in that State.
This is to ensure that majority of Nigerians who do not belong to
any of the political divide actually benefit substantially from
this programme.
“I am also pleased to inform you that for the purpose of
transparency and accountability in the process, the President has
approved the use of select banks to register and collate data of
the beneficiaries. The banks will open accounts for all
beneficiaries and in the process obtain BVN for those without
accounts. Consequently, all payments would be made from the CBN
directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries. The banks will also
simultaneously register the participants for the Special Works
Programme. Apart from the transparency and accountability this will
achieve, one of the benefits of the exercise is that more Nigerians
would be captured in the financial system thereby enhancing the
financial inclusion drive of Government. Eventually, the data
collated by the banks would be passed on to my office for use in
the programme implementation.
“It is important to note that this data to be collected would be
used for other multifarious purposes relating to employment and
social surveys. Already the National Bureau of Statistics, through
the Federal Ministry of Finance, has requested for an allotment of
ten persons each from the 1,000 persons in each Local Government
Areas to carry out special social surveys and data collation by the
Bureau.
“For the ease of supervision and monitoring of such a large
programme, the President has also approved the deployment of online
technology. The technology will allow for robust supervision of
ongoing works in various local government areas, a reliable
tracking system for all man and materials used and a robust
real-time monitoring system through online feedback mechanism from
citizens, stakeholders and managers of the programme.
“We are already at an advanced stage of discussions and
negotiations with selected banks that will help us to capture,
register and open bank accounts for all the beneficiaries. In the
next few weeks, we shall be back here with the banks to explain to
Nigerians the operational modalities.”
According to Festus Keyamo, SAN, the programme is one of the
biggest social intervention schemes to be carried out within a
short period of time by any government in the history of Nigeria.
It is also unique because it is the very first direct employment
scheme of any government that targets the very bottom of the
economy. Other intervention programmes have been in form of
empowerments. This shows the proclivity of this President to
protect and identify with the very poor. He said the programme will
start on the 1st of October, 2020.
He therefore concluded that in the “next two weeks we will
empanel and empower all the State Selection Committees so they can
commence the onerous task of selection of beneficiaries and
projects locally.
“A website would be developed immediately where information such
as composition and contact of the Selection Committees, list of the
selected beneficiaries and chosen projects would be displayed for
the public.
“We do not want any pressure and lobbying to be directed at my
office. We are passing on the responsibilities to the States
Selection Committees. When we publish the names, everybody would
know who to contact in their different States to make their cases
for inclusion.
“From now till the end of the projects, I will be holding
regular press briefings to update members of the public on progress
so far made.”