Senate to decide on 774,000 jobs on Tuesday

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Minority Leader of the Upper Chamber has said that the Senate will decide officially on the issue of the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), to flout its decision on the recruitment of 774,000 federal workers.

He revealed that the senators were expecting Ahmad Lawan, the Senate President, to brief them on the outcome of Thursday’s meeting of the presiding officers of the National Assembly with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on the issue.

He said,

“The Senate will take an official position on the issue next Tuesday after listening to the outcome of the meeting between the presiding officers and the President over the matter.

We asked our presiding officers to meet with President Buhari on the issue and we have not had plenary since they returned.

The Senate President will brief us on Tuesday at plenary and we will make a decision on it.”

The Public Works Programme was suspended by the federal parliament the penultimate week after a disagreement between Keyamo and its Committee on Labour.

Keyamo was accused by the lawmakers of hijacking the recruitment exercise from the National Directorate of Employment.

The NDE reportedly got N52bn approval to carry out the programme.

However, Keyamo said that Buhari asked him to proceed with the recruitment process notwithstanding the position of the National Assembly on the issue.

This revelation made the Senate hold an emergency closed-door session on Wednesday.

They mandated presiding officers of both chambers of the nation’s parliament to meet immediately with Buhari on the proposed recruitment of 774,000 federal workers.