774,000 jobs: I won’t succumb to threats, Kwara coordinator vows
The coordinator of the FG Special Public Works Programme, Oluwasegun Oyewo, Tuesday, vowed not to succumb to any form of pressure or threat that will make the committee deviate from its already specified selection modality.
The Kwara State House of Assembly had invited Oyewo to Tuesday plenary to speak on the distribution of the 16,000 jobs across the state.
His absence, meanwhile, made the chamber vowed to invoke its legislative powers to coerce him if he fails to show up in the next legislative sitting.
However, responding in a statement he personally signed and sent to THE INFORMANT247, Oyewo said the objective of the program is to ensure that Kwarans from all walks of life, with or without any form of political connection, are able to benefit from the scheme.
He said, “I believe I owe honorable members of the Assembly and other members of the public the duty of setting the facts straight in order to prevent any form of misconceptions or misinformation.”
Narrating what transpired, he stated, “I received a phone call yesterday Monday, 27th July, 2020 at about 11am from a caller who identified herself as the Clerk of the Kwara State Assembly. She informed me that there was a letter meant for me as the Chairman of the Kwara State Selection Committee for the Special Public Works Programme of the Federal Government. I informed the caller that I was away in Offa with my team on a courtesy call to the Olofa of Offa, HRH. Mufutau Gbadamosi Esuwoye II, in furtherance of our wide consultations with critical stakeholders in the state.”
He continued, “I asked if the substance of the letter could be relayed to me on the phone (in case it was something that required urgent attention) as I feared that our engagements in Offa might take the whole day, if not more. But the caller responded in the negative. Consequently, I requested that I be allowed to pick up the letter after the Sallah holidays as I might be travelling the next day, that’s today, for some official assignments in Abuja.
“But surprisingly, the same letter which I believed the Clerk declined to relay to me on phone yesterday was screenshotted to me via WhatsApp at exactly 1:15pm today, at which time I believe the House might have concluded its plenary.
“There’s absolutely no reason for me or any member of the committee to decline an invitation to explain what the SPW program is all about, to legislators, student unions, market women, transport workers or any other critical stakeholder in the State. This is why I found the report of my purported refusal to honour the invitation of members of the Kwara Assembly disingenuous and in bad faith.”
He maintained that the Kwara State House of Assembly is an important State institution saying, “Every respected members of the Assembly are partners in progress. This much is not lost on us as a committee. However, it needs to be reiterated that our committee has got specific mandates and modalities from the Federal Government on how to implement the recruitment exercise. These mandates and modalities are already being vigorously pursued with all fairness and transparency”.
The 774,000 approved jobs were part of the effort of the Federal Government to reduce unemployment and comes under the special public works programme of National Directorate of Employment, NDE, specifically targeting unskilled persons in the rural communities.
