The Federal Government has announced that the 774, 000 Special Public Works (SPW) jobs will now commence on January 5.
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo made this announcement on the Government behalf.
The programme, designed for artisans to do public works for three months for N20,000 per month, suffered setbacks in commencement date because of internal wrangling between the minister and a former Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment, Nasir Ladan, who was sacked last week by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister said the programme ran into some “hiccups” hence the delay in the commencement date earlier announced.
The “hiccups” may be connected with the struggle for the control of the programme by the sacked Director-General who was at loggerhead with Keyamo over the implementation of the programme.
The sacked Ladan, it was gathered, worked with the National Assembly to undermine Keyamo who is the supervising minister following the fallout between the minister and the lawmakers.
Both the government officials couldn’t bring themselves to work together on the programme as Ladan continuously flouted the directives of the minister while cozying up to the National Assembly members.
Twice, the Federal Government announced a new date for the kick-off of the programme designed to employ 774, 000 Nigerians in the 774 local government areas.
“We have taken a firm decision to begin on January 5, 2021 but I am going to make an official announcement after FEC on Wednesday. We had a few hiccups in December but we have taken a decision to begin January 5 which is a Tuesday.
“The programme will run from January to March 2021 which is pure dry season. So, we are ready. All the obstacles have been removed,” the Minister.