By Abba Dukawa
The Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN has said the actions of Joint Committees on Labour of both the Senate and the House of Representatives is tantamount to challenging the powers of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He made this known to newsman in a press release issued and signed by him on the Purported suspension of selection process of 774,000 Jobs by National Assembly Committees.
According to him, they sought to control the program as to who gets what, where and how, but I insisted that I would not surrender the program to their control since their powers under the constitution does not extend to that.
Mr. Festus Keyamo noted that Nigerian people deserve to know the details of the execution of this all-important program, their powers under section 88 of the 1999 Constitution is only limited to investigations, but not to give any directive to the executive, he said.
He added that even though there was a misunderstanding between us when they questioned why I did not privately submit the program to them for vetting before taking certain steps as they suggested that they ought to have an input on how the program should be implemented.
Mr. Keyamo explained that he was asked to apologize for insisting on a public interaction and he said there was nothing to apologize about, because their powers to expose corruption provided for in section 88 of the Constitution cannot be exercised in private.
“All my life, I have fought for good governance and constitutional democracy, I will not come into government and be intimidated to abandon those principles. I will rather leave this assignment; if Mr. President so directs, than compromise the jobs meant for ordinary Nigerians who have no Godfathers or who are not affiliated to any political party”, he said.
He therefore, direct all the Committees set up nationwide made up of CAN, NSCIA, NURTW, Market Women, CSOS, Youth Organizations, respected traditional rulers to proceed with their work unhindered because only Mr. President can stop their work
