Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN) said on Tuesday that the 30 slots alloted to each member of the National Assembly in the 774,000 jobs under the Special Public Works programme is a privilege and not a right.
The minister noted that constituents of the lawmakers would be the beneficiaries of the programme.
Keyamo, in his reaction to the statement credited to Elumelu, rejecting the 30 slots alloted to the lawmakers, said whether the federal lawmakers accept the slots or not was irrelevant because their constituents will still be the beneficiaries of the position.
“The question of slots to certain persons was never a question of a right or entitlement, it is just a privilege given to them to recommend persons within their constituencies.
“The template is that 1000 persons will be picked from each local government area. That means whether they reject or accept is irrelevant because their constituents will still have their full entitlement of 1000 per local government.
“Except they want to tell Nigerians that it is only a section of those local government councils that they represent and not all the persons in the local government.
“Or except they want to tell Nigerians that they are opposed to certain persons in the local government getting those jobs,” he said.