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Hon Minister of State,Labour and Employment,Mr Festus Kiyamo said the desperate move by National Assembly Committee to get him off the Federal Government job recruitment execise was unconstitutional and uncalled for.
He made this known after his second appearance before the committee to which gave directives that the DG of National Directorate of Employment should work directly with the National Assembly for the program.
The Minister lamented unconstitutional act of the National Assembly,and his constitutional responsibility as a minister was thwarted.He said,”I regret to say these directives are against the provisions of the NDE Act made by the National Assembly itself and the Constitutional provisions on Separation of Powers.”
He stated that,”by virtue of Section 3 (2)of the NDE Act, as supervising Minister, I am the Chairman of the Board of NDE that superintendents and gives directions to the Management of the NDE.Secondly,that by virtue of section 15 of the NDE Act, I am also authorized, as supervising Minister, to give general directives to the Board and Management, with which they must comply.Also,by virtue of Section 16 (1) of the NDE Act, the supervising Minister has the sole prerogative to constitute Committees for the Agency.”
Keyamo said “I was mandated by Mr. President to oversee all the activities of the National Directorate of Employment.Mr. President, once again, approved that I supervise the preparation and execution of the Special Public Works Programme domiciled under the N.D.E”
It is against all these that the National Assembly swept aside all these provisions of the law and Presidential directives and authorized the DG of NDE to proceed to submit a plan without the express approval of the Minister.
The Minister said it was a deliberate effort to get me out of the way at all cost.
“My involvement in this process so far is to constitute multi-sectoral Committees at State levels to ensure a grassroots selection process. This was done after an inter-Ministerial Committee headed by the DG NDE made such a recommendation which I accepted. As stated above, I am authorized to do so by virtue of Section 16 (1) of the NDE Act. As a result all the sponsored allegations and attacks in relation to my role so far are nothing but cheap blackmail. My actions are backed by law.”He noted.