The House of Representatives has ordered an investigation into President Muhammadu Buhari’s introduced Special Public Work programme, which was intended to provide jobs for 774,000 youths across the local government areas of the country.
The house on Wednesday, resolved to raise an Ad-hoc committee, to invite the Co-coordinator of the Scheme, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students Affairs, to explain to Nigerians, reasons for the non-implementation of the scheme despite the presidential directive.
This was sequel to a motion by Hon. Gudaji Kazaure, who recalled that on October 12, 2020, President Buhari launched the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme in Abuja aimed at creating at least 774,000 empowerment opportunities, “which is one thousand youth per Local Government across the six geopolitical zones”.
The lawmaker argued that it was in the efforts of the Federal Government to eradicate unemployment among the teeming youth, as “the primary role of the Scheme is to provide solutions to the Nigerian youth unemployment challenges through the execution of empowerment initiatives”.
He noted that the Scheme will be accessible to the literate, semi-literate and the non-literate population and the entry qualification is the ability and capacity to learn and be teachable.
He noted however that “since the Scheme was launched in 2020, it is yet to be implemented despite applications by the Nigerian youth”.