Nigerians Attacks Festus Keyamo For Distributing Cutlasses, Wheel-Barrows As Empowerment Tools

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has come under heavy criticism for distributing cutlasses, wheel-barrows as part of Special Public Works Programme which was designed to engage 774,000 unemployed Nigerians.

KanyiDaily reports that the Federal Government had initiated the Special Public Works programme to employ 1,000 Nigerians from each of the 774,000 local government areas.

The SPW programme, which was initially scheduled to be launched on October 1, 2020, was designed to pay each of the 774,000 workers N20,000 monthly for three amounts.

Yesterday, Festus Keyamo took to his Twitter page and share images from the launch of the program in his Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State.

In the photos, the minister is seen pushing a wheel-barrow in one and cutting grasses with a machete in another, suggesting those might be the empowerment tools.

He wrote: “As part of my activities last week, I travelled to Delta State to launch the Special Public Works Programme (774,000) jobs in my own Local Government Area (Uvwie LGA).”

Many Nigerians have taken to social media to criticize Keyamo for turning citizens to “wheelbarrow pushers” and subjecting them to manual work.

Others said it was another form of ‘modern slavery’ to ask beneficiaries of the programme to cut grass with cutlasses for N20,000 per month.

KanyiDaily recalls that the National Assembly had asked the President Muhammadu Buhari to remove Festus Keyamo from supervising the recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians for the SPW programme.