Keyamo, Senators Yell At Each Other Over NDE Recruitment

Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, engaged in a shouting match with Senators at the National Assembly on Tuesday over the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) recruitment exercise.

Keyamo was at the National Assembly for a Senate committee hearing relating to the N52 billion budgeted for the recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians by the NDE.

Pandemonium erupted after Nasiru Ladan, Director-General of the NDE, struggled to defend the budget allocated to his agency for the recruitment exercise.

The NDE boss insisted that Keyamo was in a better position to answer all questions relating to the budget.

When asked to explain why he has not carried the NDE along in the recruitment exercise, the minister defended himself, saying his ministry was asked to supervise the exercise.

The minister said Ladan is a member of the committee and is aware of the exercise modalities.

The senators, however, disagreed with Keyamo and called for a closed session to resolve their differences.

But the minister insisted that journalists witnessing the proceedings must be present to listen to the deliberations.

This got the federal lawmakers angry, as they accused the minister of trying to dictate proceedings.

The legislators subsequently demanded an apology but Keyamo refused to accede to their demands, which led to 30 minutes of rowdiness in the committee hearing room as both parties exchanged hot words.

Keyamo subsequently stormed out of the room and told journalists that the lawmakers were allegedly angry because he did not allow them to dictate the recruitment exercise.

But Godiya Akwashiki, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, denied the allegations levelled against them by Keyamo.

The lawmaker accused Keyamo of attempting to build a political structure of 1, 000 youths in each of the 774 Local Government Areas across the country with the 774,000 jobs.