Labour activist and human rights lawyer, Femi Aborisade has urged members of the National Assembly to concern themselves with making of laws that will bring development to the country rather an attempt to influence the creation of 774,000 public works job programme to their advantage.
Aborisade, who was reacting to the position of President Muhammadu Buhari in giving the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, the nod to continue with the exercise despite the federal lawmakers’ opposition to the programme,said the legislators should be lawmakers not lawbreakers.
In a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, the former lecturer maintained that the position of the National Assembly was unconstitutional and amounted to a usurpation of duties,pointing out that it was an attempt to politically dominate and enslave the constituents.
Aborisade said:
“The law supports the position of Mr President and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment on the issue. I think that the National Assembly, being a creation of the Constitution, for the purpose of making laws should not be law-breaker and should strive to observe constitutional provisions. Lawmakers should not be law breakers.
“Within the context of constitutional and staturory provisions, the purported pronouncement of the National Assembly is patently unconstitutional and unlawful.
“Once the funds for a project are duly appropriated in the Annual Budget, the only role constitutionally allowed for the National Assembly is that of an oversight role to expose corruption. Where allegations of corruption are not in issue, the attempt by the National Assembly to be involved in direct execution would be an unconstotitional usurpation of executive functions. Even where allegations of corruption are in issue, they do not permit the National Assembly the opportunity to take over executive functions.
“The directives by the National Assembly should be seen for what they represent: an attempt to use the employment of the 774,000 persons to politically dominate and enslave their constituents. They seek to give the impression that the ultimate beneficiaries would have the opportunity of being employed, not as a right but a product of their goodwill and political influence Within that mind fixation, only the names of constituents who are prepared to be politically loyal to them unconditionally would be on the “legislator’s list” to be submitted to the DG, National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
“One would have expected the National Assembly to be more concerned with a Bill to expand the scope of the Special Project, elongate the duration of employment, make it permanent, by legislation and insist that no remuneration less than the legislated National Minimum Wage of thirty thousand Naira is paid rather than the budgeted twenty thousand Naira. These are the legislative issues the National Assembly ought to be concerned with rather than attempting to control project execution which is within the purview of the Executive arm of government.
“Within the context of the structure of the Executive arm, we have the Minister of Labour and Employment and the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, both duly and separately appointed by Mr. President under section 147 of the Constitution.
“By the provisions of Section 148 of the Constitution, the President is empowered to assign to the Vice President and any Minister, responsibilitues for aspects of the business of government. By the circular marked as Ref: CAO.143/S.1/T11/8 dated 18 October 2019, the President assigned the supervision of the NDE to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN.
“On the strength of the assignment of Supervisory responsibility of the NDE to the Minister of State under Section 148 of the Constitution, the same Minister of State is the Chairman of the Board of the NDE by the provisions of Section 3 (2)of the NDE Act.
“By the combined interpretation of section 148 of the Constitution and Section 15 of the NDE Act, the Minister of State is vested with the powers to give general directives to the NDE Board and Management, which directives must mandatorily and obligatorily be carried out, without discretion.
“Also, by the combined interpretation of section 148 of the Constitution and Section 16 (1) of the NDE Act, the Minister of State, who is the Supervising Minister, has responsibility for constituting Committees for the the NDE.
“Moreovr, by the combined provision of section 148.of the Constitution, the circular by which the NDE is assigned to the Minister of State to superintend over, and Section 6(2) of the NDE Act, the DG of the NDE is responsible to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment for the day-to-day management of the affairs of the Directorate. These are mandatory and obligatory statutory provisions not subject to any discretionary powers of any higher authority.
“By the above cited constitutional and statutory authorities, I reiterate my humble opinion that the National Assembly’s directives seeking to take over control of the execution of 774,000 Special Works Programme amount to unconstitutional usurpation of Executive functions. The directives appear to be aimed at having an opportunity to use the process of recruitment of the 774,000 persons as a tool of political control and hegemonic domination of the legislators’ constituents.
“The National Assembly should be more concerned with legislating to give effect to the constitutional provisions that mandate governments to provide jobs or unemployment allowance as basic human rights, not privileges. The National Assembly should be more preoccupied with challenging the Executive to pay nothing less than the legislated thirty thousand Naira as opposed to the budgeted twenty thousand Naira which would be in violation of the National Minimum Wage Act.
“The National Assembly, being a creation of the Constitution should operate within the confines of the Constitution. Members of the National Assembly were elected as lawmakers not lawbreakers”.
