Labour Congress Opposes Proposed N20,000 Youth Maintenance Scheme

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has opposed the proposed plan by the Federal Government to pay 1,000 youths N20,000 monthly to maintain public infrastructure nationwide under the aegis of  Special Public Works (SPW) programme.

TUC claimed the move was another “conduit pipe for politicians and their foot soldiers”, vowing to protest against the action, “not because it is a bad idea, but because of how the palliatives that were distributed during the lockdown caused by COVID-19 period went.”

The union maintained that the government had “never been sincere, and this will not be an exception.”

According to a press statement issued yesterday by its president, Quadri Olaleye, and the Secretary-General, Musa-Lawal Ozigi, TUC asserted that the “payment of N20,000 to 1,000 unemployed persons per local government area for a period of three months does not in any way solve the nation’s unemployment challenge.”

The congress however  crave the indulgence of President Muhammadu Buhari and his economic team to use the money in building factories in all of the country’s 774 local government areas, because scheme will cost the government about N45 billion in three months.

The scheme was the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity headed by the Minister of State, Festus Keyamo, SAN.

FOB