From Pwanagba Agabus, Jos
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State on Friday flagged off the Extended Special Public Works Programme in the State.
The Programme is to engage 17, 000 citizens of the State, cutting across the 17 LGAs.
It would be recalled that the Extended Special Public Works Programme is an outcome of the Pilot Special Public Works Programme in the Rural Area approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and implemented by the NDE in early 2020, and is to engage 1, 000 citizens in 774 LGAs in the country.
Lalong while flagging off the aforementioned programme in Jos the State Capital, said it shows the determination of the APC led government in the country to tackle unemployment headlong.
He urged participants to put in their best, saying “is a call to national service and is an opportunity to put your talent at work”.
“This why I have consistently advised youths to learn a skill to be self employed, rather than always look up to government for white collar jobs.
Also speaking, Chairman, State Selection Committee of the Programme, Hon. Rufus Bature, said 17, 000 citizens of the state have been engaged.
Bature maintained that, as part of the selection process, 30 people were selected from the state ward, while 70 others from the Federal wards, which make-up the 17, 000 cutting across the state.
“So what we are doing here is not about free money, you must earn it.
In her remarks, the Minster of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Tallen, represented by her aide, Bala Mohammed, said there is no administration in the history of the country that has brought so much social investment programmes targeted at the ordinary citizen, like the Buhari led government has done, and is still doing.
Some of the jobs to be undertaken by the participants include; street cleaning, solar maintenance, maintenance of rural roads, traffic control, cleaning of public infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, among others.
