The House of Representatives has ordered an investigation into the non-implementation of the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme more than one year after President Muhammadu Buhari launched it.
The President had launched the programme in Abuja in October 2020.
The scheme has the main objective of providing at least 774,000 jobs for unemployed youths in the 774 local areas spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
This implies at least 1,000 job opportunities for youths in each of the local governments.
However, on Wednesday, the House, which was presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Rep. Ahmed Idris Wase, noted that over one year on, the scheme had not taken off.
The member representing Kazaure/Roni/Gwiwa/Yankwashi Federal Constituency of Jigawa State, Rep. Mohammed Gudaji Kazaure, who moved a motion to draw the attention of the House to the matter, informed his colleagues that though thousands of youths enrolled for the scheme, they had yet to be engaged.
The lawmaker, who described the scheme as “a laudable initiative” by the Buhari-led Federal Government to empower many unemployed youths, urged the House to intervene so that the aim would not be defeated, owing to non-implementation.
Kazaure’s motion, which enjoyed unanimous support from his colleagues, reads partly, “The House notes that on 12 October 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme in Abuja, aimed at creating at least 774,000 empowerment opportunities through direct youth empowerment, which is 1,000 youths per local government across the six geopolitical zones in the efforts of the Federal Government to eradicate unemployment among the teeming youth;
“Aware that the primary role of the scheme is to provide solutions to the Nigerian youth unemployment
challenges through the execution of empowerment initiatives;
“Also notes that the scheme will be accessible to the literate, semi-literate and the non-literate population and the entry qualification is the ability and capacity to learn and be teachable;
“Worried that since the scheme was launched in 2020, it is yet to be implemented, despite the applications by Nigerian youths.”
The House resolved to invite the “Co-coordinator of the Scheme, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students Affairs, to explain to Nigerians, reasons for the non-implementation of the scheme despite the Presidential directives.”
It also directed its Committee on Appropriations to make clear provisions for the scheme in the 2022 budget still pending before the National Assembly.
