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FG Blames Crude Oil Theft On Worsening Unemployment Situation

FG Blames Crude Oil Theft On Worsening Unemployment Situation

The Federal Government has attributed the menace of crude oil theft to the worsening unemployment situation in the country.

FG Blames Crude Oil Theft On Worsening Unemployment Situation

Dr Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, said this while declaring open the 8th Meeting of the National Employment Council on Friday in Abuja.

Mr Olajide Oshundun, the Head, Press and Public Relations, quoted the minister as saying this in

Ngige, who is the chairman of the council, said that oil theft has made Nigeria to become a mendicant nation, resorting to begging for survival.

According to him, this menace has hampered the efforts of the federal government towards creating jobs for the country’s teeming youthful population.

He also blamed the overflowing joblessness for the youth restiveness all over the country.

“Unemployment is not confined to Nigeria, but our own is worse because in other climes, people are earning money from blue collar jobs. Here, we have no blue collar jobs for our workforce.

“We have polytechnics but they are competing with universities for degrees. We see a polytechnic say it is awarding degree. We have technical colleges that want to equate their certificate with a degree.

“Nobody is interested in having technical skills. Everybody wants to be drawing and designing in air-conditioned offices, which is what the degree man does. The degree men are not supposed to be the implementers.

“ The field implementers are the technologists and technicians and in proper climes, they are very well paid and live decent lives,’’ he said.

According to him, to reverse this ugly trend, there is need for a handshake between the National Employment Council and the National Skills Council, which is domiciled in both the Federal Ministry of Labour and Ministry Education.

He said this also comprised the ministries of Industries and Trade, Works, Power, Science and Technology, and all other government creations, with a sense of urgency.

Ngige therefore recommended the incorporation of the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy into the National Employment Council, being that we are in a digital age which made for the creation of digital jobs.

He described digital jobs as the best way to absolve the bulging mass of youths that are now unemployed.

“We need to also look at NNPC and gas pipeline projects. Nigeria is doing two projects now, the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) and the one that transverses the West African Line into Morocco and extending to Europe.

“So, these are all ongoing critical infrastructure projects with large quantum of jobs to be created from them,’’ he said.

He welcomed the proposal for the creation of labour desks in form of job synergy points in the ministries, departments and agencies where needed in order to facilitate job monitoring and creation.

“We conceived concept of labour desks for trade disputes and that was why we started in the ministries and agencies that have propensity for a lot of trade disputes.

“Now, that this Employment Council is thinking ahead, you should also bring a proposal so that we can do reforms through the Ministry of Labour.

`This will ensure to have job creation contents in conjunction with the trade dispute aspect, in addition to managing strike actions,’’ he said.(NAN)

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