The Nigerian government’s disclosure that it created over ten million jobs in the last two years has been commended.
The commendation came from a former Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr Emeka Wogu while speaking with Journalists in Abuja.
Mr Wogu said that the only way that Nigerians could reciprocate this gesture is to encourage and support the present administration to do more.
He appealed to Nigerians to support the President both in prayers and attitude, rather than denigrating the Office of the President.
Reacting to the position of some Nigerians who are doubting the pronouncement of President Buhari that his government has created 10.5 million jobs, Wogu said he cannot fault the President’s pronouncement.
“I cannot fault Mr. President’s pronouncement because I know that when we were there, we had Committees of government that were set up to track-up the jobs that are being created and jobs that are being lost.
“I was the Chairman and we worked in tandem with the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics and other agencies that are involved in job creation. The idea was to track new jobs that are being created.
“So, if Mr. President has come out with the pronouncement that the government has created so and so number of jobs, that means that, that number of jobs has been validated by the agency that is trusted with job creation and job tracking, and then probably the Bureau of Statistics”, the former Minister said.
He explained that from his own experience as a former Minister, before the President could make that pronouncement, the figure would have been validated by the agencies in charge of job creation and job tracking, as well as the Bureau of Statistics
Against this background, the former Minister expressed gladness that 10.5 million jobs have been created saying, “it gladdens my heart that such number of jobs have been created and we need to encourage Mr. President to create more jobs”.
Giving suggestions on ways to encourage the President, Mr Emeka Wogo said, “it is for us to make sure that we support him, both in prayers and our attitude.
“We do not have to denigrate the Office of Mr. President by insulting him, we do not have to denigrate our country by speaking ill about our country, we do not have to de-market our country because you want to win an election in 2023. It is not all about the current players in government, it is about our country”, he said.
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari had said in his Democracy Day broadcast to the nation on June 12, that his government lifted 10.5 million people out of poverty in the last two years.
The President said that those lifted out of poverty were farmers, small-scale traders, artisans and market women explaining that the government was doing its best in the face of scarce resources and galloping population growth rate that consistently outstrip the capacity to provide jobs.
“Our over-all economic target of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years is our goal notwithstanding COVID-19”.Buhari said.
For organised labour, creating jobs that lasts for a period of three months, six months and one year as provided by the 774,000 jobs in 774 Local Government Areas as well as the N-Power jobs are short term jobs without security.
President of the Trade Union Congress TUC, Comrade Quadri Olaleye told the Sunday Tribune, a Nigerian Print medium in June, that the federal government must look at its policies regarding jobs and jobs creation, so that it would avoid a situation where the number of jobs being lost outweighs the number of jobs being created.
“So, the federal government should be very transparent in whatever steps it is taking in creating jobs, since those people it created the jobs for are not ghost.
He urged the Nigerian government to showcase those who have been engaged by the administration so that people can know them.
Lateefah Ibrahim
