Crude oil theft has been identified by the Federal Government as the primary cause of the nation’s deteriorating unemployment rate.
According to an issued press statement by the ministry, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, stated this while speaking at the 8th meeting of the National Employment Council in Abuja.
According to the Minister, the problem has impeded the Federal Government’s ability to provide jobs for the nation’s teeming young population.
Ngige, who is the chairman of the council, lamented that oil theft has made Nigeria to become a mendicant nation, resorting to begging for survival.
Ngige further said only few blue collar jobs were created in the transport sector, especially in rail and maritime, without producing indirect jobs to complement them, while the situation was made worse by foreigners, especially Chinese and other West African people who have taken over most of the blue collar jobs.
He blamed the overflowing joblessness for the youth restiveness all over the country.
To reverse this ugly trend, Ngige called 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 and comprising the ministries of Industries and Trade, Works, Power, Science and Technology, and all other government creations, with a sense of urgency.
The minister 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 that 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.
He welcomed the proposal for the creation of labour desks in the form of job synergy points in the ministries, departments and agencies where needed in order to facilitate job monitoring and creation.
