The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has
attributed the menace of crude oil theft to the worsening unemployment
situation in the country.
Ngige said this while declaring open the 8th Meeting of the
National Employment Council on Friday in Abuja.
The Head, Press and Public Relations, Mr Olajide Oshundun,
quoted the minister as saying this in
Ngige, who is the chairman of the council, said that oil
theft has made Nigeria 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.
“I am aware that you people know that we are at a very
critical stage in our nation’s life. We have economic problems all over the
world, but our own in Nigeria is self-inflicted. Our main source of revenue is
oil.
“But, in the oil sector, two things are happening. One,
Nigeria is not meeting its production quota. Our OPEC production quota used to
be 2.2 million barrels per day. It slipped down to 1.8 million barrels.
“Now, we cannot even produce the 1.8 million barrels. We are
hovering around 1.1 million barrels per day, and they told us that some people
are stealing our crude oil.
“This is a very serious matter because it has made us become
very mendicant. We are now a mendicant nation, resorting to begging for
survival,” he said.
He added that the nation cannot continue that way because it
has hampered efforts to create jobs for our teeming youthful population.
The minister further said, “Some people were analysing the
situation and said that when we started the country, the white men came here
and took all the jobs.
“We were seeing them with white shirts and ties and the jobs
became known as white collar jobs. Later, our own people started going to
university and after graduation, joined the ‘white collar jobs’.
“Our colonial masters left and bequeathed to us another
group of colonial masters, which comprised the indigenous people.
“Those who took over from the colonial masters did not plan
for tomorrow. Number one is that our population is growing uncontrollably.
“Our population astronomically outpaces our Gross Domestic
Product. We are neither finding our youthful population white-collar jobs nor
making arrangements for them to do blue-collar jobs.
“Blue-collar jobs are the ones you do with your hands,
applying skills,” he said.
Ngige also noted that only a 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.
He added that this was especially Chinese and other West
African people who have taken over most of the blue-collar jobs.
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 degrees. 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 a
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
the Ministry of 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 and the one that
transverses the West African Line into Morocco and extends to Europe.
“So, these are all ongoing critical infrastructure projects
with the 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 the concept of labour desks for trade disputes
and that was why we started in the ministries and agencies that have a
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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