The disclosure by the federal government that it created over 10 million jobs in the last two years has received the commendation of a former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chief Emeka Wogu.
Fielding questions from journalists in Abuja at the weekend, Wogu believed that the only way 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 stated he cannot fault the President’s pronouncement.
His word, “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 entrusted with job creation and job tracking, and then probably the Bureau of Statistics”, the former Minister said.
The former Minister further 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, Emeka Wogo said, “it is for us to make sure that we support him, both in prayers and our attitude.
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.
However, the organised labour, in their reaction to Buhari;s speech explained that 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 contended 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.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
