By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA - MINISTER of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Nwabueze
Ngige has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives
Congress, APC, on assumption of office a year ago met economic recession
which has affected its programmes.
Senator Ngige who disclosed this in his text to mark the nation's democracy
day and one year in office of the present administration at the federal level
also said that his ministry was liaising with the Ministry of Solid Minerals
Development for the conversion of countless illegal mining going on in many
parts of the country into legal business.
Besides, the minister said that as an important step in protecting the national
interest, his ministry was matching efforts with the Ministry of
Interior to look
at the expatriate quota provision to make sure that expatriates do not
displace qualified Nigerians.
To that effect, he explained that already his ministry has a working
relationship over the strict observance of this, so that jobs meant for
Nigerians would not be lost to expatriates for any reason.
He said: "Since assuming office, I have quietly but relentlessly been active in
dialoguing with all social partners to ensure conducive atmosphere for
national productivity.
"I have unambiguously placed government intentions, positions and
challenges on the table for all partners to appreciate and make necessary
adjustments in their expectations in the over all interest of the nation.
"The tenor of last week's general strike, carried out only by a section of the
labour community and its decision to call it off in matter of days speak a lot
of our persuasive mechanism and openness which no patriotic organization
could ignore."
Speaking further he said that the government had put in place measures to
kick-start self reliance and job loses, which he said had yielded positive
results.
According to him: "Notwithstanding the prevailing economic down turn,
government is doing its best in the provision of jobs, with emphasis though
on blue-collar.
"The main agency of job creation is the National Directorate of Employment,
which is under my ministry.
"The NDE has over one hundred skills acquisition centres across Nigeria,
apart from the ones owned by some Federal ministries, agencies and states.
"Since I came in, we have embarked on the rehabilitation and re-equipping of
these NDE skills centres to enhance their training capacity. We are
establishing a liaison with other skill centres owned by other ministries,
agencies and state governments so as synchronize and standardize their
operations.
"We are working to institutionalize them as training centres whose
certificates - Trade Test 1, Trade Test 2 and Trade Test 3 can be recognized
internationally just like the City and Guild certificate of the old.
"Trade graduates of these centres such as in tiling, mechatronics, metal
works, welding, plumbing, mason, POP production and laying, Info-technology
technics among others will primarily find opportunities in the formal and
informal sectors and arrest a situation where a dominant percentage of such
low cadre skills are provided for us by Ghananians, Togolese and citizens of
other west African countries.
"Besides, our liaison with the International labour Migration of the European
Union will soon enable this category of Nigerians export their skills as legal
migrants to other countries. Our target is to train not less than 300,000 per
year and trainings are already on-going in most of our centres."
On the economic situation that the government met on assumption of office,
Senator Ngige said, "It is my firm conviction that the general over view of the
polity, especially the extant economic situation is important for us to clearly
situate and achieve an unbiased review of the efforts of the present
administration in the last 12 months.
"At present, our OPEC production quota is 2.2 million barrels per day but the
reality is that we are far away from meeting this target. As we speak, the
nation produces between 1.4 – 1.5 barrels per day, meaning that about 800,
000 barrels per day of the quota allocated to us by OPEC is lost.
"So, where other countries battle with over production and being sanctioned
by OPEC, we are under-producing, unable to meet our quota. Unfortunate,
you may say. This means that when we assumed office, we already had
economic recession, crude oil being the major revenue earner for the country.
"Without enough money to take care of the needs and welfare of the citizen,
which is the primary purpose of government, the prospect of swiftly fulfilling
campaign promises faces serious challenge. Nevertheless, the administration
trudged on and has recorded immense successes in many areas.
"In the Ministry of Labour and Employment where I have been in service as
the Minister since November 11, 2015, a period of about seven months, we
have taken significant steps and achieved quite a lot."
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