The Minister of Labour and Employment,
Dr. Chris Ngige, has said all youths in the country are not entitled to
the N5, 000 monthly stipend promised by the All Progressives
Congress-led Federal Government.
The minister also said the Federal
Government intends to convert most of the unemployed graduates to
teachers in a bid to tackle graduate unemployment.
Ngige explained that contrary to the
widely-held belief that the N5,000 was meant for all youths, only the
vulnerable ones amongst them would benefit.
Ngige spoke at an event held to mark the 5th anniversary of Bina Foundation and graduation ceremony of its students in Enugu.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment donated equipment worth N10m to the graduands.
Commending the Foundation for uplifting
the less privileged in the society, the minister went ahead to shed more
light on the payment of the N5,000 monthly stipend, which is expected
to commence in 2016.
He said, “The APC government anchored
delivery on three pillars; security of lives and property, improving
economy under which employment creation is the third sub-head, and
infrastructure revival.
“You can see that employment creation is
the main issue. We have heard people say we are waiting for N5, 000. We
did not say we are paying N5,000 to all the youth. We are saying it is
for the most vulnerable.”
Giving further insight to how the
government intends to tackle unemployment, Ngige said that the Federal
Government had budgeted N500bn for social safety needs in the coming
year.
“Most unemployed graduates would be converted to teachers. The move is equally aimed at boosting the education sector,” he said.
Ngige noted that majority of the current crop of teachers in public schools were half-baked.
In the same vein, the minister, who said
the era of white-collar jobs was gone, added that the government would
pay serious attention to skill acquisition.
Ngige said, “For the social safety needs, we have budgeted N500bn for the next fiscal year.
“We have captured unemployed graduates.
We are doing two things; we get those who read Law, Engineering and
other disciplines but do not have jobs. We would train them for nine
months and convert them to teachers.
“Most of our schools have half-baked teachers. We want to redefine our schools and make them what they are.
“We are also building skill acquisition
centres. We have 12 of them across the country. The era of white-collar
industry is gone.
“Nobody in Nigeria will be unemployed, people will learn how to use their hands.”
He also disclosed that the Federal
Government would fight poverty in 2016, by giving aid to people with
special needs while children will get their own through the school
feeding programme.
