Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has expressed the commitment towards addressing high rate of unemployment in the country and also develop a desirable framework for tackling it as well as the corruption in its management.
Dogara made this statement at the opening session of a Public Hearing on “Extortion of Employment Seekers by Government Agencies” organised by the House Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity yesterday in Abuja .
He noted that the heartless fraud on helpless unemployed youths by public agencies and recruitment firms was a fundamental government breach which needed to be tackled.
He reiterated that Nigeria’s unemployment rate was growing by at least 16 per cent each year stressing that poverty and unemployment were key contributors to the rise in crime and insurgency.
“If our teeming youth are gainfully employed; they would channel their energies and talents into mainstream society which Nigeria can harness in her drive towards industrialization and overall development besides the spate of rising unemployment, recruitment exercises in the recent past conducted by many public organizations in Nigeria tend to showcase the level of exploitation faced by job-seeking Nigerians”.
“We insist however, that government owes it’s citizens the duty to either create jobs directly or to provide the appropriate environment for the creation of jobs by the private sector”.
“We need to be reminded perhaps, of the fact that the present administration has as a fundamental objective the task of job creation,” he said.
Prior to this event, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, Hon. Francis Ezenwa stated that Nigeria had one of the highest rate of unemployment which has reduced the purchasing power of the citizens. He stressed on the urgent need to address the issue adding that government must revisit employment measures.
