Says Buhari's target on job creation uppermost
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The former governor of Anambra state and current Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige has said that his decision to stay out of the court-ordered Anambra Central Senatorial election re-run is to enable him execute a crucial assignment given to him by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Apart from personal reasons, Ngige said he felt it was not good to abandon the national assignment given to him as a minister to create jobs for the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths.
Speaking with newsmen at the APC national secretariat on Wednesday in Abuja, the Minister said despite the economic downturn in the country, his ministry is poised to fulfil his party’s manifesto in the areas of job creation, women empowerment and providing succour for the less-privileged.
"I am not running because of official and personal reasons. The official reason being that I have an assignment given to me by Mr president as Minister of Labour and Employment. As a matter of fact, my job is 60 percent more of employment generation than Labour. Labour matters constitute only about 40 percent which is about Labour and Industrial relations, workers welfare and the rest of them all.
According to Ngige, "Unemployment is a very big scourge, a very serious disease in Nigeria now and there is need to fight it frontally.
“I have gone to that ministry, had briefings from relevant officers and top management officers and I fill that Nigeria is at a cross roads. The APC manifesto stipulates what we are going to do. We promised Nigerians that we were going to create jobs, we are going to create employment and unfortunately for us, the economy has taken a serious down turn so we need Spartans like me to keep our flag flying and bring out water from the rock and that is what exactly we are going to do," he said.
The Minister threw more light on reports that the party may have endorsed Senator Uche Ekwenife, who just decamped to APC, to substitute him in the re-run Anambra Central Senatorial contest, saying, " What happened was that as at the time Senator Ekwunife came in, she was the only person who signified interest in APC to do the rerun senatorial election in Anambra but that two other people have also shown interest which will now lead to the holding of primary election to decide who picks the ticket".
No comments:
Post a Comment