The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige
said weekend that the election of President Muhammadu Buhari last year
saved Nigeria from being a laughing stock among the comity of nations,
arguing that the country would have collapsed totally by now if the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had remained in government beyond May 29,
2015.
Ngige, who addressed officials of All Progressives
Congress, APC, from the 326 wards in the three senatorial zones of
Anambra State, said Buhari was taken aback with what he saw on
assumption of office, adding that though APC knew that PDP was running
the country aground, the magnitude of mismanagement of the economy was
beyond human imagination.
While acknowledging the present
hardship in the country, the Minister appealed to members of the party
to be patient, assuring that the Buhari administration was making
serious efforts to turn things around for the better.
According
to him, part of the delay in constituting the cabinet by the president
was due to the bad shape of the economy when APC took over government,
as most ministries, departments and agencies were discovered to be
heavily indebted to their contractors to the tune of trillions of naira.
He said:
“There
was virtually nothing in the country’s reserve, despite what the PDP
government officials were telling Nigerians. But the APC government has
started organizing the economy by formulating policies that will put
smiles on the faces of our people.
“For
instance, the Federal Government has created job centers in all states
of the federation where the unemployed will be exposed to skills
acquiring on various trades.
We
are also introducing empowerment schemes and our party members will be
given priority. “In addition, government is also planning to introduce
scholarship and bursary schemes and our party members will also be the
first to benefit from it.”
Ngige also said that in
addition to the 500000 jobs for the unemployed youths, government would
also offer employment to all graduates of agriculture and allied fields,
in view of the renewed emphasis on food security in the country. On
federal roads in the South East, the minister said that the federal
government had mobilized RCC, the construction giants, for the
reconstruction of the dilapidated Enugu –Onitsha expressway, while
SETRACO is to handle the Enugu –Umuahia –Aba expressway. He said the
main problem delaying the Second Niger Bridge was the problem created by
some people, who were insisting that government must pay them
compensation before the work could go on.