LABOUR leaders have again warned government to take urgent steps to tackle the unemployment problem in Nigeria.

Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday, the labour chieftains said that increasing unemployment had forced highly educated Nigerians to settle for jobs far lower than their qualifications.

They described the situation as a time-bomb that could result to crisis in the polity.

Data released recently by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that 237,000 graduates, 2,004 of whom hold PhD and Master’s Degree qualifications were currently  employed as private security guards.

The Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr Alade Lawal, warned that government should stop paying lip-service to job creation.

According to Lawal, creation of massive infrastructure will provide an opportunity for the private sector to provide more employment opportunities to give graduates their dream jobs.

”Government should construct roads, build new rails and hospitals which can impact positively on employment creation.”

Lawal said that government at all levels should tackle their inherent bureaucracies, including removing of ghost workers and reducing wastages.
Mr Musa Lawal-Ozigi, Secretary-General of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) said that it was regrettable that thousands of graduates were produced annually from various universities with no jobs for them.

”In the past five years no new company has sprung up in the country yet we graduate thousands of people from different fields and build new universities.

”We are calling for explosion. No one is safe if nothing is done to create employment opportunities,” the TUC scribe said.

He advised Nigerians to use the opportunity of the upcoming elections to vote wisely and elect leaders, who would meet their leadership expectations. (NAN)

– Feb. 8, 2019 @ 16:25 GMT |