FG paying lip-service to job creation – Odunsi March 26, 2014 1:35 am | By: WALE ELEGBEDE | New Telegraph What is your take on the recent Nigerian Immigration service (NIS) recruitment tragedy where some youths lost their lives? The truth is that our educational system is not preparing our children for life. The current 6-3-3-4 is not being implemented as per the original intentions of the designers of the scheme. If it had been implemented as per the design, not many of the kids would go beyond the first three years in secondary school, thereafter they would go into skill acquisition programme; plumbing, tailoring, carpentry and others.But we haven’t implemented the 6-3-3-4. Tell me if there is any technical school run by government anywhere in this country that teaches plumbing, carpentry and other entrepreneurial skills? In those days, we had the trade centres, but where are the trade centres today?If this government were to be serious for education for our kids, they would actually implement the 6-3-3-4. What that scheme recognises is that certain kids are not academically inclined, so after the first three years in secondary school, you should be able to identify those who are not academically inclined.It is not a crime not to be academically inclined; they could be skilful if they are trained. Because we are not implementing the 6-3-3-4, we find all our kids just go through the ladder of secondary education, even those who don’t have the wherewithal and when they finish at the end of SSCE, they drop-out and become useless to themselves and the society because the university can only absorb a few of them.And those absorbed, how many of them have jobs waiting for them out there. So, our educational system is not correct. We need to do something about it because if we have an educational system that is tailored to develop the human capital, then we wouldn’t have too many problem of graduate employment. That is why I don’t think the best way I can assist kids in my senatorial district is to start looking for job for them. See what happened at the last NIS recruitment exercise, 700,772 applicants for a position that is less than 5,000. So, this government has been playing lip service to the development of our educational manpower. That is why I see some hope and promise in the programme my party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has rolled out which focuses on human capital development. A country like Singapore does not have any natural resources but they have trained themselves and are useful to the society. Has the NIS tragedy exposed further the lip service effort of governments at every level? I always like to listen to the statistics that our government technocrats reel out especially that of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Agriculture.The two of them can reel out statistics and it always excites me because I ask questions like where is the effect of these figures that you are giving to us, how many kids have been employed and where are they? They always say that our economy is growing. How can it be growing with millions of young people out in the unemployment market? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Because of the NIS tragedy, the president gleefully announced that he is giving automatic job to some people. So, he has created some jobs immediately for those kids, let him create jobs for every kid then since he has the power to by fiat give the relations of the deceased automatic job. But some people feel that the APC manifesto may not be different from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? Just give us the opportunity to bring these things to pass. It may look too real to be identified with but it is possible. You see, people have been paying lip service to programmes that they enunciate. When I was running my campaign in 2011, I said it was possible and a lot of people in my constituency are wondering whether some of the things I am doing are actually possible. As a result, I’ve encountered die-hard politicians, who said why am I doing all these things and that all what I am doing are only opening them up to ridicule. I always tell them that I haven’t done enough given my limited access to the resources. If any government is serious and desirous of developing the human capital in this country, especially with all the resources we have, then it is possible. The problem is that there is too much leakage in the system. Even the little that we are doing as legislators, we are running into trouble with the civil servants. Some of my projects are not being executed to my satisfaction, but because we don’t do what they want us to do, we don’t get the results we want. This country is endowed; we only need good, committed, incorruptible leadership. What is your take on the on-going National Conference? My wish is that this conference does not go the way of the previous ones. Secondly, I also wish that the confab would come up with concrete proposals to make the country go forward. If that is done I pray these things are subjected to a referendum. If they can put all those packages together and the Federal Government has the political will to test some of these outcomes in the market place through a referendum, maybe the problems of Nigeria would be getting solved gradually. I believe that when we get into the confab proper, then you will begin to see all kinds of issues. I pray for a strong Nigerian nation but we still have a long way to go. Your stance on the confab contradicts the position of your party, the APC, which is against the initiative. The lukewarm attitude of my party does not suggest that they are against the confab. If you listen to the statement issued by APC, as a party, they are entitled to only two nominees out of 492, so where does that take you. So, forget it whether my party is at the confab or not. There are members of my party at the conference. If my party wants any opinion expressed, which are opinions that are deep-rooted, which our members subscribed to, they will canvass for it at the conference. How do you feel with the clamour from Ogun West that you should return to the Senate for a second term? I hope many of them are serious about it. In the first place, I came into this game based on the yearning and call from my people. So, if they feel that I have served them well enough, I am thankful to God that they have seen that. I am a man that has given myself to the service of the people.If it is their wish that I return to the Senate for a second term, I cannot say otherwise. What motivated the recent empowerment programme you conducted for some 22 unemployed graduates in Ogun West? The initiative is known as EazyBiz Entrepreneurial Scheme and it was done in conjunction with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) who provided the technical skill. The launch of the EazyBiz scheme in the district is the first of its kind in Ogun State and it was geared towards making the youths employers of labour and self-reliant. The scheme is aimed at giving youths the opportunity of providing payment solutions to people through ticketing, recharge cards, lottery and PHCN bills among others. The programme for this batch, just like the 120 youths we trained last year, is expected to take some youths off the labour market. You see, if only the local, state and federal governments can take vocational, technical and skills acquisition trainings very serious, then the issue of unemployment will be greatly reduced. On our part, we hope to still train another set of 120 youths from the senatorial district in different entrepreneurial skills starting from May 2014. What is the cost implication of the scheme? The EazyBiz entreprenurial Scheme gulped the sum of N15 million with each of the participants having trade tools worth N600, 000 and initial startoff capital of N50, 000. The funding was provided by me.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 14:42:38 +0000
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