The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has accused the major opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, of being responsible for the nation’s economic crisis.
Ngige said it was the alleged looting of the treasury by the PDP that forced President Muhammadu Buhari to seek foreign loans.
He said “This is because the Peoples Democratic Party, for 16 years, looted the nation’s treasury and pauperised Nigerians. The PDP during the oil windfall did not bother to save any kobo for this country. All (the money) they got, they squandered. That is why Nigerians are pauperised this way today.
“Whatever money we borrow today is not going to be used for recurrent expenditure. It is going to be invested in railroads, power, roads, providing infrastructure for agriculture and solid minerals. Won’t you want to see the construction of the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway?”
The minister speaking on Friday at a programme organised by the National Directorate of Employment in Amawbia, Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State, justified Buhari’s loan requests from foreign governments, saying, “the only option under the circumstance is to look for loans to give Nigerians good governance because Section 14 of our Constitution says the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”
He promised that the Federal Government, through outlets like the NDE will make jobs available in the country.
“In the next two months, the second phase of this exercise would have been carried out and I want to assure you that over 2, 800 new businesses would have been generated across the country through the ‘Resettlement Scheme’ of the NDE,” Ngige said.
On his own part, the Acting Director General of NDE, Kunle Obayan, said apart from the 30 persons that were empowered during the occasion, 220 other persons previously trained in the state but not empowered were given “lifelines from the Federal Government through the NDE, under the Artisans Resettlement and Mentoring Scheme.”
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