Progressive Governors Forum Moves to Tackle Unemployment

Few days after the disaster which plagued the Immigration Department’s recruitment exercise across the country, commissioners in charge of Budget and Planning in 16 states being governed by Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) have moved towards formulating policies that would tackle unemployment in their states.

 

The commissioners, who converged on Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital for PGF Policy Design Session on Unemployment identified lack of accurate data and viable plans among others as causes of rising rate of unemployment in Nigeria and agreed on the urgent need to deal with the scourge.

 

Speaking on the causes identified by participants at the event, the Director General of PGF, Dr. Saliu Lukman said the issue of unemployment is about the number one problem in the country, which must be tackled holistically.

 

He reiterated the commitment of the progressive governors to finding lasting solutions to the problem and said the technical session of the meeting would look at issues and how they manifest themselves with a view to generating recommendations.

 

“Beyond the theories which the session seeks to look at, we will go down to the State to get the people’s view and balance this with the theories, to form proposals to be presented to the governors. When they are adopted, they become polices for all the16 states of APC”, he submitted.

 

Delivering the Governance Lecture, Dr. Ayo Teriba, chief executive officer, Economic Associates, said Government at all levels must do all within their powers to ameliorate the situation, adding that neglecting this fact would render all other policies unworkable.

 

He frowned at the non availability of accurate data outside which he said no meaningful planning could be achieved, adding that “ In the absence of an accurate unemployment figure by the government at the centre, any project by various organs are speculative; therefore, we must strive to ensure availability of accurate data to help the states to proffer workable policies