Presidency has condemned the truancy attitude of many beneficiaries of its poverty alleviation programme know as Npower, said such behaviour is making the initiative look ineffective.
The presidency disclosed this through the special adviser to the president Muhammadu Buhari on Job creation, Mr Muhammed Brimah at a Programme organized by an Islamic association know as ‘The Companion’ at the weekend in Ilorin, the state capital
The programme which was centered around how to create employment for the teeming youth of Nigeria with the theme ‘Unemployment and National Insecurity, The Nexus and Panacea’ had Dr. Bashir Kurfi as the guest lecturer.
Mr Brimah said “the initiative of Npower was not to create permanent job of thirty thousands Monthly Salary for the beneficiaries but to train them on employability skills and how they can as well be Independent and employer of labour after they must have passed through two years training, but just unfortunate, many of the beneficiaries are not taking it serious with the report that most of them do not always report at their place of training instead they prefer sharing the stipend with the head of those organizations”
He, however, appealed to the beneficiaries to take the initiative serious with both hands by being punctual at their place of training and always make use of devices given to them for knowledge enhancement before their exit from the programme because Npower is not a permanent job for anybody.
Speaking earlier, the National Amir of the association, Alhaji Thabit Adewale Sonaike, said the association as part of their biennial elective national conference decided to talked about unemployment because it is the root causes of all social vices the country is facing presently and its collective responsibility of all both parents and government.
“Without doubt, Unemployment and insecurity are two of the major problems facing our country today to the extent that president Muhammadu Buhari, used them as major campaign issues during the last two general elections. But just unfortunate that the crisis of unemployment in present Nigeria has assumed a frightening dimension bedeviling the lives of Nigerians , especially the youth, causing increased militancy, violent crimes, kidnapping and other insecurity one could think of”
Alhaji Thabit, Quoted the present minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige Statement at one of the open even of recent, said, “incessant increase of unemployment in the country was alarming, with projected to reach 33.5 percent by the year 2020 with consequences that are better imagined if the trend is not urgently reversed”
In his paper, the guest lecturer, Dr. Bashir Kurfi, called on government at all level to be more creative in initiating policies and programmes that could lead to creating employment opportunities for the teeming youth across the country because their idleness is what is causing various insecurity the country in presently facing.
Dr. Bashir, also called on wealthy individuals, most especially those that have amassed wealth through public office to always invest in Nigeria by establish companies that capable of employing reasonable numbers of youth like Nigeria used to have in the past, the likes of Lever brothers, Leventis, Bhojson, and many more that always go to tertiary institutions on their graduation ceremony day to pick best brains as staff.
In his contributions, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mallam Yusuf Ola-Olu Alli challenged the government at all level to always come out clear and visionary in whatever programmes they are rolling out to eradicate poverty, because ambiguity of ideas and programmes could cause more problems than solving the menace of unemployment.