Nigeria’s labour and employment minister, Chris Ngige, says the plague of Boko Haram, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and bandits in Nigeria is a symptom of jobless people.
“When you hear about Boko Haram, that is one of the symptoms, when you hear about banditry and IPOB, it is one of the symptoms of jobless people. So, for me, the President has decided that we must fight unemployment. We have to fight because the indices are terrible and that does not call for cheers.
“We have to decide and wear our thinking cap and take our country away from the doldrums. The President is committed to recreating the middle class in Nigeria. He is committed to lifting at least 100 million people out of poverty and the only way if for our economy to improve,” he explained.
According to Ngige, President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to lifting 100 million people out of poverty.
The minister added, “What we are here to do his national service. Anybody who is a minister of the federal republic is on national service. Most of the jobs we did in the ministry are to prevent job loss, especially in the oil industry. We have seen the symptom called unemployment, which is very visible.
“When our economy improves, we would deal a big blow to poverty, social insecurity and also the insecurity of lives and property. We have to make our country a better place because we cannot run away from that. We all have a collective responsibility.
“We have a situation now where you have the topmost rich who are very rich and those at the bottom. Even down there at the bottom, you still have people who cannot be compartmentalized into the middle class.
