More Youths To Be Gainfully Employed In 2017 – FG

The Secretary to Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is laying a solid foundation for the future generation through his leadership style. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Lawal, who spoke at a roundtable with top government officials in Owerri on Saturday, said that by no fewer than one million youth will be gainfully employed by year end. The SGF was in Owerri on Friday where he was conferred with a Fellowship at the 5th Convocation of Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo. He said Buhari’s administration was not witch-hunting anybody, but wanted to ensure that impunity and corruption were eradicated in the country. Lawal said the Federal Government had already engaged over 30,000 youths through its numerous programmes and job creation, adding that one million youths would be gainfully employed before the end of 2017. He said the president inherited a lot of challenges ranging from insecurity to corruption, adding that the situation needed support and patience to fix the economy. He said that everybody must join hand to rediscover the nation and to put it back to where it rightfully belong. He said, “We have commenced a new journey of rapid and sustainable economic growth that will usher us prosperity despite all the challenges. “Our economy should have been among the strongest in the world if not for the high level of corruption which is more evident in key sectors like education and health care delivery.” The SGF said the administration had recorded huge success since it started the fight against corruption and had prosecuted many public office holders. He added that the Whistleblowing policy had helped the administration recovered millions of naira from corrupt Nigerians, adding that the huge sum would be reinvested to boost the economy. Lawal said that government was aware of the pains Nigerians were passing through. He assured that government was doing everything possible to address it. “This government has introduced diversification policy and very soon we will begin to witness changes as we have witnessed in rice and wheat production,” he said. Gov. Rochas Okorocha said that this was not the time for Nigerians to weep or complain in the struggle for nationhood, but a time to comply. According to him, Nigeria must write the history of this recession, just like other advanced nation did in their own struggle to greatness. Okorocha further said Buhari’s main job was not to build skyscrapers but to lay a solid foundation for other successors to build. He said Nigerians should continue to pray for the president as his emergence was divine and the purpose must be fulfilled. Okrocha also admonished youths to de- emphasize the search for civil service jobs, but to see agriculture as the fastest means to create wealth.

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