Delta State Governor, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, has attributed the high level of unemployment to the inability of institutions of higher learning in Nigeria to position their products to be self-employed rather than looking for government jobs.
Governor Okowa, who frowned at the high number of graduates, who are looking for government jobs, spoke yesterday when the management team of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba led by its Provost, Dr Ignatius Ezoem, paid him a courtesy call in Asaba.
According to the governor, unless urgent steps are taking to reverse the trend where graduates of Nigerian universities will rely solely on government jobs to make ends meet, Nigeria will continue to witness high level of unemployment.
He disclosed that his administration had kick-started the process of making Nigerian graduates self-employed by encouraging vocational training.
“One of the cardinal programs of this administration is to ensure that we are able to raise up our children to embrace technical and vocational education that will enable them acquire skills because the curriculum in our various institutions have been such that most persons that come out of the universities and institutions of higher learning depend on government jobs and there is no doubt that spaces for government jobs are getting full and therefore the unemployment rate is on a high rate in the country,” he said.
The governor said, “we have kick-started programs as a government to train our children to acquire skills both agriculturally and entrepreneurially, we will be putting them into situations where they are not just seeking for jobs but they are able to create jobs on their own and be able to sustain their various families.”
He expressed the readiness of his administration to partner with agencies that are committed to creating jobs and making the youths to be self employed, reiterating, “I am glad that you (Federal College of Education Technical, Asaba) will be a part of it.
We will be directing our Chief Job Creation Officer to look into your institution to see ways we can partner because we are already partnering with various institutions like the Delta State University and National Directorate of Employment and we will be glad to partner with you in that direction.”
Earlier, Dr Ezoem congratulated Governor Okowa on his electoral victory and pledged the support of his College for the state government’s youth empowerment and wealth creation programmes.
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