The Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Dingyadi, on Thursday, said Nigerians expecting his ministry to provide jobs would be disappointed because that is not part of its mandate.
He stated this at the annual conference of the Federal Capital Territory chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations in Abuja.
While highlighting that his ministry is mindful of Nigeria’s enormous youth population and the need to ensure gainful engagement, Dingyadi stressed that the provision of employment for the youth was not their responsibility.
According to the former minister of police affairs, their main task was to create an enabling environment and never to secure jobs for anybody.
He said, “You will agree with me that the mandate of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment is never to give employment to people.
“However, it is at the heart of the Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly as it relates to job creation, sustained and inclusive investment, as well as the promotion of enhanced productivity for improved service delivery.
“As you are aware, the ministry is not there to provide employment, because the former minister of youths and sports (Sunday Dare), before he left, was asking me to give him jobs. I said we only create the environment for jobs. We don’t give jobs.
“Mr President is poised and committed to providing the requisite leadership and driving initiatives geared towards Nigeria’s economic recovery and transformation.
“This is evident in the recent successful negotiation of a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers, and the deliberate efforts towards sustainable strategic investments in human capital, infrastructure, innovation and institutional reforms.”
Earlier in his speech, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, urged Nigerians not to give up on Tinubu over the current hardship rocking the nation.
He assured that though every economic reform comes with excruciating pain, they should take solace in the fact that some of the President’s initiatives were beginning to yield results.
He said, “My job and that of the presidential media team is to try and win Nigerians over to understand why this is taking place.
“Beyond that, we are in the process of reforms covering several sectors, driven largely by the eight-point agenda of President Bola Tinubu. He is a President who has chosen the road less travelled.
“Very often, it is the path that has challenges, very difficult but most certainly leads to the desired destination. The reforms in the fiscal and monetary, oil, manufacturing, power and almost 10 other sectors are ongoing. We are beginning to see the benefits of these reforms.
“We also have a President who believes failure to take one stitch now will mean we are going to take nine stitches down the road. But I believe one stitch now is better.
He is also a President who is mindful of the difficulties the people are going through and is working arduously to provide solutions.”
In his address, the NIPR President, Dr Ike Neliaku, urged Nigeria to work on its public relations and image in the international community.
According to him, a country without a good reputation could not attract serious investors to boost its economy.
“Public Relations builds and promotes reputation. And we are saying that we must take the reputation of our nation seriously.
“It is only when your reputation is high that you can get investors to come in and invest in the economy.
“If your economy does not have respect for the way things ought to be done, nobody will invest in such an economy,” he stated.
