President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed that the People’s Democratic Party-led Federal Government will create additional 8 million jobs for the youths in the next four years if re-elected as president.
He said his administration is already working with eminent Nigerians in the private sector to make the mission a reality.
President Jonathan, who addressed Nigerians at the PDP presidential campaign rally held at MKO Abiola International Stadium in Abeokuta on Monday in the presence of Vice President Namadi Sambo; Adamu Mu’azu, PDP national chairman; Tony Anenih, chairman, BOT, and a host of party leaders, said the party was out to fight poverty through wealth and job creation.
The president said that the Federal Government had set up a technical committee to that effect which is headed by Vice President Sambo to work out the modalities for the creation of at least two million jobs every year. He explained that the Federal Government was also working with Tony Elumenu, chairman, UBA, and other investors from the private sector in order to achieve the goal.
He said, “We are out to create jobs; our target is to create not less than 2 million jobs every year. We are working with the private sector. Tony Elumelu is part of them and when we are talking about Elumelu, you know we are talking about a serious investor.”
While explaining that PDP has changed the face of agriculture in the country, President Jonathan declared that the PDP-led Federal Government would integrate commercial agriculture into secondary schools’ curricula to create wealth, more jobs and to reduce the country’s balance of payment deficit on imported foods.
He affirmed that there would be a sustainable effort by the Federal Government on the already established vibrant agricultural programmes to better the lives of the people and stimulate the economy, adding that the Federal Government’s industrial policy had facilitated recent establishment of 56 companies in Ogun State, which had employed many Nigerians.
He added that the Federal Government would embark on the construction of silos and other produce storage facilities across the country, including Ogun State, to enhance storage and preservative system among the farming populace, saying that the PDP-led Federal Government was ready to begin in earnest the construction of silos in Ogun East senatorial district in the state.
Earlier, Akinwunmi Adesina, the minister of agriculture and rural development, who was in the president’s entourage, revealed that the PDP has been able to reduce annual expenses on food imports from N1.1 trillion to N697 billion through a vibrant agricultural programme, adding that Nigeria was the only country that first introduced e-wallet fertiliser scheme to prevent alarming fraud rate in the agriculture sector of the economy.
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