Buhari unhappy about level of unemployment in Nigeria ― Onu

The Federal Government has revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari was disturbed and unhappy about the level of unemployment in the country.

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbannaya Onu, made this revelation in Abuja during the inauguration of the committees on Drafting of National Welding and Related Fields as well as National Status Survey on Welding and Related Fields.

He said the inauguration was apt and timely considering the rate of unemployment, and as such, the government must find a way to ensure that all young Nigerians willing to work can find good quality work to do.

Dr Onu noted that the policy formed by the committees would reposition Nigeria in the practice of welding and welding-related activities which include construction, manufacturing, production, training, quality control and assurance.

The minister said, in addition to the desire of the government to promote rapid industrialization, serious efforts are ongoing to revive the steel industry in the country.

According to him: “We must work together as a nation to ensure that all these things that we currently import into the country will, in the future, be manufactured and produced locally in Nigeria.”

He said the influx of foreign personnel in the welding practice would be significantly reduced in order to ensure that no foreigner, irrespective of the standing of his employer, would not be allowed to take on jobs that Nigerians can execute.

Dr Onu, therefore, urged committees’ members to be resilient in the discharge of their duties as the importance of the assignments and their outcomes are expected to prepare Nigeria for rapid industrialization.

In his speech, the President, Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW), Dr Solomon Edebiri noted that welding plays a significant role in the industrialization of any nation’s economy as attested in marine, telecoms, agriculture, oil and gas and transportation.

He lamented that over the last decade, the influx of foreign welding personnel into Nigeria, especially in the oil and gas industry, was unprecedented as thus very worrisome.

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