Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered
the Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics, Dr. Yemi
Kale, to change the high unemployment statistics and reflect the rising
rate of employment in the agriculture sector.
The Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu,
said this on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels Television.
Shehu
said during a recent meeting with the Federal Executive Council, Kale
admitted that the NBS was only focusing on the creation of white collar
jobs and not the agriculture sector and the informal sector.
He said the President subsequently told him to go and admit his error to members of the public and make appropriate changes.
When
asked why job losses were being recorded, Shehu said, “There was a
departure last week. The NBS chief had addressed the federal cabinet and
he made the admission himself that they had concentrated analysis over
time on white collar jobs and they had not taken cognisance of job
creation in areas of agriculture.
“Rice Producers Association of
Nigeria made the open claim and nobody has challenged them up until the
time that we speak, that they had created 12 million new jobs.
“When
he finished addressing the federal cabinet last week, the government
asked the DG of the NBS, go out there and tell the Nigerian public, you
are just saying to us now that Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi and Ebonyi are
recording the lowest unemployment rates in the country on account of
agriculture.
“So, the point is that the data collected which has
formed judgement on the data that have been passed and misleading and I
think there is now a convergence. The data has been unfair to the
administration, it had ignored job creation in the areas of agriculture
but that is now being integrated and Nigerians will be impressed.”
However,
a spokesman for the Abubakar Atiku Campaign Organisation, Mr. Phrank
Shuaibu, who was on the programme, lambasted Shehu, accusing the
Presidency of attempting to alter job statistics on the eve of
elections.
Shuaibu said, “The National Bureau of Statics came for
EFC meeting and according to the President’s spokesman, the man
admitted that he miscalculated. That is an agency funded by government,
not an agency sponsored by any international organisation.
“He
has forgotten that this is not 1984. 2015 is not 1984. The world has
gone digital but because they are operating an analogue system of
government, they don’t know that even a 10-year-old can use the internet
to find out statistics.
“When the NBS came out with the figures
about loss of jobs and how it was affecting the economy, nobody came out
to defend the government. But just as the certificate issue was
managed, they have pushed the DG to the villa and obviously dictated to
him what he should say.
“You cannot say that a government that is
in power, the DG of NBS reeled out statistics, you did nothing to him,
many months after and because elections are here, on the eve of
elections, he is summoned to FEC and is asked to generate new figures.
That is a fallacious tale and an affront on the sensibilities of
Nigerians and they should apologise to us.”
Incidentally, the NBS has failed to release the statistics on unemployment for over a year, citing lack of funds as the reason.
However,
the opposition has always insisted that the Presidency had ordered the
agency not to release the figures until after elections.
Source:- Punchng
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