BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

NIGERIA Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, has expressed concern over the worsening unemployment in the country, blaming it on growing insecurity and high crime wave.

NUPENG, in a statement issued yesterday by its President, Mr. Igwe Achese, warned that the army of unemployed in the country was a time-bomb waiting to explode any moment from now.

According to the union, the Federal Government’s statistics that only five million Nigerians are unemployed is a fallacy. He  insisted that the figure was over 20 million, considering the turn-out of graduates by higher institutions in the country yearly to join the unemployment market and through redundancies, retrenchments and downsizing in the economy on a daily basis.

The union said “The current waves of violence in the North, kidnappings in the South are a result of unemployment in the land. NUPENG is sad that despite this nagging challenge, Nigeria has been declared as Africa’s largest economy with a rebased Gross Domestic Product of $150bn, which is utter balderdash, in an economy that cannot provide the necessary amenities for its citizenry. The Federal Government must partner with the private sector to open up the economy and this can be achieved through re-industrialisation.

“The recent power sector reform has come to naught, as the nation still suffers from severe darkness and is still generator-driven, which is not helping the economy grow. We urge government to make the power sector work so that the reliance on generators will be drastically reduced, so that small-scale or cottage industries can thrive. We want moribund industries to come on stream, which will go a long way to employ our unemployed workers.”

We also want more refineries to be established and the existing ones should undergo turn-around- maintenance for effective performance.”

The union added that rural areas should be fully developed to reduce the rural-urban drift, advising that government should provide free land and tax holidays to potential investors coming into country.