Rivers State Governor, Nyesome Wike, has faulted the recent unemployment data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), saying “it is fake, it is political. I don’t believe in them. I don’t believe in their statistics.”
Speaking on Friday, during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Wike admitted that there is a high level of unemployment in Nigeria. He, however, claimed that his government has created a lot of jobs, though such might not be in the formal sector.
“If you have a lot of construction jobs going on, for example, does that not create employment? Does employment mean you must work in government? Is that what employment means? What counts as employment is that you have something doing. That is key; that is employment,” the former Education Minister stated.
“There is no employment that is forever. Even you as a civil servant, it is not forever. You have time you must leave. Employment does not mean it is something you must do forever.”
“In Rivers State today, nobody can tell me that we have not tried in terms of employment; to reduce the level of unemployment,” he added.
The NBS had in its ‘Labour Force Statistics: Unemployment and Underemployment Report’ for the second quarter of 2020, released on Friday, August 14, pushed the country’s unemployment rate at 27 per cent from 23.1 per cent reported in the third quarter of 2018.
The report put Rivers State unemployment rate at 43.7 per cent, the third-highest in Nigeria, while Imo State has the highest rate with 48.7 per cent. Akwa-Ibom State has the second-highest at 45.2 per cent.
For underemployment, Zamfara State recorded the highest rate with 43.7 per cent, while Anambra State recorded the lowest rate with 17 per cent.
“For the period under review, Q2 2020, the unemployment rate among young people (15-34 years) was 34.9 per cent, up from 29.7 per cent, while the rate of underemployment for the same age group rose to 28.2 per cent from 25.7 per cent in Q3 2018. These rates were the highest when compared to other age groupings,” the NBS report said.
According to the NBS, the number of persons in the economically active age (15 – 64 years), jumped from 115,492,969 in Q3 2018 to 116,871,186 in Q2 2020.
“The number of persons in the labour force (i.e. people within ages 15 -64, who are able and willing to work) was estimated to be 80,291,894,” it said.
The reported noted that figure was 11.3 per cent less than the number of persons in Q3 2018, adding “Of this number, those within the age bracket of 25-34 were highest, with 23,328,460 or 29.1 per cent of the labour force.”
On how he got his statistics, Wike said “By the jobs, we have created… you are in Government House now, as you go to the back, you see over 250 people working.
That is just one area. And that job has been on for one year. That is not a job? It does not give them money to feed? That is one area.
“As you go to Forces Avenue, you see over 100 people working, that is not employment? As you go to Garrison where there is the flyover, you see over 300 people working.”
While calling on the NBS to visit the State and get facts about employment, the governor said: “They should come to Rivers State and see for themselves what we are doing to create jobs. Not just sitting in their offices. They never deployed anybody to come here.”
He disclosed that his government has been able to create over 100,000 jobs since its inception in 2015. “I may not be exact but I do know that since we came on board, we have created not less than 100, 000 jobs. If you go to our Statistics department, you will find out that these things are there.”
