Ayobami Oyalowo, a former member of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, has stated that state governments must also account for job creation in their various roles.
Oyalowo, who was responding to inquiries about the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s, plans for rescuing the country’s economy, particularly in the area of job creation, said state governments should also be questioned.
This was stated by the APC chieftain on Monday’s Arise TV Morning Show.
Tinubu, he claims, has a slew of economic proposals for the country.
“Asiwaju (Tinubu) has stated clearly what a government should do. We keep forgetting that we have three tiers of government. When you keep talking about jobs, have you asked state governors what have they done in terms of job creation?” he said when questioned on how Tinubu intended to tackle the rate of unemployment in the country.
‘Employment not limited to White Collar jobs’
“See, let me quickly bring you back to where we were before Muhammadu Buhari became president.
“Our entire grain crops in Nigeria – over 90% – was imported. As I speak today, that has been removed. We have empowered farmers. But of course, nobody talks about farmers, you keep thinking people who don’t work in ministries and government agencies are jobless, however, go and check the statistics,” he added.
‘Ability to go for hajj determines wealth’
According to him, to know who is wealthy in the North, one of the things you have to look at is the ability to go for Umrah or hajj.
“Go and check the last five years, the highest number of people from the North who have gone on hajj have been farmers who were empowered, especially rice and grain farmers. Creating jobs is not only for people to get jobs in ministry,” he added.
‘Architect of Lagos’
He said Tinubu’s manifesto ensured that every zone had a competitive advantage, saying Tinubu would empower the zones by going through the governors and ensuring that jobs were created.
He said Tinubu could be trusted in the affairs of the country having been “the architect of what we’re seeing today” in Lagos.
The chieftain also reiterated that Tinubu would return to the country today.