Segun James
The government of Akwa Ibom State has described the statistics on the state’s unemployment published by the National Bureau of Statistics as voodoo statistics “which has nothing to do with the reality on ground in the state.”
The state government in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh, said the NBS contradicted itself by saying that between third quarter of 2017 and third quarter of 2018, only Akwa Ibom and eight other states “recorded a reduction in their unemployment rates despite an increase in the national unemployment rates,” adding that this finding contradicts the main conclusion of the NBS and renders the exercise spurious and utterly confounding.
The statistics is on ‘Labour Force Statistics Volume 2: Unemployment and Underemployment by State for Third Quarter’.
According to Udoh, Akwa Ibom State under Governor Udom Emmanuel has tackled unemployment and under-employment with great zeal and that the central plank of the governor’s first term in office was the need to rapidly industrialise the state and create employment opportunities for its teeming youths.
He said: “So far, this policy has been achieved leading to the establishment of 16 industries that have employed thousands of our youths. The Akwa Ibom Employment and Enterprise Scheme (AKEES) has ignited in our youths an entrepreneurial and ownership mind-set, and this has seen our youths applying their creative resources to create employment for themselves as part of our Dakkada philosophy.
“Because of the achievements recorded in the job and wealth creation agenda of Emmanuel’s administration, youth restiveness has been greatly reduced, leading to the peace and safety we now enjoy in our state, which is one of the main reasons why foreign investors are trooping to the state.”
The commissioner said the “completion agenda of Emmanuel as enunciated in the 2019 manifesto will expand the job creation agenda horizon and further provide more opportunities for the people to be gainfully employed.
“We wish to emphasise here that the 2019 elections are over, and cooking up unnecessary statistics to help certain narratives should be discouraged. Akwa Ibom State is rising and will continue to be on the ascendance in the next four years of the governor’s second term in office.”
