Progressive govs target job creation

By Umar Muhammad Puma

Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), the umbrella body of the state governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has embarked on policy design sessions to create jobs for the teeming unemployment youth in the country.

Speaking during the inauguration of the policy design session, Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum and governor of Imo state, Chief Rochas Okorocha described unemployment as one of the major economic and security challenges confronting Nigeria today.

He tasked the panel which comprises economists, policy development experts, commissioners of economic planning from APC states and other technocrats to develop workable and easily implementable solutions to mitigate the problem of unemployment plaguing our society.

The governor, who was represented by the Imo state Commissioner of Planning, Ms Adaora Ijezie, said the policy design sessions were part of the APC’s approach to win the confidence of Nigerians and that the party intended nothing less than a total overhaul of the present system which had stagnated development, and only paid lip service to the issues of insecurity and worsening poverty.

Also speaking at the event, the Ogun state governor and host of the session, Senator Ibikunle Amosun said the policy design sessions were a follow-up to the Progressive Governance Lecture in Ibadan, three weeks ago which examined unemployment and the crisis of development in Nigeria. The governor explained that APC states would not stop at mere proclamations, but back up their words with actions by designing policies to create jobs in all sectors of the economy.

Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Mr. Salihu Lukman explained that the objective of the policy design session was to develop policy proposals that would assist all APC states in their bid to create jobs.