Politics
#2019Debate: Nigeria lost four million jobs in six months – Peter Obi
The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party , Mr Peter Obi , has said Nigeria lost four million jobs in a six -month period , while China created 10 million jobs .
Obi , who said this in his opening speech at the ongoing vice presidential debate in Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja , knocked the current administration for failing in counterterrorism , education and job creation .
He said , “ On the issue of unemployment , which is worsening , we can see that millions of our children are out of school . You can see from a study that there is a straight link between SMEs and growing your economy , and we ’ re not supporting our own SMEs very well .
“ If you look at what China has been able to do with SMEs , SMEs in China is contributing to 60 per cent of their GDP . And 60 per cent of China ’ s GDP is 7 . 2 tn ( dollars ) , which is 18 per cent of Nigeria ’ s GDP .
“ China today , using the same SMEs , is guaranteeing 10 million jobs annually . Half of this year alone, China has produced 7 . 2 million jobs , which is over 40 per cent of their target . Within the same period , Nigeria lost four million jobs . ”
According to the former Anambra State governor , Nigeria needs to rejig its policies and have a better focus on how it can create jobs .
He added that as long as Nigeria does not create jobs , with the number of unemployed youths in their productive age , Nigeria might go into crisis .
Obi said , “ That is why we have issues of insecurity, instability and all sorts of things we are witnessing today . We now live in a country where we have the highest number of poor people in any nation — 87 million and growing six per cent every minute .
“ Our country today has the highest number of school children in the world . Our HDI ( human development index ) has dropped from 152 to 157 . Our global competitive index has dropped from 124 to 127 .
“ In terrorism , we have moved from seven to number three just behind Iran and Afghanistan . Our inequality has worsened. Our misery index has worsened. Stress index now places us at 148 of 149 . These are hinged on two things from studies and that is on education and unemployment. ”
According to Obi, with Nigeria unemployment moving from 24 to 40 per cent , the more it can invest in education , the better its economy . He said the statistics showed Nigeria was not investing in education .
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