Garba Shehu, special assistant to
the president on media and publicity, and Yemi Kale, the statistician-general
of the federation, have disagreed over methods of tracking job creation and
unemployment numbers in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels TV Sunrise
Daily, Shehu said Yemi Kale, who doubles as the CEO of the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), told the Federal Executive Council that the NBS only takes
white collar jobs into consideration when preparing its jobs report.
“The NBS chief had addressed the
federal cabinet and he made the admission that they had concentrated analysis
over time on white collar jobs that they had not taken cognisance of job
creation in areas of agriculture,” Shehu said.
“The rice farmers association of
Nigeria made the open claim and nobody has challenged them up to the time that
we speak that they had created 12m new jobs.
“When he finished addressing the
federal cabinet last week, the government asked the DG of the NBS, go out there
and tell Nigerian public, you are just telling us now that Kebbi and Ebonyi are
reporting the lowest unemployment rate in the country on account of
agriculture.”
SHEHU: NBS DATA MISLEADING
“So, I think the data collected
on the bases of which some of the judgement has been passed that is
misleading,” Shehu added.
“The data has been unfair to the
agriculture, they had ignored job creation in the area of agriculture. If you
are talking about job losses, no, we have created at least 12m new jobs in the
area of agriculture.”
When the claims were brought to
the attention of the NBS chief on Twitter, he said he made no such submissions
to anybody at any time.
“Assuming what you claim was said
was actually said then I make it very clear that neither the
statistician-general nor NBS ever made any such admission at any time to
anybody,” Kale said.
“The unemployment computations
does take into account all sectors, age groups, and both rural and urban
areas.”
SHEHU FIGHTS BACK
To clear the air after Kale’s
denial, Shehu said he spoke of a very bright jobs creation by the Muhammadu
Buhari administration, adding that he said nothing wrong.
“There is nothing wrong with what
I said on sunrisedailynow, this morning. I spoke about the very bright picture
of jobs creation by the Buhari administration Mr Yemi Kale gave last week.
“That impressive report on jobs
created in agriculture showed that rice-growing states like Jigawa, Ebonyi and
Kebbi had the lowest unemployment.
“Mr. President, who had
complained many times about employment figures reflecting mostly white collar
jobs and therefore unfairly underplaying the millions of jobs his
administration has created in the farms must have felt a sense of vindication.
“The response by the government
was, go and put this out, address a world press conference to correct the wrong
impression for all to know how well we are doing in creating jobs. We hope
there will soon be a date for that press conference.”
The NBS has not released any
unemployment report in 2018, following the failure of the federal government to
release funds for conducting the surveys for the final report.
Garba Shehu, special assistant to
the president on media and publicity, and Yemi Kale, the statistician-general
of the federation, have disagreed over methods of tracking job creation and
unemployment numbers in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels TV Sunrise
Daily, Shehu said Yemi Kale, who doubles as the CEO of the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), told the Federal Executive Council that the NBS only takes
white collar jobs into consideration when preparing its jobs report.
“The NBS chief had addressed the
federal cabinet and he made the admission that they had concentrated analysis
over time on white collar jobs that they had not taken cognisance of job
creation in areas of agriculture,” Shehu said.
“The rice farmers association of
Nigeria made the open claim and nobody has challenged them up to the time that
we speak that they had created 12m new jobs.
“When he finished addressing the
federal cabinet last week, the government asked the DG of the NBS, go out there
and tell Nigerian public, you are just telling us now that Kebbi and Ebonyi are
reporting the lowest unemployment rate in the country on account of
agriculture.”
SHEHU: NBS DATA MISLEADING
“So, I think the data collected
on the bases of which some of the judgement has been passed that is
misleading,” Shehu added.
“The data has been unfair to the
agriculture, they had ignored job creation in the area of agriculture. If you
are talking about job losses, no, we have created at least 12m new jobs in the
area of agriculture.”
When the claims were brought to
the attention of the NBS chief on Twitter, he said he made no such submissions
to anybody at any time.
“Assuming what you claim was said
was actually said then I make it very clear that neither the
statistician-general nor NBS ever made any such admission at any time to
anybody,” Kale said.
“The unemployment computations
does take into account all sectors, age groups, and both rural and urban
areas.”
SHEHU FIGHTS BACK
To clear the air after Kale’s
denial, Shehu said he spoke of a very bright jobs creation by the Muhammadu
Buhari administration, adding that he said nothing wrong.
“There is nothing wrong with what
I said on sunrisedailynow, this morning. I spoke about the very bright picture
of jobs creation by the Buhari administration Mr Yemi Kale gave last week.
“That impressive report on jobs
created in agriculture showed that rice-growing states like Jigawa, Ebonyi and
Kebbi had the lowest unemployment.
“Mr. President, who had
complained many times about employment figures reflecting mostly white collar
jobs and therefore unfairly underplaying the millions of jobs his
administration has created in the farms must have felt a sense of vindication.
“The response by the government
was, go and put this out, address a world press conference to correct the wrong
impression for all to know how well we are doing in creating jobs. We hope
there will soon be a date for that press conference.”
The NBS has not released any
unemployment report in 2018, following the failure of the federal government to
release funds for conducting the surveys for the final report.
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