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Labour ministry denies link to phony job placement

By Collins Olayinka, Abuja
07 January 2016   |   2:06 am
IT was a mild drama at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment on Monday as a message alledgedly from one of the officials of the ministry calling for submission of curriculum vitae of prospective job seekers almost turned violent.
Minister for Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige

Minister for Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige

IT was a mild drama at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment on Monday as a message alledgedly from one of the officials of the ministry calling for submission of curriculum vitae of prospective job seekers almost turned violent.

Indeed, the message, which was obtained by The Guardian read, “jobseekers are invited to register at the federal ministry of labour and employment public job centres or visit the ministry’s www.nelexnigeria.com or www.nelex.gov.ng. Register only once please. Don’t forget to inform someone.”

Even his belated message sent on a social media platform that the registration is not connected to any Federal Government directive and that it is a statutory function of the ministry to register job seekers for placement in available job opportunities did not dissuade job seekers from invading the ministry.

Indeed, ‘nelex’ is a creation of the ministry to register and monitor Nigerians willing to work abroad and not an employment platform for job placement. The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is created to create jobs in the informal sector through training and empowerment schemes of various types.

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) is also saddled with the responsibilities of implementing social security initiatives in the country. It is currently implementing the Employees Compensation Scheme for the workers that sustain injury in the workplace. These two organizations are parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

A statement by the Deputy Director Press in the ministry, Samuel Olowookere, disclaimed the job placement request.

The statement read in part: “The attention of the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. (Dr.) Chris Ngige (OON) has been drawn to the online publication requesting unemployed Nigerian youths to submit application for employment at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Headquarter and Zonal offices nationwide.

“The general public is hereby advised to disregard this false directive as it did not emanate from the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
In view of the apprehension the above false information has generated it is pertinent to point out that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, is committed to the creation of decent employment opportunities for teeming unemployed Nigerians and has perfected plans for massive job creation through well thought out programmes such as Graduate Teachers Conversion Programme, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), Vocational Skills Acquisition and Upgrading, Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) for the vulnerable persons including market women.”

He hinted that the general public would be informed in due course when any of these programmes/scheme is rolled out.

Olowookere added: “The public is hereby warned to disregard the said online publication as any person who does otherwise does so at his or her own risk especially when some of the websites have been requesting applicants to pay what they dubbed ‘application fees’.”

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