The Federal Government has blamed crude oil theft for the worsening unemployment situation in the country.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, while speaking during the 8th Meeting of the National Employment Council in Abuja, lamented that oil theft had made Nigeria to become a mendicant nation, resorting to begging for survival.

Ngige, who is the chairman of the council, said crude oil theft had hampered the efforts of the federal government towards creating jobs for the country’s teeming youthful population.

In a statement by the Head, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun, on Friday in Abuja, Ngige said: “I am aware that you people know that we are at a very critical stage in our nation’s life. We have economic problems all over the world, but our own in Nigeria is self-inflicted. Our main source of revenue is oil.

“But, in the oil sector, two things are happening. One, Nigeria is not meeting her production quota. Our OPEC production quota used to be 2.2 million barrels per day. It slipped down to 1.8 million barrels. Now, we cannot even produce the 1.8 million barrels. We are hovering around 1.1 million barrels per day, and they told us that some people are stealing our crude oil.

“This is a very serious matter because it has made us become very mendicant. We cannot continue that way because it has hampered our efforts to create jobs for our teeming youthful population.”

“Some people were analysing the situation and said that when we started the country, the white men came here and took all the jobs. We were seeing them with white shirts and ties and the jobs became known as white collar jobs. Later, our own people started going to university and after graduation, joined in the ‘white collar jobs.” (The Nation)