The Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, said President Muhammadu Buhari cannot be blamed for the high number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
He also said it is not the responsibility of the federal government alone to create jobs but to provide the enabling environment for job creation.
Keyamo, who is also the spokesman for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, made the observation when appealing on Arise TV on Thursday.
According to him, primary and secondary school education are in the hands of the state government and as such, the number of out-of-primary and secondary school children cannot be blamed on the federal but the state governments.
He said, “primary and secondary school is not within the purview of the federal government. Let us get that clear. So when you roll out that statistics you’re talking about the PDP government at the state levels, you’re talking about the APGA government in Anambra, you’re talking about the APC government in different states too.
“So it is not the burden of the federal government that children are out of school at the primary school level, and secondary school level. That is a state responsibility.
“We only intervene sometimes in terms of funding and some kind of support we give to the state government. So the state government should take responsibility for this, and they should encourage students at those levels to go to school.
“While acknowledging that the unemployment rate is high minister said ” go and look at the statistics from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics and look at the state by state level of unemployment; it’s not that of the federal government alone.
“Some of the opposition party states has the highest number of unemployed persons. It is the responsibility of state and local government to employ people, not the responsibility of the federal government alone.
“What the federal government does is to provide the enabling environment and policies that can make people get employment”.