The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has said over 20 million Nigerians, mostly graduates, were unemployed.

He said this during a meeting of members of the Federal Executive Council with members of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress and members of the state executives of the party.

As reported by The Punch Newspaper, the minister stressed that the decision to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry was to assist government to get the resources to create jobs.

Ngige attended the meeting with his counterparts from the Ministry of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal.

He explained that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration took the painful decision because it was the right thing to do in the light of current economic realities.

The minister added that the 7th Senate stopped the payment of subsidy via a resolution but it was not carried through by the previous administration.

He also lamented that successive administrations since 1999 failed to save for the rainy day. He explained that to address the unemployment gap, the administration had devoted 30 per cent of the 2016 budget to capital projects.

“This will still create jobs. Our unemployed today surpass 20 million and if you check they are all graduates, in the next one or two years, Nigerians will be hailing you for the things we’ve done.”

Speaking in a similar vein, Mohammed said government and the party were on the same page on the issue of taking the right decisions not only for the present but to secure the nation’s future.

According to him, the executive has put in place measures to ensure regular interaction with the party at all levels in order to draw from their experiences to enrich governance at the centre.

Mohammed said government was left with no option but to deregulate because the arrangement it met on the ground was not sustainable.