A former Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has lambasted Western nations granting visas to Nigerian youths seeking greener pastures abroad.
He said this in an interview with BBC Yoruba when asked to comment on the growing “japa” trend among educated Nigerian youths.
“I have heard about it and the reports are scary. All our youths and young talents are travelling out of Nigeria, seeking greener pastures, and the prospective countries are deliberately giving them visas to leave the country, without putting the origin country into consideration.
“What scares me most in all this is the proliferation of emigration. Foreigners will not fix our nation for us if all our citizens should leave the country.
“I am seeing the countries granting visas to our youths as wicked because they are not considering the origin nation, from which their prospective labour force are coming from.
“If you ask our people leaving the nation for greener pastures, they will tell you that they are not planning to return to Nigeria.
“If you look closely at the situation, you would see that all our lawyers, accountants and most especially medical practitioners make up the largest chunk of the people leaving the country.
“We cannot blame them however; insecurity is one of the major problems pushing our people out of the country. You will agree with me that our people are not lazy and are always willing and ready to work diligently.
“Most of the migrants are forced to leave the country as a result of bad governance, unstable economy, insecurity and other challenges.
“I am sure Nigeria will be great again, but the reports of migration recently have been disheartening for me,” Amosun said.