By Innocent Onoh
Some public and private organisations in Nigeria have begun to intensify awareness campaigns to discourage the indiscriminate migration of youths outside the country. They believe that if the trend is not checked, the country’s efforts to achieve sustainable development, especially in the areas of addressing insecurity, poverty and inequalities, could be in vain.
The growing awareness campaign, perhaps, led to the inauguration of an initiative known as Migration Enlightenment Project Nigeria, with the objective of checking illegal migration among the youths as well as how to get those with genuine documents to embark on their trips lawfully.
The Chairman, House Committee on Diaspora, Mrs. Rita Orji, who attended the event in Lagos, raised an alarm over the proliferation of human traffickers across the country. Mrs. Orji pointed out that some evil-minded people present themselves as job agents eager to help young people to find jobs abroad, and warned members of the public to beware of such fraudsters.
In her words, “The problem is that they have collaborators. These Nigerian youths moving out, they are not moving out on their own. Their collaborators promise them jobs. They start by giving them exotic gifts; the next thing is, they tell the youths to prepare to go abroad, where they will provide them with jobs. Don’t mind them. There is no job anywhere. In fact, in those countries where the fraudsters promise the unsuspecting youths jobs, over 55 percent of the people there, are jobless”.
According to the convener of the event, Mr. Kenneth Gbandi, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in Europe, the awareness program was conceived after a tour of Europe to see the untold hardship which Nigerians who travelled out illegally, face there. His words; “Europe is no longer favourable and it behooves on the youths to settle in their country”. According to him, if the youths must leave the shores of the country, they should obtain all the legal documents to avoid risking their lives abroad.
Contributing to the discussions, the co-convener of the event, Femi Awoniyi, who is based in Germany, advised Nigerian youths to seek livelihood at home, pointing out that things are not totally bad in the country. Mr. Awoniyi said, “The fact is that migration is part of human experience. But we believe that the perception among the youths that it is easier to make it abroad is wrong. Every society has its own challenges and I hope Nigerian journalists will take this matter further. Things are looking up for Nigeria”.
Many international events focusing on migration and climate change, in relation to the SDGs, have been held recently in Lagos. However, both international and local observers feel that the most practical way of checking migration is to enhance the socio-economic and environmental conditions especially in the rural areas so that people will appreciate the essence of staying in their places of birth.
