Don wants enabling environment to discourage youths’ illegal migration
NAN-H-61
Youths
By Suleiman Shehu
Ibadan, Jan. 30, 2018 (NAN) A university lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Prof. Oka Obono, on Tuesday, urged government to create enabling environment that would enable the youths utilise their creativity positively.
Obono who made the call in Ibadan during an Aquinas’ Day symposium organised by Dominican University, Ibadan, said the measure would reduce illegal migration of the Nigerian youths.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the title of the symposium was: “Searching for Greener Pasture in the Desert: Ambition, Frustration and Adventures of Young Nigerians.”
“The economy is not about government giving job, but creating energy and an environment where the creativity of the young people can come into play.
“ Some youths have ideals and what they need is startup capital, mentoring and encouragement from existing institutions.
“Government should attempt to have longtime planning culture and if all these are done, I think desperate migration will reduce to the barest.
“Government must start to look inwards in finding solution that will make the youths remain in Nigeria.
“It should look at what can be done to improve the education sector for it to be acceptable and affordable for all youths,” Obono said.
The professor said also that the country needed to begin to recognise youths in decision making and include them more in governance.
He said that the youths migrated out of the country through the desert and risked their lives due to the prevailing harsh socio-economic realities.
In his contribution, Dr Emmanuel Akubor, a lecturer in the Department of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, said youths were impatient, and in their desperation to succeed so fast, migrated through the desert.
Akubor also said that government must be ready to provide environment where businesses could flourish for the country to be able to overcome the problem of illegal migration.
“ Unless the society and government is ready to face industrialisation and make the environment such that it becomes difficult to migrate illegally, the search for greener pasture will continue,’’Akubor said.
Earlier, Prof. Anthony Akinwale, Vice Chancellor, Dominican University, Ibadan, said the lecture was organised to discourage young Nigerians from risking their lives in search of greener pasture.
Akinwale said that the symposium was the first since the university was established and.
He added that the institution was determined to build future leaders who would recreate a Nigeria that everyone would be proud of. (NAN)
SYS/KOLE/EMO
=============
Edited by Remi Koleoso/Ejike Obeta