A former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Professor Martin Uhomoibi, believes the growing ‘Japa’ might be a grand plan to depopulate the country’s assets.
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‘Japa’, is a Yoruba slang that means to leave for greener pastures with many Nigerians, especially youth joining the fray in recent years.
But speaking on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Uhomoibi argued that despite the achievements recorded in some sectors, the high rate of migration would deflate Nigeria’s potential.
“What we have done in the entertainment industry, what we are doing in the leading countries of the world—in their health industries, in their educational industries—Nigeria is excelling in those places,” he said during the breakfast show.
“But I must caution that what is going on at the moment is very scary. The Japa syndrome that is pervasive seems to me really like a grand plan to depopulate our country of the assets that they have invested in and that are capable of revolutionising it.”
Despite the threat posed by the ‘Japa’ situation, the former president of the UN Human Rights Council believes that the nation has enough people and skilled labour to continue growing and thriving.
The diplomat noted that the nation’s influence on the world stage is insurmountable, adding that the key to realising the full potential of the nation is effective leadership.
“The global ascendancy of Nigeria is unstoppable; we have to make it work,” Uhomoibhi maintained.
“What we have done in the entertainment industry, what we are doing in other parts of the world, in other countries that we are not able to do in our country, we must find out the right way to do it and the right way to do it is leadership.”
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