Ibikunle Amosun, ranking senator of the federal republic, All Progressives Congress(APC) chieftain and the immediate past governor of Ogun State has reacted to the erroneous media interpretation accorded his recent interview with the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC), Yoruba service, in which he was misquoted to have described the issuance of visas to young Nigerian professionals by foreign embassies as ‘wicked’. He described such as malicious misrepresentation having no bearing whatsoever on his expressed honest intentions in the interview that had gone viral.
Some media reports, including online portals (not Theliberationnews), claimed that Amosun, in his BBC Yoruba interview, condemned western nations for encouraging the emigration of Nigerians in large numbers, by granting visas to young citizens, a development he was misquoted to have described as “wicked”.
But in a statement made available to Theliberationnews by his media office and signed by Bola Adeyemi, his media aide, the senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial District disclosed that contrary to the mischief, which he said was compounded by comprehension problem, he had only bemoaned challenges bedeviling the country as factors forcing Nigerians to seek greener pastures overseas.
The Ogun Central Senator, therefore, contended that his major concerns were core Nigerian professionals like medical doctors, lawyers, engineers and accountants, who were leaving the country in droves with their families because such could open the country to greater challenges.
Although the former governor described the countries encouraging such exodus without considering the fate of Nigeria as unfair, the choice of the word “wicked” according to him was purely the reporter’s and not his.
Thus, while commenting on the ‘japa phenomenon’, Amosun reiterated what he said when he declared: “I have heard about it and the reports are scary. All youths and young talents are traveling 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 unfair because they are not considering the origin nation, from which their prospective labour force is 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, engineers, accountants and most especially, medical practitioners make up the largest chunk of people leaving the country.”
Amosun further contended that, what made the reports inaccurate and a deliberate damage, was the fact that he too had been sponsoring young people, who desired to further their studies abroad and has not ceased to write to different embassies in support of their applications, because he believed in their decisions to study abroad to further equip them.
What the former governor maintained he frowned at were the older people and families, who had begun to swell the list of those emigrating to other parts of the world.
He, however, added in the said interview that, “We cannot blame them, however, since some challenges that will soon disappear are pushing them 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 emigrants are forced to leave the country because of unstable economy amongst others. I am sure Nigeria will be great again but reports of migration out of the country have been disheartening for me” he concluded.
See video below:
