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The recently held Dorcas Oke Hope Alive Initiative (DOHAL) Foundation Day turned out to be an eye opener as the President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Francis Wale Oke; the immediate past Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, and Bishop of Theologian of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Professor Dapo Asaju; co-founder of Flutterwave, Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and others described the brain drain popularly called ‘japa’ phenomenon as modern-day slavery, which is being carried out to make use of the productive Nigerian workforce to support the aging population of the developed countries.
They called on government to take urgent steps to address issues leading young Nigerians to leave the shore of the country in search of greener pastures.
This was the main discourse of the event, which marked this year’s event of the remembrance of the late daughter of the Oke family, held at the auditorium of Precious Cornerstone University (PCU) Ibadan, Oyo State.
Bishop and Pastor (Mrs) Wale Oke, founders of the foundation; Bishop Victor Adelakun, the spiritual father of the day and other dignitaries such as the General Overseer of Foursquare Church, Pastor Sam Aboyeji and Professor Julius Oloke (VC, PCU), graced the occasion.
Bishop Oke said to curb the problem of brain drain, the government must provide the enabling environment and provide opportunities for the youths.
Bishop Oke said: ‘’This is an attempt to do curb ‘japa’ phenomenon and to ensure that people like Inioluwa Aboyeji will multiply among our youths. It is a pride to us, Nigeria and Africa. He is a blessing. There are many people that are brilliant and innovative among our youths, the government should go all out to encourage them.
“This programme is one of the things we can do to curb the ‘Japa’ phenomenon. Let our people know that they can sit in Nigeria and earn money in hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. Clean money, not through frauds.
“So, we should promote our youths to sell, engage our youths, educate them, so they will earn money in foreign currencies and bring it to Nigeria to develop Nigeria, rather than going outside the country to become second-class citizens and slaves in other countries.
“The countries – Canada, the USA and others – promoting this phenomenon are not doing it in our own interest. It is in their interest. Their population is aging, and they don’t have the working population to support the aging population. They are bringing in our people to fill that gap. It is another slave trade.
‘’The brain drain that is happening, the government is enabling it. See what the government is doing with our educational system. How can you shut down universities for eight months? Thousands of lives and jobs are lost. So, let the government create an enabling environment. Let the youths know that they engage in businesses and make money.”
Prof. Asaju on his part urged the government to address insecurity, create opportunities to the youths, and provide a conducive working environment and motivation for workers to curb the trend.
The don described the trend as the worst and third form of slavery and colonialism.
The former VC said, “‘Japa’ has two sides. The first side is it is by force because of the collapse of the economy and lack of opportunities that is making people leave. The only thing we can do is to change our country and create more opportunities, especially the young ones for them to maximize their potential and make security available. As long as we have bad governance, hopelessness and lawlessness and corruption and the people are bleak, anybody can go anywhere and find their destiny. It is not a good thing for this country.
‘’It is slavery. Slavery has come in three ways. First one was when they carried us like commodities. The second one was when they came to colonise us. This one is the worst. After developing ourselves we sell ourselves to go and do pitiable jobs for just pittance. As the lecturer of today has told us, they are using our skills to provide money to take care of their aging population. It is not because they love us. It is not because they want us. They are racists. People go there because of survival. It is not everyone that travels abroad that succeeds. They may have big and good supermarkets, they cannot maximise their potential in many cases. They are doing pitiable and menial jobs. It is not the best.
‘’Take for example, our doctors that have left, and our people are dying. But our doctors are the ones treating them there. How much are we paying doctors here? So, we need to change the system of government. We need to make this country safe. We need to ensure that we increase the salaries of medical doctors and fund our hospitals. When we have them, you can even pay them far better than professors because they are life savers. They will come and work. We are not serious; even the highest paid professor earns N400,000 per month. I know that because I have been a professor for 20 years. If you convert that to dollars, how do you want to tell the world that you are paying a professor about 300 dollar per month?
‘’When our colleagues in other countries are getting better, earning up to 400,000 dollars. We are the ones training lawyers, doctors, engineers and others. So, if we increase wages and create opportunities, they will stay. Otherwise, if the country has no opportunity for them, they will go anywhere to have a better life instead of being jobless here.”
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The main speaker of the event, Aboyeji, who spoke on the theme: “Entrepreneurship and the Challenges of the African Child’’ said the future of the African child rests on his ability to become an entrepreneur in a digital economy.
He pointed out that Nigeria needed to think smartly to thwart the intention of the countries taking the best brains from country.
The young digital aficionado said, “The digital economy is the future of the African child. We need to help our young people to earn foreign exchange. We need to be more intentional; collaborate and invest in human capital. It involves everybody. They need the talent to participate in the digital economy. We have a lot of young people. I think the most important thing for us to have been talent.
“The biggest part of the work is making sure that the young person has digital skills to participate in the digital economy. It is important to us because we have a lot of young people. “The biggest challenge that we currently have is that the talented young people are being grappled by other developed countries to join their productive workforce to subsidise their social security scheme and old people.
“So, it is important we produce more talented people who can contribute to the global economy via the digital economy and make sure that digital skill is incorporated into our curriculum.
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