Many lives are lost every day and injuries are sustained as a result of the hardship and torture of many Africans seeking to migrate to Europe through the desert. Some people eat leaves and drink their urine to survive, while others starve to death for lack of food or water.
Militia groups largely from Libya and some of their security forces rape, kidnap and enslave people. All this resulted from the migration hallucination to escape war and poverty, to the perceived greener countries.
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Because of the heartbreaking news about Nigerians looking for greener pastures abroad and my close people—family members, friends, neighbours, and now students getting more involved in it, I become curious to know more about such migration. My neighbour was recently killed in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea by a militia group while trying to sail to Italy from Libya. This led me to watch some documentaries and read some reports and I am reading Kitsen Rogo by Emeritus Professor Dangambo, which the author gifted me.
On one hand, my brother approached me with the matter of flying to a certain country for a better life. I asked him why, how, where, what he will do there, and with whom he will stay there with? He convinced me. On the other hand, my student—a divorced female with only one child in her mid-twenties could not convince me of my wh-questions. I did my best to persuade her to drop the idea citing the gambling with one’s life involved and that she should honourably marry again, but failed. A week later, she informed me of changing her mind about not marrying again soon due to what her ex-hubby did to her and that before she flies away when Mr. Right arrives, she would tie the knot and stay at home. She joined our academy to equip herself with English for better communication when she lands abroad.
In my eyes, as it appeared in Kitsen Rogo, the main character later learned that the better life was home not abroad after wasting his hard-earned resources abroad (in the city), and so is the case with most such migrants. I am not oblivious of “The Lucky Ones” who are very few, though.
The government should empower small businesses instead of wasting huge money on fruitless initiatives like N-Power. Thanks to the NGOs that give grants to small businesses, the government plus individuals should also join. BDSPs should be directly engaged by the government and abled individuals/bodies to enlighten youths on the vast untapped opportunities here at home that are mostly explored by villagers and foreigners.
Also, NYSC should be scrapped and the fund be redirected to a better cause, and lastly, entrepreneurial courses should be taken back to primary school and stopped at secondary school because of its too little or no impact on the university graduates and the poor status of the university system.
Bello Sagir Imam writes from Kano
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