By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]buja – Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has called on the Nigerian government to take proactive steps to urgently stem the tide of illegal migration of the nation’s young people, resulting in their increasing incidents of enslavement and deaths around the world.Nigerians for many years now have been leaving the shores of their country in search of greener pastures abroad, and many of them have had to contend with all kinds of problems associated with illegal migration, such as trafficking, slavery, prostitution, terrible weather conditions, and in many cases, death.
ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev. David Ugolor in his recent call on the Nigerian government contended that this worrisome trend of the deaths of Nigeria’s young people in deserts and seas continues to escalate because of government’s seeming disinterest in the weighty matters involving the lives of its citizens.
Rev David Ugolor was reacting to a recent CNN exclusive report detailing the harrowing experiences of young Nigerians being sold in Libya for as paltry sums as $400.
“In ANEEJ, we seek to come to terms with the fact that even though Nigeria is not at war with an external force and exported over $27 billion of oil in 2016, and with a GDP adjudged as the largest in Africa, its people are seeking to move to countries not better off than Nigeria, and dying from conditions which violate their dignity and human rights,” Ugolor said.
On the heels of the revelation that Nigerians are being sold for as low as $400 in Libya to work as farm hands, ANEEJ has added its voice to that of the UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR), that the CNN expose should serve as a wake-up call for the government to proactively respond, by looking for ways and means of engaging Nigeria’s young people.
“Nigeria currently has a population of 182million, with half of that number being young people under 30 years old. Therefore, to harness the raw energy inherent in these young people for optimum productivity, government must engage them in areas like sports, technology, entertainment and entrepreneurship,” Ugolor advised.
As an immediate first step, Rev Ugolor advised the Buhari government to demand a publication of the outcome of the post-mortem examinations of 26 teenage migrant girls recently found dead in the Mediterranean.
He also tasked the UNHCHR, International Migration Organization, IMO, local agencies, and CSOs, to mandate the EU to restructure its policy of empowering the Libyan Coast Guard and intercept and return migrants on the Mediterranean without violating their human rights and dignity.
