Founder, Patriotic Citizens’ Initiative (PCI), a non-governmental organization in the forefront of campaign against irregular migration and child trafficking in Nigeria, and Lead Trainer with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Mr. Osita osemene, has said that the campaign
against irregular migration, no matter how aggressive, would not make any meaningful impact without developing empowerment programmes for potential migrants.
He stated that the only way to make the campaign produce the needed result would be to ensure that solutions were proffered to address factors that push people to abandon their country for Europe and America in search of non-existent greener pastures.
“Even the campaign against irregular migration is not enough because it cannot put food on peoples table.
Nigerians are hungry, so, when you campaign and you don’t proffer solution to what you are campaigning against, in this case, food and empowerment, it won’t produce any positive result. I think we need to balance the campaign by tackling the factors that push people to seek greener pastures outside their country,” he stated.
He blamed the government for the ugly trend, saying, “Naturally, it is government’s responsibility to provide an enabling environment for people to survive, but where such environment is lacking, there is bound to be a problem. When the environment is conducive, people can get jobs and be able to put food the table. This is because a conducive environment will create infrastructure like electricity and roads, which will in turn, spring up companies and provide employment for the citizens. People can easily do small scale businesses and be able to attend to personal needs.
But, when these amenities are lacking, people are challenged to navigate towards places where the are provided. This, obviously, leads to migration, which most times happens through irregular means.”
