I write from the perspective of a Nigerian who has lived in the Diaspora for 17 out of the last 24 years. Please patiently come with me on this journey.
The burning question on my mind for some time now is why do people leave this country to where they consider better pastures?
The primary reasons for the brain drain or the "Andrew checking out" syndrome in Nigeria in the 1980s and 1990s were economic and education; but security issues have since joined that list in the last one decade. Why would people leave a country with such an abundance of natural resources for greener pastures in the land of unknown?
Nigerian universities and polytechnics keep churning out graduates in their thousands, but the jobs are not available. It is quite obvious the leaderships of our great country are not focused on the socioeconomic part of their responsibilities. The election of June 12 1993 had only one message for the youth: HOPE.
That was quickly dashed with its annulment. Our youths have since kept streaming out in the face of systemic failure and the concomitant mounting unemployment.
In the 80s and 90s, 80 percent of Nigerians that left this shores for better economic opportunities in the western world ended up starting and staying abroad as either security guards or taxi drivers if male, or cleaner and/or fast food attendants, if female.
Armed with my legal and law school degrees, I started off as both security guard and taxi driver on arrival in the UK in 199l, but was fortunate to transit early enough into the corporate world. I left the USA as a Vice President in a fortune 50 company to return to Nigeria in 2007. I am one of the fortunate and blessed few, 90 percent of those that left the shores of Nigeria during this period are stuck there, unable to return to their motherland.
To make matter worse, insecurity has joined the issues that have plagued our nation in the last one decade – from armed robbery to kidnapping and now Boko Haraminduced insecurity.
One cannot but ask, what is the responsibility of the government? Is it to provide an enabling environment where youths are engaged and feel a sense of self worth? Or is it to make safety of life and property a priority?
The hope that was lost with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election seems to be in the process of being restored in select states within the federation.
This assessment is purely based on performance of the government of this state since 2010/2011. I had an opportunity to participate in the nine-kilometer "walk for life" in the State of Osun on Saturday, May 25th 2013 in Ejigbo.
I spent the entire nine kilometers looking at the expression on the faces of thousands of people who came out of their homes to participate and associate with the governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his cabinet.
The youth, the elderly and even children all came out. I saw renewed hope on the faces of the youths based on what they had already experienced with his administration in two years, but most importantly I saw faith from the elderly that their lives and those of their children will continue to improve positively. I saw appreciation on the faces of the young ones.
Personally, the walk was an experience of a lifetime for me. And what could the people of Osun have experienced over the last 30 months that must have further strengthened their beliefs and renewed their hope for a better tomorrow?
First, 40,000 youths that had gone through two or a four year post secondary education who were sitting at home unemployed have been engaged by this government in 30 months. Of this number, 20,000 had just completed a two-year program in the O'YES scheme.
They were not only given a sense of self worth, but also an opportunity to contribute to the development of their communities as they were also trained in life skills. Some are now gainfully employed as teachers, civil servants, entrepreneurs in agriculture and information technology.
Second, rural roads in all local governments have been opened up to allow farmers get their produce to the final destination for sale. Third, a massive push by the government to have the state become the center of commerce from an agricultural and commercial perspective within the south western part of Nigeria seems to be working.
This has several aspects and would be the topic of discussion at another time. Fourth, the children of the poor and rich, irrespective of where they are in the state now, have access to free quality education, be it in the rural or urban areas of the state. And fifth, security has been improved through youth engagement and provision of state of the art equipment for security forces in the state. In summary, every family in the State of Osun has been touched positively by the programme of the government within the last 30 months. Is this not a change from the past?
Omoba Dotun Babayemi,
dotunbabayemi@ gmail.com, wrote from Abuja
