The Former Vice-Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Oyo state, Professor Dapo Asalu has disclosed that for the Federal Government to stop the brain drain menace, it must fix the economy to attract the fleeing youthful population back to the country.
While describing that investing over 15,000 pounds on possessing a master’s degree abroad when similar quality education is available here cheaper, is a waste of resources, he stressed the need for political leaders in Nigeria to focus on fixing infrastructure and insecurity.
Delivering a paper at the Redeemer’s University 15th convocation lecture at the University’s campus Ede on Wednesday, he said the popular japa syndrome is self-enslavement which the Nigerian government pushed its youth professionals into due to the bad economy.
According to him, the debilitating inflation coupled with the high level of insecurity and lack of social security forced our young professionals, who should be busy with nation-building, to run away for greener pastures in Europe and America.
“Our country is blessed but we, willfully destroyed our country, electricity zero, transportation collapse, no airline, no functional rain system, the roads are bad, political leaders are stealing our money unchecked, elections are not credible, there is no job for the populace, there is insecurity everywhere, hence, the youths embrace japa.
“The japa syndrome is an enemy of Nigeria because we are losing our leaders of tomorrow, we are losing our talents and we are our services.
“We can not continue to be in a nation where the worst rule over the best, where religious sentiment and ethnic nepotism govern over merit, where looting our treasury with impunity reigns and debt burdens the citizens.
“Our government must stop the trend by investing in the infrastructure, revering the economy, ensuring the security, establishing industries and attracting back our best brain through competitive living wage with a view to transforming our economy”, he said.
He lamented how Nigerians waste resources studying for masters abroad in the name of seeking resident permits with money worth investing in business.
“On another hand are exploitative educational enticement of Africans who are encouraged to pay terribly high fees to obtain a Masters’s degree from British Universities just because they would have the opportunity to do some hours of menial jobs and stay as residents after some years. They pay N16 million per year to earn Masters’s degree”, he added.
