A member of Volunteer Service Overseas, Mr. Michael Young, a citizen of United Kingdom has charged Nigerian youths to stay in their country to contribute to its development instead of risking their lives searching for unreal greener pasture.
Young, who stated this along his counterpart, Miss Samuel Joy Ben during a press conference in Ilorin to mark the beginning of International Youth Day celebration in collaboration with National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Kwara State chapter, said immigrants could make it in their countries without embarking on dangerous journey.
Narrating his experience with Nigerian immigrants in UK, Young disclosed that his contact with a Nigerian man with his family in his country was not palatable.
“I met him in the toilet, he told me he has a wife and children in Nigeria whom he had to cater for. He told me he has to work for 15 hours washing toilets in different places.
“The question is, why can’t they stay in Nigeria? You can’t make it in this country because life in UK is too expensive. Youths can be in Nigeria and contribute to the development of the country”.
The volunteer, who appealed to government to ensure good policies on education, said it is through compulsory education for children between 6 to 18 years that helped UK to reduce poverty and youth unrest.
Young caution Nigerian youths and immigrants to be sure of where they are going if at all they want to travel abroad, stressing that the risk facing foreigners are too challenging.
His counterpart, Miss Ben advised Nigerian youths to change their attitude towards acquisition of money, stressing that there are many ways they could contribute meaningful to the society.
In his reaction, the Chairman of NYCN, Comrade Kazeem Adekanye noted that the main agenda of many youths in Nigeria travelling abroad is to seek greener pasture which lures them into series of problems.
He appealed to Nigerian youths to stay in the country and utilise their skills, talents for the development of the nation, stressing that over 70 million Nigerian youths out of over 150 million Nigerians are enough to build the nation
