Magnus Eze, Enugu

The Nigerian professor whose talk to a group of Nigerians in Ghana was leaked in a video which went viral on the internet recently, Professor Augustine Nwagbara, has called on the Federal Government to develop a conscious strategy to tap the enormous resources of young Nigerians in the Diaspora as a way of tackling the sufferings and oppression faced by Nigerians in various African countries.

He made the call in the 7th public lecture of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike, Ikwo, Ebonyi, which he delivered at the weekend.

Nwagbara who used the lecture titled: “One tale, multiple narratives: Oracular entrapments at the crossroads of imagination,” to recount his ordeal after the video went viral said that there were indeed signs that the attack on Nigerians in the Diaspora, especially in African nations will continue and may get worse if the country failed to take urgent steps to contain the tide. “The dominant anti Nigeria feelings and propaganda in many African countries are not likely to subside anything soon. Rather, indications suggest likely further escalation of the situation and sporadic reoccurrence of such incidents in different locations over time,” he noted.

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Warning of the effects of such upsurge of anti-Nigeria sentiments across Africa, Nwagbara noted that the negative effects may be far reaching, stressing that “given this scenario, one can clearly see that such occurrences have become issues of serious national concern with immense security, financial, cultural, health and socio-economic implications for our country and citizens.”

Since young Nigerians constitute the bulk of the Nigerian Diaspora population, Nwagbara urged Government to use the educational system to reverse the rate of emigration in Nigeria.

“Demographically, the people who constitute the large chunk of the Nigerian Diaspora population are mostly young people. And of this group, many are tertiary level students, undergraduates and post graduates. This very resourceful population can quickly be absolved and re-integrated into the Nigerian universities.