Ex-speaker warns Nigerian youths against migration

Former Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Mr Bassey Essien has warned against youth migration in the country.Bassey who gave the warning while delivering a paper, “A step in the right direction” at the graduation ceremony of Mobil Pegasus School, Eket, Akwa Ibom State said “by the year 2050, about 800,000,000 youths all over the world will be migrating to Africa” because of its enormous potentials hence unnecessary for Nigerians to go and die for nothing.

“This why you can see the European Union budgeting for Africa and China, it is investing a huge sum of money every year towards the development of infrastructure in the region. All this is to ensure that their own youth will be accommodated in Africa, so never allow anyone to deceive you into migrating out of the country because your generation will witness the coming to Africa of youths from other continents.

“You can travel out for education and skill acquisition and, thereafter, come back home. Never think of taking the Libya route because that is the shortest way of being killed. I believe strongly that this is not and cannot be your portion. That is the wrong step in the wrong direction. For I know any person who studies hard and is much focused is bound to make it in life in whatever field of his/her chosen endeavour” .

He charged Nigerian youths “to be strong and courageous, take advantage of the computer and internet age, think of being an employer and not an employee, be creative and innovative, update yourself all the time to be current in whatever you choose to do and shun social vices as this is your world.

Make the best out of it and never allow anyone to intimidate or bully you off the path to greatness now that you will be leaving your comfort zone.“Many great minds before now have been destroyed by acts of indiscipline. Do not be a victim. As I said at the beginning, always remember that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the right one step; or with one step in the right direction. In our country today, there are many wrong steps being taken by many; or there are many steps taken by many people in the wrong direction” doing armed robbery, kidnapping, assassination, thuggery, Advanced Fee Fraud or “419”, ritual killing and so on.Bassey told the graduating students to provide leadership and be a solution to the multifaceted societal problems, saying that is what this great and noble institution has prepared you for.