UN Working on Making Irregular Immigration Regular, Says Dabiri- Erewa

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa has announced that the United Nations is doing all it can to regularise all irregular immigration due to the need for more labour force in the western world.

Dabiri-Erewa also stated that the 26 young Nigerian girls who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea didn’t have to leave Nigeria in the first place, saying that Nigerians need to talk to one another about the consequences of illegal migration. She also stressed that due to hardship encountered on the routes, many do not live to tell the story.

Dabiri-Erewa stated this at the US International Visitors Leadership Programme Alumni 2017 lecture, dinner and awards held in Abuja, where 12 recipients from different walks of life were given plaques in appreciation for their efforts in the field of exemplary leadership, selfless service, compassion, entrepreneurship, community development, innovation and many more.

She said the “UN is working on making irregular immigration regular because the countries need the labour force. Many have attributed migration to poverty but it is not worth it. The Nigerian girls that drowned at the Mediterranean didn’t have to go after all. Let’s talk to ourselves and educate each other against following such dangerous routes.
“Five thousand Nigerians have been brought back home and many more are coming back. They have been rehabilitated and shown how to move on with their lives”, she added.

In his own speech, the guest lecturer, Prof. Maxwell Gidado, while commending the strides of Nigerian youth in the re-discovery of themselves as a result of information and technology, he said migration is a component of the modernised world and should be by choice and not a necessity.

He said, “Revolution is coming and the youths in Nigeria have to be ready and galvanise themselves. Leaders in Africa are usually between the ages of 70 and 73 ‎as compared to the western world and that is food for thought for the youths as there are fresh ideas in other countries. Migration is a component of the modernised world. It should be by choice and not by necessity.”
The recipient of the awards include the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, Chika Chukwumerije, Ali Baba and Jerry Isaac Mallo.