African leaders have been urged to reform education curricula across the continent to prioritise skills acquisition over purely academic learning.
The Global President of the African Diaspora Union, Professor Chidebere Ogbu, made the call during an appearance on Voice of Nigeria’s current affairs programme, “In The News,” in Abuja.
He said a curriculum that prioritises skills acquisition would help more Nigerians secure employment when they travel abroad.
“Yes, because you don’t have that documentation to do anything and you can’t work and let me also say this.
“One of the things we plead with the Nigerian government is to change our academic curriculum. Because the colonial masters deliberately brought a very wrong academic curriculum to make us, you know, memorise.
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“We can’t think. We can’t produce. They send us to schools where we become orators with no skills. And once you have a Master’s, a doctorate degree, a professorship, when you travel outside, you find out that you have no job because you have no skills.
“They go to Europe, go to America, and the rest of them. All those people, they begin with a skill. That’s why our people eventually can be a professor of what here, when you get to the United States or Canada and everywhere, you go into nursing.
“You want to have a skill. Many of them because of no skill, don’t have a job to do. But you see people who are mechanics, electricians, and everything; they come in tomorrow they find a job,” Prof. Ogbu explained.
He urged the Nigerian government to convert the one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme into compulsory skills acquisition training for all Nigerian graduates.
Prof. Ogbu also said AFRIDU was sponsoring the African Descendant Citizenship Application Bill, SB 838, to address citizenship challenges in Africa, noting that many migrants had not relinquished their citizenship.
“The right of citizenship for any of them who go through a DNA test and there is enough evidence to prove that they are Nigerian. And we want this bill to be replicated in African countries. That’s one of the reasons we want to meet with the chairman of the African Union,” he stated.
Migration
Ogbu stressed the need to address inadequate knowledge of migration laws among Africans, particularly young people seeking opportunities abroad.
“We realise that most of our youths, adults even, migrate very ignorantly, without an idea about migration laws,” he observed.
Speaking on the outcomes of the recently concluded high-level dialogue on migration in Africa, Prof. Ogbu said the conference had produced several important outcomes.
“Well, first, most of the people who came there began to understand the general scenario when it comes to migration.
People from the Democratic Republic of Congo, from the embassy, and also from Cameroon, their people are migrating into Nigeria looking for jobs, while our people are migrating outside to look for jobs. Now, a lot of confusion because of ignorance. People who are not educated.
“Now, we know many of our people out of ignorance, it was there some of the people began to get information, who migrate with all that they tell them, sweet on them, they go into the desert thinking it is a one-day journey.
“They do not know it could be one month; even if there are 500 and live immediately, they will be lucky if 10 arrive. The rest die en route.
“The same way they will tell them, no, no, we’ll just cross by ship and everything to Europe. You don’t know that it is a small boat and a boat that should have contained maybe even if it is 20 people; they will carry 500 people, before you know it, people get drowned; a lot of deaths on this thing.
“So there was a lot of exposure during the conference and also they now realise that there has to be a policy by the African leaders that for people who migrate, if, by any chance, something happens to any African in that African country, somebody must be held accountable.
“There must be a situation whereby there has to be compensation for those who have migrated and if there is a xenophobic attack, or if there is any loss in businesses, some people need to be compensated. A policy has to be put into place and there has to be a check,” he emphasised.
Database
He appealed to the Nigerian government to establish a system requiring Nigerians travelling to other African countries or elsewhere to report to the Nigerian embassy or consulate upon arrival.
Prof Ogbu said this would help Nigeria maintain a database of its citizens living abroad, which he noted was currently lacking.
“The Nigerian government does not have a database of Nigerians living outside Nigeria. The only place they can claim may be in the United States or Canada because of the system they run.
“Other areas, whether it’s Ghana, whether it’s South Africa, Malaysia, whatever Gabon, Cameroon and the Nigerian government do not have a database. So we should, you know, put these things into place. So with that, I think these are some of the, you know, takeaways from the conference,” he concluded.
