Senate Moves Against ‘Japa’ Syndrome

ABUJA – The Senate Committee on Di­aspora and Non-Governmen­tal Organisations ( NGO) on Wednesday, declared that the mass migration otherwise known as ‘Japa’ by Nigeri­ans to overseas countries on a daily basis, must be reversed .

Chairman of the Commit­tee Senator Natasha Akpoti – Uduaghan, made the decla­ration at its maiden meeting held in hearing room 305 of the Senate wing of the Na­tional Assembly.

Senator Natasha at the well attended meeting, said reversal of Japa syndrome, will be at the front burner of actions by the commit­tee because the tide must be stemmed.

“This committee will do this by collaborating with relevant stakeholders in the area of making Nigerians, particularly youth, to believe more in their country and not the mindset of wanting to rush out of the country .

“Patriotism is earned and not enforced or forced , mak­ing us identify a few steps that we can use in building our economy here using our diaspora energy.

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“We’re going to look into countries like India, Paki­stan, even Egypt, in Africa here on how they have grown their capacities and making their countries attractive for a larger percentage of citi­zens to stay .

” The committee will start this process by getting the da­tabase of Nigerians in Dias­pora country by country and also collaborate with various International organizations on areas of focus that can attract many of them back home .

” India is a very good ex­ample of reversing the japa syndrome by being the ICT capacity hub of the world with attendant jobs for its citizens “, she said .

Earlier , the immediate past chairman of the com­mittee, Senator Victor Umeh ( APGA Anambra Central) , expressed hope in the ability of Senator Natasha to take the committee to greater heights in the area of tap­ping required resources from Nigerians in Diaspora and at the same time, make the country attractive to those at home the through required collaborations.

“I knew that a great suc­cess has come on board for this committee with Senator Natasha on board as Chair­man .

“She has what it takes to break into the grounds and then galvanize all efforts to­wards tapping the potentials of Nigeria’s diaspora com­munities.and also collaborate with other stakeholders on reversing the Japa Syndrome “, he said.

Independent NG