As Nigerian youths leave the country searching for greener pastures, Cardinal John Onaiyekan has called for a national conference to address the issue.
Onaiyekan, the Emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, called when he received a delegation from the Initiative for Fostering Unity in Diversity, Youths and Nation Building (IFFUIDYANB) in Abuja on Friday.
According to him, the brain drain and other issues affecting Nigerian youths had become issues of national emergency that required concerted efforts to tackle.
“It is scary how Nigeria is losing a lot of its resourceful youths to other countries because they do not see a future for themselves in this country. We are losing our best youths, and even beyond the youth, we have realised that even middle-aged persons are leaving too.
“As I speak with you, medical consultants, for instance, are hard to find because they are being snatched away by hospitals in other countries.
“These countries need doctors, and they provide the needed incentives and enabling environment to attract them,” he said.
The cleric said further that the situation cannot be patched up with new policies because it is more than that.
“We know our country is polarised, divided and broken, and so, there is a need for some kind of forum to bring us together to discuss the best ways out of this scary situation.
“My concern is, who will bail the cat as they say because we have leaders who are anxious to convince us that they are doing very well. They are living in complete denial, and that will not solve the problem,” he added.
