Former governor of Ogun State and senator representing Ogun Central, Ibikunle Amosun, has said he was misquoted in his interview with the BBC Yoruba service which he was alleged to have condemned the issuance of visas to Nigerians by foreign embassies.

Amosun, in his interview, was reported to have said the western nations are “wicked” for encouraging the emigration of Nigerians in large numbers by granting visas to young citizens.

Reacting to the reports, the former governor, in a statement issued on Saturday by his spokesman, Bola Adeyemi, said he only lamented that the state of insecurity and unstable economy were the factors forcing Nigerians to seek greener pastures overseas, adding that his major concern was core professionals like medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, and accountants, who were leaving the country with their families, “because such could open the country to greater challenges”.

Amosun noted that although he described the countries encouraging the emigration of Nigerians without considering the fate of Nigeria as unfair, the “choice of the word ‘wicked’ was purely the reporter’s” and not his.

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He added: “I have heard about it and the reports are scary. All youths and young talents are travelling out of Nigeria, seeking greener pastures and the prospective countries are deliberately giving them visas to leave the country without putting the origin country into consideration.

“What scares me most in all this is the proliferation of emigration. Foreigners will not fix our nation for us if all our citizens should leave the country. I am seeing the countries granting visas to our youths as unfair because they are not considering the origin nation from which their prospective labour force is coming from.

“If you ask our people leaving the nation for greener pastures, they will tell you that they are not planning to return to Nigeria. If you look closely at the situation, you would see that all our lawyers, engineers, accountants, and most especially, medical practitioners make up the largest chunk of people leaving the country.”

Amosun stated that what made the reports “inaccurate and a deliberate damage”, was the fact that he had been sponsoring young people, who desired to further their studies abroad and has not ceased to write to different embassies in support of their applications, saying he believed in their decisions to study abroad to further equip them.

The former governor stressed that he only frowned at older people and families, “who had begun to swell the list of those emigrating to other parts of the world”.

The Star