Address Issues Causing Brain Drain, Kaigama Urges Govt

The Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, His Grace Most Revd Ignatius Kaigama, on Sunday called on the Federal and state governments to address the issues causing brain drain, especially among the youths in the nation.

According to him, some of the best brains feel frustrated and were seeking to leave the country, because of acute unemployment and insecurity.

Kaigama made the appeal at the flag-off of the 2022 Lenten Campaign held at the Pro-Cathedral in Abuja
with the theme: “Rekindling hope in the Nigerian Project.”

The Archbishop said that the youths were Nigeria’s “most valuable natural resources”, and so, remained pivotal to the development of the nation.

He said, “We are focused on the youth, forced by cruel realities in our country to lose hope, and others have left the country in search of greener pastures, while many more are contemplating the same line of action. They are frustrated by serious unemployment and grave security situation, and many of the best brains seek to migrate.

“Some youths even went to the Ukrainian Embassy here in Nigeria to be enrolled to go to war against Russia as a way of keeping gainfully employed. Even with its attendant dangers, many youths are still prepared to trek the Sahara Desert and cross the Mediterranean Sea. Do you blame them? The youth showed during the #EndSARS demonstration that they are disillusioned.”

The cleric recalled that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had in his 2021 New Year speech following the #ENDSARS protests, promised that the government will “develop an enabling environment to turn their passions into ideas that can be supported, groomed and scaled across regions” in close and effective collaboration with religious bodies.

He, however, regretted that instead of recognising the closeness of the Church to the youth and empowering it with grants to do more in schools and hospitals, and other social services, the government agencies instead squeeze out taxes from Church social programmes or make things difficult.

The Archbishop said, “Sometimes the youths believe that the Church has all the resources as the government and that is why they ask ‘what is the Church doing about unemployment?’

“Instead of taking their concerns to their elected representatives in government, they turn to the Church with apprehension, failing to realize that the Church is not the cause of their poverty, but doing its part about prayers, preaching the word of God, moral instruction, etc., and even rendering unpublicized social services.”