UROMI-A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Girls Power Initiative (GPI) has tasked Nigerian government to reintroduce social provisioning programme halted in the 80s with the advent of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), to address the nagging issues of illegal migration and human trafficking.
The body equally charged government to provide the teeming unemployed youths in the country with skills in order to discourage them from taking the risky option of travelling through the desert enroute Libya, Mediterranean sea to Europe for greener pastures.
The chairperson, Executive Board of Girls Power Initiative, Mrs Grace Osakue made the call at a Step Down training for Students of Amedokhian Secondary school, Uromi, Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State, on the danger of human trafficking and illegal migration.
“government should return social provisioning which was stopped with the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). Whether we have recession or not, we will have to go back to it.
” because right now, whether you eat, it’s your business, whether you have electricity, it’s your business, whether you have water, it’s your business. Then what is government business? Government should come back with social provisioning”, she advocated.
Osakue similarly frowned at parents who abdicate responsibility of training their children, pointing out that children remain liabilities until they were invested in to become assets.
She called on the federal government to do the needful to improve the condition of the naira, adding that the very poor value of the currency was making it too attractive for citizens to migrate abroad.
She similarly tasked the government to as a matter of necessity begin to deliver basic necessities for decent human existence, to improve the living conditions of Nigerians, as the present situation was too harsh.
The NGO chairperson commended the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State for identifying irregular migration and human trafficking as a major challenge.
She however advised the state government to begin to identify vulnerable youths in the state with view to giving them skill that would kill thoughts of embarking on the perilous journey, rather than the reactionary move of providing Libya returnees with skills to reintegrate them into the society.
