President Muhammadu Buhari has enjoined illegal migrants to stay back home and find ways to improve their personal economies rather than dare the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean, with scores of lives lost in the process.
The president stated this when he received Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo, who came as Special Envoy of President Paul Kagame, at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday.
He said Nigeria has taken it upon herself to bring back thousands of her citizens now stranded in Libya.
“Illegal migration is now a major issue in Africa. Many dare the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean to get into Europe and many die in the process or they get into trouble, as we now see in Libya.
“I don’t envy our position as many Blacks claim to be Nigerians, even when they are not. Our embassies in North Africa are now over-worked, trying to identify true Nigerians.”
According to the President, most of the reasons they mention for migrating illegally are untenable and advised that “they should stay here and see how they can improve their own economies, instead of risking their lives.’’
The president said Kagame, as the incoming chairman of the African Union (AU), had issues of South Sudan, separatist agitation in Southern Cameroon, unrest in Togo, and many others on the continent, to contend with.
“Gaddafi’s long rule produced many people, whose only skill is how to shoot guns.
“Now, they are scattered around the continent, still with their weapons, fomenting trouble,’’ he said.
President Buhari added that Nigeria is taking steps to curtail the development.
Mushikiwabo said president Kagame looks forward to “the counsel and support of the Nigerian president as he assumes the AU chair this month.’’
According to Mushikiwabo, president Kagame will also need counsel on security issues in the Sahel, ongoing reforms in AU, borrow Buhari’s expertise in agriculture and renew friendship and kinship between Nigeria and Rwanda.