OBASANJO KICKED AGAINST LIBYA ‘SLAVE TRADE’OF AFRICANS

 

The conference is ” Managing Migration and Facilitating Trade and Development in 21st Century Nigeria: NIS’ Perspective.” Obasanjo lamented over what he called‎ slavery in the 21st century in Africa and expressed concern that slavery had reared its ugly heads and therefore it deserves to be condemned “in the strongest language possible.”

 

 The former president noted that the development portends that African leaders “must feel a sense of regret and have sober reflection on what we have done or what we have not done to bring this about to our own people.”

 

 “I believe that slave trade in the 21st century should be condemned in the strongest language possible and nobody who is involved in it should be excused. What can we do and what must we do?’,he said 

 

‘We must ensure that conducive atmosphere is created for genuine exchange of goods and ensure development within our country, sub-region, continent and the world which we live in,” Obasanjo added.  

 

  “Without movement there can be no development. And movement means migration. But then today, migration has a very nasty connotation particularly when you watch the television and you hear the story of thousands of our youths daring to go through the desert’,he stated. 

 

‘Then after they have done such hazardous journey, some of them are being sold as slaves. Slaves in the 21st century, Africans being sold by Africans and maybe to Africans’,he expressed shock.

 

‘Making human beings as instrument merchants, property to be sold and commodity; humanizing and undignifying what God has created to be dignified and uplifted’,Obasanjo lammented.

 

 “As if that is not bad enough, these people go further and many of them find the Mediterranean Sea as a common grave. This means they terminate their lives. Why do they do this? It is because they believe they could get greener pasture elsewhere. What they believe they lack in their own country maybe gotten outside their own country’;he stressed.

 

“So what does this means? It means that all of us as leaders must feel a sense of regret and have sober reflection on what we have done or what we have not done to bring this about to our own people”,Obasanjo declared

 

 The former president, charged men of the NIS to imbibe culture of training, professionalism, integrity, honesty, loyalty, and service in the discharge of their constitutional duty.

 

 Earlier in his speech‎, Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Interior, Hon Jagaba Adams Jagaba noted that the National Assembly frowns at the outsourcing of services by the NIS, saying 99.9 percent of those contracts are “null and void.”

 

 The federal lawmaker explained that those services lacked the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and they are being used as avenue to milk Nigerian resources.

 

He said the assembly would soon pass a resolution and direct the presidency to henceforth stop outsourcing of service, which he noted served as fertile ground for corruption.

 

“So, this corruption process must stop. It may not be now, it be maybe after this CG has gone. But, I am so sure that 9 days for the thief, one day for owner,” Jagaba.

 

Also in his opening address, Comptroller – General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede said that the service is committed to safe and regular migration in order to prevent the sad stories of loss of lives and resources of Nigerian citizens and foreigners.

 

He warned travel agencies, individuals and officers in Passport offices at various borders who are engaged in smuggling of migrants to desist from it, saying anybody found wanting would be made to face the law.

 

Babandede disclosed that starting from January, 2018, National Identity Number (NIN) would be part of requirements for issuance of Nigerian passport with the National Identity Management Commission.

 

He noted that the aims of the conference were to review all its service and the E- passport, after 10 years of its introduction in order to better the services they rendered.

 

“I wish to state that NIS is committed to safe and regular migration to prevent the sad stories of loss of lives and sources of Nigerian citizens and others, occasioned by the desperate journey through the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean sea,” he said.