Soyinka, others decry influx of foreigners

Posted by admin Headlines, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Wole Soyinka Friday, April 18th, 2014

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka some academics and researchers have expressed worry over unchecked influx of foreigners into Nigeria’s territory.

This is contained in a communiqué issued on Thursday at the end of a three- day colloquium organised by the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding.

Soyinka, who is the chairman of CBCIU, was among the participants at the colloquium which also had Christian leaders, Islamic leaders and traditional religions adherents in attendance.

Some of the scholars who presented papers at the colloquium were: Dr. Bimbo Adesoji, of Department of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Dr. Enoch Gbadegesin, Department of Religious Studies, OAU and Dr. Abiodun Agboola, also from OAU.

Influx of foreigners has been identified as a cause of to the incessant bombings and killing of innocent Nigerians across the country.

They tasked security agencies in the country to properly man the borders and check those coming in and going out of the country. This, they said, would improve the security situation in the country.

The communique reads in part, “As a society, there is a need to check the trend of ‘politicisation of religion’ and ‘religionisation of politics’ i.e. the unhealthy mixing of religion with politics in our system.

“Factors responsible for violent crisis and insurgency are identified as lying in hardline tendencies engendered by wrong education, social and economic dislocation, poverty and social disadvantages.

Others are: political partisanship, unchecked influx of foreigners into the country especially through the border in the Northern part of the country and idleness and unemployment among Nigerian youths.”

They added that religious tension in some states in the country was caused by mutual suspicion while urging adherents of various religious organisations to refrain from unnecessary anger.

Stating that religions are not obstruction to human progress, they agreed that various religions had promoted developments at different times in Nigeria saying missionaries’ intervention in education sector contributed immensely towards making education available to many people in Nigeria.

The scholars and other participants also suggested that peaceful coexistence among various ethnic groups and religious groups would be facilitated through the promotion of justice, fair hearing, humility and forgiveness.

The communiqué reads further, “There is the need to introduce and enforce the concept of compulsory education which will make school attendance mandatory for children between the ages of six and 16 .

“Parents who keep children within compulsory school age will then be treated as offenders against the law.”

-Punch

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