Sophia Michaels
Professor Dapo Asaju, the former vice-chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Abeokuta, Ogun state, has advised Nigerian youths to be wary of Western exploitative education used to entice them to leave the country, The Nation reports.
Asaju, while delivering a convocation lecture at Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun state on Wednesday, September 6, which was tagged ‘Transformative Economy and Japa Syndrome in Nigeria’ opined that japa is self-exportation which is synonymous with self-slavery.
He said: “The first slavery of Africans was when they were forcefully shipped across the Atlantic by white slate traders who enslaved them like animals, the second wave of slavery was during the period of colonialism, following the Berlin conference of 1845 and the third is which is worst form is when African country has come of age to extent that they have started to train their indigenous professionals and educated elite but who are forced by unpleasant circumstances to willing and cheaply sell themselves to serve western countries; many, for pittance doing menial jobs.”
“On another hand are exploitative educational enticement of Africans who are encouraged to pay terribly high fees to obtain a Master’s Degree from British Universities just because they would have the opportunity to do some hours of menial jobs and stay as residents after some years. They pay N16 million per year to earn a Master’s Degree.”
Asaju added that he resisted the pressure mounted on him to establish the College of Medicine during his tenure as VC because the majority of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria heavily funded with taxpayers’ money ended up producing doctors and nurses for international societies.
He advised that Nigerians should be wary of paying heavily to schools in the Western world, saying that certificates acquired outside Nigeria are not superior to certificates from Nigerian varsities
