As the commemoration of the 2025 International Youth Day gets underway in Abuja,
Director General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, Rt. Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub has called on the nation’s youth to shun irregular migration and to seek lifelong vocational skills that will make them contribute effectively to national development.
Buba, who underscored the vital role of education and innovation in combating irregular migration by Nigerians in a keynote address delivered at the 2025 Educational Summit held, Monday, at the National Human Rights Commission in Abuja, emphasised that a strong educational framework and innovative approaches are essential for providing young Nigerians with sustainable livelihoods, thereby reducing the temptation for irregular migration.
Represented at the occasion by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Nkem Anyata-Lafia, the former federal lawmaker identified the immense risks posed by irregular migration to such migrants and warned that irregular migration carries significant risks, including death by drowning, extortion, police brutality, forced prostitution as well as indiscriminate arrests, and imprisonment without charges.
Speaking on the reasons for such migration, the DG referenced a study by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to elucidate the factors driving individuals into illegal migration. These include manipulation and gullibility, misinformation, conflict, political instability as well as economic instability, poverty, and climate change.
While noting the negative impacts of irregular migration, especially on the youth of most developing countries, Dr. Buba provided practical examples of how irregular migration has affected the youth. One of the examples of these, he said, was the high incidence of deaths that have been recorded between North Africa and Italy and Malta, with this route accounting for a significant number of fatalities each year.
The NTAC boss also called attention to notable incidents of irregular migration, stressing that such specific incidents were enough to discourage anyone thinking of migrating to any country the wrong way, while revealing that since 2014 over 28000 deaths have occurred on the Mediterranean Sea on account of irregular migration.
He cited specific tragic events, such as the shipwreck off the coast of Libya in 2011 that claimed 600 lives, the capsizing of the Adriana fishing trawler near Greece with 700 deaths, and the Lampedusa incidents of 2011 and twice in 2013, where a vessel carrying 500 passengers lost 359 individuals on October 13, 2013 alone.
Proffering solutions to the menace called irregular migration, the Adamawa-born politician and technocrat identified continuous education, vocational training and innovation as key to surmounting the challenges, highlighting that the President Tinubu Administration has provided the Nigerian youth with ample opportunities to acquire whatever they need in the identified areas.
Buba argued that, to eliminate the darkness of ignorance, poverty, and the lack of opportunities, it is essential to illuminate one’s path with education, creativity, productivity, and innovation for sustainable living and contribution to national development.
On the opportunities the current Administration has provided to Nigerians for result-based education and innovation, the NTAC DG reiterated the gains of the establishment and mandates of Agencies like NELFund, NOTAP, NTAC, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) as well as the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI).
He said NELFund and, indeed, other Agencies like it, was particularly created by the President in order to link education to wealth generation and comprehensive national development. He added that the Fund was designed to support youth in pursuing higher education, alongside promoting Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
While urging all stakeholders to invest in education as a key strategy for securing Nigeria’s development, Rt.Hon. Buba expressed his commitment to pursuing sustainable solutions that empower the youth, citing President Bola Tinubu’s 4-D Foreign Policy Initiative as a driving force behind NTAC’s efforts.
These efforts by NTAC, Buba explained, were geared towards providing opportunities for educated, young Nigerians to export their technical skills and academic expertise to countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific region, assisting our youth to migrate with dignity to those regions and countries of the globe where their competencies are usually valued more than those of others in the same fields of endeavour.
Informing of the collaboration with multilateral institutions and United Nations’ system Agencies like the IOM, Dr. Buba revealed to his audience that there exist several opportunities for the transformation of parts of the services of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps to revenue-generation from exporting the immense technical skills and expertise that abound in our country to other developed nations for a fee.
He also revealed that such plans for the transformation of parts of the services of NTAC, which will help young Nigerians with skills and expertise to migrate with dignity and to bring home the needed remittances as part of the nation’s Diaspora, were already undergoing the careful scrutiny of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with other Ministries and the National Assembly.
The Summit, which was attended by many dignitaries, including representatives of the Hon. Minister of Youth Development; Chief of the Air Staff and the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, also had in attendance the DG of Tinubu Support Group, Dr. Umar Tanko Yakassai as well as Dr.Adaora Onyechere Sydney-Jack,a popular on-air personality and Civil Society feminist activist, among many others, who delivered position Papers on a wide range of topics.
The event concluded with an inspiring call-to- action for various sectors to unite in fostering a new generation of informed, innovative and community-driven young leaders who will contribute to a brighter, sustainable future for Nigeria by prioritising the kind of education, skills training and innovation that will mitigate the risks associated with irregular migration, and empower the nation’s youth to thrive within their communities.
Nkem Anyata-Lafia
Special Assistant to the DG on Media and Publicity
August 12,2025
