By Sarafina Christopher
Dr Joseph Ochogwu, Director General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) on Wednesday identified trust building among Nigerians as a way of tackling the Japa Syndrome.
Japa syndrome is the massive emigration of Nigerians to other countries by all means and the need to put an end to the Japa syndrome cannot be overemphasized.
The DG said this when he paid a familiarisation visit to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
According to him, running away has never solved things because Nigeria will always remain our father’s land, no matter where we go we will always be addressed as Nigerians, it is our heritage.
Ochogwu said that it is important to note that in order to tackle the Japa syndrome; we must promote the image of Nigeria by changing the narrative of the country.
“We are in a time where there’s a need to renew our hope as individuals, society and as a nation and this can only be achieved by us,
“We need to build trust in our nation, leaving the country has never solved things because Nigeria will always remain our father’s land, no matter where we go we will always be addressed as Nigerians, it is our heritage.
“It is the citizens that will build the nation; we need to build it for our children so that they can be proud to say they are Nigerians.
“This is why we must all come together with relevant stakeholders to put an end to the Japa syndrome, if we don’t do it and our children lose faith in Nigeria then we might not have a nation.
“We believe that it is the citizens that make a nation and any country without people in it cease to exist,” He said.
However, Ochogwu also noted that the Media has a key role to play in terms of putting an end to the Japa syndrome by generating news contents that will promote the image of Nigeria.
“The media is known to be a mind control system of every nation because it has the power to shape people’s belief systems and ideologies so we need to use it to change the narrative of Nigeria.
“It is good to inform the public about issues but it must be presented with solutions, if we only keep projecting Nigeria as a hopeless nation its citizens will no longer see the good in it neither will they be motivated to stay.
He added that there is the need to start promoting the beauty of our society and our nation.
“We need to promote the mystery behind our nation that is still holding us because there are nations that would have packed away but we are still here resilience and trying to be happy in the midst of challenges.
“When we look around us there are still a lot of things worth celebrating in spite of the difficulties which we believe will come to end.
“I can assure you that there is hope for this country if only we can look beyond the negativity, keep working and advocating for a better and prosperous nation.”Ochogwu said. (NAN)
