Nigerian Youtuber, Emdee Tiamiyu, has said that he meant every word he said in his controversial British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview.
Development Diaries reports that criticisms have continued to trail the interview he granted to the BBC where he claimed that Nigerians seeking admission into school in the United Kingdom only considered it as an alternative means to escape from Nigeria.
A well-known expert for advising Nigerians on studying in the United Kingdom, Tiamiyu said that most Nigerians were not looking for new qualifications, but to begin a ‘new life’ abroad.
‘The student route is more like an answered prayer. It is a big bracket that’s able to take a lot of people, the ordinary people’, he said.
‘We’re beginning to see that a lot of people just hide behind the studentship. So the student thing is not real, it’s not like they need the degrees’.
The United Kingdom, in its recent immigration rule, aims to remove the permission for international students to switch out of the student route and into work routes before their studies have been completed to prevent misuse of the visa system.
It is understood that the rule, which takes effect in January 2024, seeks to prevent Nigerian students, and others studying in the United Kingdom, from bringing their families as dependants except under specific circumstances.
Many Nigerians are unhappy with Tiamiyu’s submission, claiming he has ruined the chances of others who intend to go to the United Kingdom to study.
While this may be true, the main reason young Nigerians are scrambling, as it were, to leave the country is because the government has failed them.
Young Nigerians are driven to look for better chances, jobs, and security due to many factors including the country’s poor leadership, high rates of youth unemployment, and insecurity.
In 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that 53.4 percent of young people were unemployed.
Furthermore, a 2022 report from the NBS revealed that 133 million Nigerians are multidimensional poor.
Most young Nigerians appear to have lost faith in the nation’s ability to reverse the long-term deterioration that has undermined it.
Development Diaries calls on the Bola Tinubu-led incoming administration to see Tiamiyu’s comments as a challenge to improve the living conditions of every Nigerian, especially youths.
Photo source: Emdee Tiamiyu
