Olushola Omogbehin
Following the recent travel ban of US on Nigeria, Sam Amadi, Director of Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, has urged Nigeria to project itself positively before other nations by creatively harnessing its potentials.
He disclosed this call on Thursday in an interview in Arise Television.
US administration recently imposed travel restrictions on Nigerians hoping to travel to the US, citing security concerns and difficulties in vetting nationals.
According to Sam Amadi, any president should be bothered because the rate at which Nigerians are traveling out of the country is becoming worrisome.
“The rate at which people are migrating to the United States is becoming increasingly troubling.
“Any president would be concerned about people entering under the guise of education or tourism and then overstaying.
“So I think the first is to respond domestically in a way that we begin to reduce this tendency to move out of Nigeria to just stay away from the country.
“And the second thing is to be thinking about how to harness our cultural star power. We have significant cultural power, you talk of literature, you talk of music, but they are not being properly harnessed to profile Nigeria in a better light.
“And the third issue is to have credible elections, credible government, like Ghana does. That’s really why Ghana is not on the list the US banned. This story around receiving deportees is not the point. The point is that Ghana looks good in Washington not because they are powerful, but decent.
“We have to work on that third leg to make sure that we have credible elections, credible government, and then we can now begin to be seen as a country, not just exporting oil but a country that the US could partner with,” he said.
