 Langerians who are intending to join the Japa Syndrome have been advised to learn duetier research from those who have already traveled out as it is not always greener in all the places. This advice was given by author and poet Maggie Ofoha while speaking the West Journalist on the sideline of a book presentation returning to where I belong, dark shadow on my past and poetry for thoughts. Chairperson of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, creative and entertainment sector, Dr. Ungerzi Omambala shared in the sentiments of Ofoha explaining that there is a lot Nigerians can rationalize about themselves. I know people want to japa for reasons, economic reasons. The same reason why we left the shores of Nigeria. The condition didn't change. People are still struggling, hungry, everybody still wants to run away. Who doesn't want to run away to a better place? So you cannot blame them. But what I'm saying, the thing you're running to may not be as fancy as you see it. The place you're running away from may even be better. So some people are learning. They are going to see scattered all over Mediterranean Sahara Desert. Learn from them. Then it's not always fancy. Some people go and make it. Many don't make it. So don't worry when we come back here with a $1 and change it to $2,000 and we are living big. A lot of problems you can encounter when you go there. When I was coming to Nigeria in 2007, my counterparts in the UK would say, Ungerzi, you're going the wrong way. People are leaving Nigeria and you're coming. But you know, 70 years down the line, who would have thought that our creative and entertainment industry would be so powerful and has exploded? So I think we have a lot to think about in terms of really, really kind of like honoring our own heritage and building from that and making it into a business because now Nigeria is known for its creative music, fashion, film. We're exporting. It's part of our tourism now. And so we have to really respect and appreciate what we have at home, not necessarily look outside. Othoha, here to provide the reading culture in Nigeria, took a swipe at parents for leaving their children at the mercy of technology. We are sorry Nigerians don't. You see, men, men, learned men. Oh, we're healthcare workers. We're business people. We don't work. And that was discouraged. So but I kept going because I know that someday things will change and our children needs to know our history. How will you know your history if you don't study literature? You know what I mean? And it's a country that don't know their history. It's doomed. Right? And I learned that I don't know if Nigerian universities, they do or schools, elementary school, high school, they do to teach history. If something happens and it's not recorded. What do we do? It's shoved under the carpet. The white man writes a history for us. And that's not that needs to be changed. From a political sphere, personal in the house, you get an idea of why the mindset is as it is from colonialism going right through to present day politics and in-house fighting corruption. All of these areas come into play. So for me, I think it's really important. I think we need to really address the scenarios, these situations and make sure that our education syllabuses are really quite relevant to what's happening currently. Now children are very, very lousy when it comes to reading. They want to Google everything that comes out. We don't want them, if you buy a textbook at the end of the day, the detail we ask is very, very important and mandatory to buy a textbook. Now what do they do with the textbook? They park the textbook, they don't allow the children to read. Now it is very, very, very disheartening. I want to talk to you about the awakening of that spirit of reading. That reading culture, which really made a lot of people, Chinua Chiebe, Chinua Amanda, Woleh Soienka, these people are not people that are fed by the advent of social media. They went through reading and inculcated that culture of reading and believed that they have to read to study and understand, to be able to inspire their generation. Let us bring it back to these new generations.