 Irregular migration and the dangers thereof. For obvious reasons, bordering on economic justice, human rights, climate, etc. Nigerians, youths especially, are indeed ready to leave the country at any cost and this is not surprising. However, one must ask, is the grass truly greener on the other side? In examining this issue, research and statistics show that for Africans, moving to Europe has become increasingly difficult. It is indeed a very high risk situation. Thousands are now discovering this reality. Today, I wish to highlight a few dangers facing irregular migrants. They do say knowledge is power and information shared may help you or someone you know. Some of the issues include exploitation by smugglers. Smugglers are criminals who pretend that both the journey and settling in Europe are easy in order to get money. Smugglers often lie about the safety of the route and modes of transport. The United Nations has sanctioned human traffickers in Libya for many crimes. An example of issues around this is Angela, a 25-year-old Nigerian woman, who was abandoned by her smuggler along with 50 others in the Sahara Desert and left to die. And only six of them survived. Smugglers are also known to sell migrants en route. They may also demand a ransom from family members. Being violent to the point of killing migrants are seen recently by smugglers who reportedly shot migrants on the beach in Libya for refusing to get on the boat. Kidnap and human trafficking. There are many stories of migrants being kidnapped when crossing Mali, Mauritania and Niger, as well as trying to leave Libya. This often happens in the Sahara Desert and is sometimes planned in advance with drivers selling the migrants to kidnappers for large sums of money. This horrific experience goes hand in hand with the severe torture of the migrants. And we have the case of Azam, a 30-year-old Nigerian male, who recounted how masked kidnappers stomped the truck he was traveling in with 30 other irregular migrants, shot and killed the driver and three passengers as a means of instilling fear into the rest of them. This kidnappers proceeded to torture Azam and his companions daily until their families paid huge ransom for their release. There are also regularly reported cases of migrants being robbed and dispossessed of their belongings by armed bandits as they travel through the desert. We have abused and exploitation of children and adolescents. Migrant children are the most at risk of abuse. Three in four children and young adults face various forms of exploitation on their journey to Europe through the Mediterranean. The irregular migration journey is extremely dangerous for children who go without education for extended periods and face isolation and abuse. More than 1,200 migrant children died from 2014 to 2018 as recorded by the International Organization for Migration, otherwise known as IOM. And nearly half of them perished while attempting to cross the Mediterranean. The question arises. Given the somewhat despondent nature of things in Nigeria and most African countries today how do we encourage young people to refuse irregular migration options? As the question always arises, will you feed me and my family if you ask me not to leave? These are the issues and government and citizens alike must rise up and put in place social programs that empower the people. For this is the most sustainable panacea to irregular migration. I mean that's just the truth. That's the final question, your songs of everything. You're telling me not to go, will you feed me and my family? You say, crazy question, yes I know. But the truth is, as much as we say will you feed me and my family let's look at the amounts that are used in this migration. These amounts can set up small and medium enterprises in Nigeria but love for the stability dreamt of abroad with no balance or understanding of what you're going to meet there. We seem to think to, let me use the language. Japa, Nadiwe Ford. When I was a banker there, I had the first quarter in shock. People, families will sell their homes, sell their properties to send their children abroad and they don't know what the child is going to do there or what the future is going to be like. They don't care, all they know is that just go out there, it is better, the grass is greener on the other side. So they're willing because after applying for visas over and over again and being rejected, to them that's the option. And you don't have, if you don't have here, here's a family, they don't have any sustainable means of income, they are living below the poverty line, there's no other way. They don't see any other means of escape. So to them, there's nothing you can tell them. And of course they have the son of Papachi Nadiwe. Nadiwe, let's go out of the conversation. Exactly, I'm just going to say that the thing is that it's a game of chance. There's always that person who has done it and who has successfully played it. Like Sholah, right? Absolutely. So you have a trash record. Sholah is a good example of her. Sholah is good. I am somewhere that really encourages a lot of people to migrate if they've got the necessary skills and means to survive or get jobs legally in the U.S. and Canada. The reason why I say so is that I always say that if you have children you've got to be in that second experience. You can't let your children go to New Zealand, so this is normal. However, I've always said that if the government, look, I know what, for somebody to sell their house, to sell their family house and go and rent the property so that one child of two children can attempt to cross and go abroad without knowing whether it will be successful, without knowing whether they will make it and even remember it, it shows you how desperate people are. Are we going to say that? People are just that desperate to think that, you know, it's worth taking the chance. Even if one of these children makes it, we're set up for life. And that shows you how sometimes hopeless situation can be for some families in Nigeria. Especially the middle income, you know, the old middle income families who are civil servants and such. Things have become so, but they can't get their pension. There's no means of livelihood. And somebody talked about in business. I will say what I'm talking about now. And I will tell you that I have invested so much money, more money than I have with you two. But my business is you can do always do better in Nigeria because in Nigeria some government policies come and wife structures and start all over again. You know, they never end in cycle and people are kind of tired of people. And even the exchange rate that always flows. So I mean, yeah, to learn my voice to this, having been in this space for a few years now, I think that it's really a situation of a chicken and egg approach. It's an issue where we have to look at different sides. And as Shola has rightly said, when hope is totally lost, believe me, you resort to any means possible. That does not mean I am condoning the actions as declared by Eno. What I'm saying here is that as the last line of my advocacy said, how do we actually find the balance, civil society, government and even the people themselves? What are we likely to do? Fundamentally, migration is a human right. As a human being, you have the right to move from place to place. But then one thing I said in Loiza, my own right stops where your own begins. So while I may have the right to move to your country, I cannot come to your country without the established methodology and the prescriptions I said, this is how you come into my country. So what we're advocating for and what we are pushing for and one thing that I have said all the while is that if you're going to migrate or leave your country to another place, do not go through the irregular routes. Do not lose a limb livelihood and everything for a dream that you have no understanding or idea about. Find out what the real options are, find out how you should go and then also understand the place of developing your society. We are going to still need people who have got in the experience and the way we thought to come back. And there's no forget that. Remi, please say hi in Nigeria's economy. Okay, so the local government and its importance is what Cully wants to tell us about after the break.