Babatunde Fashola, former Minister of Works and Housing has said that Japa syndrome in Nigeria is not a measure of how good or bad a country is performing.
Fashola, who is also a former governor of Lagos State in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Saturday, also said the problem of the country lies in the exaggeration or negative ways Nigerians speak about themselves.
“The first place to start from is to understand that our world has changed so radically with the onset of globalization, the increase in global penetration, the internet, now people can interact with people now quicker than they used to, therefore Japa syndrome is not a measure of how bad or how good the country.
“The world is immediately migrating now, people are moving, traveling at a pace, perhaps never witnessed before in the history of human evolution. The point to make is the exaggerations and ways we speak about ourselves.
“Most of the negative correlations about us have come from ourselves and not from outsiders. I just hope we can look in the mirror and have a different conversation about ourselves.”
The former minister also stated that there is a need to separate the government from the country. He said when a particular government fails, ‘it is not the country itself that lets us down’.
“Also, there is the tendency for conflict between the government and country. I think we should separate them. Government is going to come and they are going to perform and some are going to disappoint and when they disappoint us, it is not our country that has let us down. It is our elites and our then leaders. We shouldn’t throw our country under the bus because we are angry with a politician of a particular era.”
He further spoke on the need for authenticity on the part of people in government, stating that with that level of honesty, they will not fall far from the people’s expectation.
“There is an office and there is a job and that is the reason why we are all there. That job requires us to serve and to impact people and that’s why it is called public service. If one remains true and authentic to themselves, then I don’t think that they will fall far away from the expectation.”
Chioma Kalu
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