US, Other Countries Give Visas To Blacks For Exploitation – Prof. Oyeweso

 

By Ismaeel Uthman

A Professor of History at Osun State University, Siyan Oyeweso, has said that the United States of America and some European countries give visas to some Nigerians in order to exploit them through underpayment.

The scholar made this revelation while delivering his Keynote Address at the opening of African Pride Arts Academy in Osogbo.

Oyeweso said: “There is no greener land on the other side. You need to see what our people go through in those countries they run to. The whites have realised that our ideology here is defective, which also stretched to the way we place them (whites), they saw it as a weakness they could be used in their favour.”

The Professor maintained that there could not have been an easy passage to the countries if not for the cheap labour tag crested on the foreheads of the blacks.

Oyeweso noted that the amount paid to a white man for working from 9am to 5pm is two-times higher than what is given to a black, just as he emphasised that the privileges enjoyed by foremost nationalists were due to formal education they received in the foreign countries.

He said: “If not because of the education the likes of Awolowo, Macaulay, Crowther, Azikiwe and co had in the overseas, we may not have had the opportunity of negotiating our independence not to talk of granting us.”

Speaking at the event, the Commissioner for Regional Integration and Special Duties, Mr Olalekan Badmus, lauded the founder of the Arts Academy, describing the project as a great move that would further ease the burden of government in training the youths.

Badmus stated that the centre would go a long way in churning out modernised indigenous materials.

According to him, “Out of the resolve to promote our culture and indigenous contents, someone has done this. There is need for us to embrace things like this in order to improve our economy in this state and it must also be stated that this place will assist our effort in getting youths off the street.”

The Principal of that Academy, Mr Jide Lawal described the art institution as a means to forestall the African culture from gradually going into oblivion.

Lawal decried that majority of young people barely understands what their culture is all about, saying that they now prefer to communicate on foreign languages.

“It is highly surprising seeing white folks coming around to study our language and culture till now.  We have numerous of them studying at the University of Ibadan”, he said.