A renowned
Nigerian professor of political economy, Pat Utomi, who commented on the result
of the referendum, said it could bring about similar self-determination spirit
in other parts of the world especially, Africa.
“We have
arrived at the age of self-determination. Making people stay in a union that
they don’t like is now the equivalent of slavery in the modern age. It may get
to the extent that many of the concocted states of West
Africa that came out of the Berlin Conference, will begin to
unravel. It has huge implication.”
The
professor of economy however holds the view that the EU will seek to build new
trade relationship, while Britain
will make efforts to concretise old trade partnership with countries like Nigeria .
Earlier,
The Punch gathered from the director general of the Institute
of International Affairs , Lagos , Prof Bola
Akinterinwa, that migrants should expect tougher days in the nearest future,
based on the outcome of the referendum called Brexit. Akinterinwa who called
those who went for the exit of Britain
from the EU had specifically ascribed many of the challenges confronting the UK in recent
times to migrants.
The
director general stated: “Some of them blame migrants for unemployment, various
econometric issues and even traffic jams.
“When a
British lawmaker, Jo Cox, was murdered by a nationalist recently, his killer,
(52-year-old Thomas Mair) shouted ‘Death to the traitors, freedom to freedom!’
in court. The implication of that for Nigerians is that those who advocated for
leaving the UK
would be very strict and hostile to migrants in the foreseeable future.
“The mere
fact that migrants are believed to be responsible for a lot of problems and the
fact that many Nigerians would like to make Britain their second home, is a
sign that they must prepare for harder days to come.
“This will
also affect Nigeria
because European countries are the first direction of our trade. If the union
is suffering from whatever virus, Nigeria will also have its own
share.”
While a
professor of Energy Economics, Adenikinju Adeola, revealed that, “every
agreement that has been signed will be affected in one way or the other. Like
some experts have rightly said, the exit is going to cause a global recession
in the economy because it will affect the demand for oil, which is the major
source of Nigeria ’s
income.
“Nigeria is trying to borrow money from the
global financial market to fund the budget and other projects, but the Britain exit
may also affect the chances of the country in assessing the loan.”
Tayo
Oyetibo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN) concluded the experts’ comments by saying that, “if Britain , which is the strongest ally of Nigeria , pulls out from the EU, you can imagine
what that means for Nigeria .”
Source:
Naij.com
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