The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, says “the current economic hardships are pushing our young people to explore illegal migration,” in search of greener pasture.

In a Facebook post on Friday, the monarch lamented “Uncertainties of job security, labour crises, massive unemployment as some of the prevailing factors and hardship that are driving our best and the brightest into these uncharted perilous territories.”

Mr Ogunwusi said illegal migration was being fuelled by “the failure of our governance and leadership,” calling for a “collective national allegiance of building a nation that prioritizes its future generation and bequeath to them prosperity, peace, and human dignity.”

Mr Buhari, in his 2021 Democracy Day speech, claimed his regime has lifted over 10 million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years.

However, in June, the World Bank Nigeria Development Update stated that seven million Nigerians were plunged below the poverty line in 2020 under Mr Buhari’s watch.

Earlier in February, another World Bank report had projected that an additional 20 million Nigerians could be further impoverished by the year 2022.