- Safiu Kehinde
Nigeria has lost Kisarazu city which was declared its hometown in Japan as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has on Thursday scrapped the proposed African Hometown Initiative following protest and confusion about the initiative.
NPO Reported that the Asian country had at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held in Yokohama last month declared four municipalities hometown of four African countries, including Nigeria.
In said effort to strengthen ties with Africa, JICAD declared the city of Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture, paired with Nigeria and Nagai in Yamagata Prefecture, paired with Tanzania.
In the same vein, Sanjo in Niigata Prefecture was paired with Ghana while Mozambique was paired with Imabari in Ehime Prefecture.
The initiative had reportedly sparked a flurry of online rumors that Japan was planning to accept a large number of immigrants from Africa with Nigeria’s demand for special visa intensifying the confusion and misinformation.
The Nigerian government demanded that special visas be issued for skilled Nigerians to relocate to their counterpart, Kisarazu.
While Japan had denied issuance of such visas with the Nigeria also correcting the statement, the rumors however intensified with protests being organized for the agreement to be canceled.
In reaction, JICAD’s President, Akihiko Tanaka, on Thursday declared the cancellation of the project.
“Taking the situation seriously, upon consultations with stakeholders, JICA has decided to cancel the ‘Africa Hometown Initiative,
“We emphasize, however, that promoting international exchange, including with Africa, remains an important priority, and pledge to continue supporting such efforts despite withdrawing the Africa hometown project.” Tanaka said.
JICA said it had been working with the Foreign Ministry to correct the misinformation regarding the agreement, but that the confusion has not settled and continued to cause problems for local municipalities.
“We would like to make it clear that JICA has never undertaken initiatives to promote immigration, nor does it have any intention of doing so in the future,” Tanaka added.