24-Year-Old Student U-Turns After ‘Dumping’ Nigeria For Britain... Snubs BA Competition

Nigerian student Nasir Yammama was the subject of intense media bashing from early July following reports that the multiple-award winning tech wiz had abandoned his country for United Kingdom following a competition victory.

Not long after beating over 2000 contestants to win the British Council/Virgin Atlantic airlines' Enterprise Challenge, Yammama had in an interview with the BBC said he would be representing Britain rather that Nigeria at the Microsoft sponsored Global Technology competition.

"I am supposed to have represented Nigeria at it, but things have changed. I will represent England," he said.

In the media blitz that followed the BBC interview, several news media accusing him of disowning his country in favor of the UK.

The 24-year-old has however cleared the air in a recent interview with , stating that he did not at any point disown Nigeria.

"The competition, which requires students to represent a nation, does not necessitate representing your nation of origin.

"Besides, there is already a team representing Nigeria as many students have done for several years since the inception of the competition," Yammama said.

The innovator said with "many other Nigerians coming to the competition from various countries across the globe" he couldn't understand why the focus is on him.

"Some blogs have blown the issue way out of proportion, forgetting that in the same interview I expressed that coming back home is a sort of responsibility for every patriotic Nigerian in the Diaspora."

No More Competing

Yammmana also revealed in the interview that he is no more contesting in the Global Technology competition because "competitions tend to distract."

"I’m currently not participating in the competition, so I’m not representing any country at all.

"I will concentrate on my academic work and the further development of Verdant and other projects which I hope will be up-and-running in Nigeria soon."

Yammama, a Katsina State indigene, is presently pursuing his Masters Degree at the Middlesex University, United Kingdom.