There’s a popular joke on Twitter that the Nigerian dream is to japa – leave, relocate to a different and hopefully better country – however there are many Nigerians including and especially the young ones who have been unable to leave, or have chosen not to. So we spoke to nine young Nigerians on why they haven’t left Nigeria already.
Hazel, 20.
I haven’t left because of school. I am in my final year in university and the plan is to leave after school but with the ASUU strike of last year? My plans were delayed by at least 1 more year. I am still going to leave but make e no be like say I go to school for 6 years, I no come collect my degree. Everyone thought I was devastated because of Covid-19 in 2020 but I was devastated because of ASUU and my plans to japa especially as Naira keeps falling and the dollar is getting more expensive and Bubu, the bad boy can wake up and ban IELTS tomorrow.
David, 30.
There are multiple reasons, but the main one for me is a fear of starting over in my career. I’m not sure my talents, which have been appreciated here, will have the same reaction abroad. That terrifies me. I see myself landing there and having to work as an intern. It might not even be a logical fear, but I don’t trust the whites not to act like the work I did in Nigeria is invalid simply because I did it in Nigeria. That being said, the more Nigeria frustrates me, the more I’m willing to risk it. Intern abroad is better than Oga in Nigeria.
Daniel, 26.
There are a couple of reasons, but I will speak on the two major ones. I trained and prepared myself to earn in Forex while living in Nigeria. That’s what I spent my Uni days doing, while my mates were pursuing first class so they can further their studies abroad with scholarship. The second is my responsibility to my siblings. The cost of studying abroad – I haven’t thought of any other reason to go abroad beyond school – will be too much for my parents and it will force them to focus less on my siblings. So I cancelled every plan for my Masters, local or international, to focus on earning and supporting my parents with my siblings’ education. I just paid my sister’s tuition for my Masters, and I hope that allows my parents to focus on the younger ones, one is a Jambite, the other is writing SSCE. Maybe when they are ready, my parents can focus on just one person and send them abroad. I think it all comes down to money. Maybe responsibility too, as the first child, I’m okay with denying myself some goals or pleasure if it will allow my siblings soar.
Ademide, 23.
First, my mom unconsciously put her fear of failure into me. After she gave me money for the IELTS exam and classes, She started threatening me with fear, she’ll be like “if you fail it, I don’t have money for another exam o”. And in class, I’m seeing people writing the exam the third or fourth time. Fear got to me and I never registered for it so I don’t fail it. When my elder sister and I were in the university, we stayed together, she was already through but got a job around the campus so our parents made us stay even when I begged my dad not to. Next thing, she started analyzing my life and she’ll be dropping comments like: “If you leave this country, wahali, you’ll start doing drugs”, “Is this what you’re wearing? If you leave this country, I wonder what you’ll wear?”. I did not know my mom had spoken to her about me leaving and I was very young and naive then. I became scared I was going to be like the girl in the literature book we read in secondary school who became a prostitute and her brother a drug addict. But now? Abegi, what is ashawo? Everybody is ashawo.
Tobi, 25
My issue is that I applied for my transcript in October last year but NASU is proving to be a bitch. Every time I call about the said transcript, it’s always “there’s no work, we’re on strike” and this has been the same caller tune back to back. Then I’m like, let me get the passport down at least. I got to NIS did the whole biometrics and capturing then they told me to come back a week later to collect the passport. I went over there but it was a different ball game. One of the officials told me there is no paper for the type I want to do. I wanted to do – the 32 pages. Another official told me I have to call my contact – that is the person I came through to register. So I’m guessing, you can’t collect a passport without knowing anybody inside the office. Finally my contact said “the Hausas are the ones printing the passports, and they are printing for 64pages now.’’ He also mentioned that the system was having issues linking the NIN to the passport. What I got from there was that they are not printing the type of my passport – 32 pages – and now my passport is almost going into the 3rd month and lastly, letter of recommendations from school. I called this professor of mine about that and he said no problem I should just write out a draft of the letter then he’d edit and send it them. This was November. I just thought the man had sent it because the school didn’t request it from me. Then I was just prompted to ask the school again if my letters had come in and then someone replied yesterday with “your letters have not arrived.”
Sarah, 24.
So, there’s a lack of funds as the primary reason, but then, it’s also because I don’t have a lot of confidence in myself. I’ve secured admission to a university in London, but I also haven’t applied for scholarships because I don’t think I’ll get one and rejection mails are hard to bear. I’m scared of starting over, whenever I think about it, my anxiety takes me on a wild ride on everything that could go wrong. A lot of my friends that have left had very supportive or financially stable families, my family is just trying to get by. I know if I truly applied myself, I could probably get the ball rolling, but that thought that I could fail stops me from trying. Lastly, I’m the last breadwinner standing at home. If I quit my job, leave this place and not get anything worthwhile to support home with for some time, I don’t know how my family will get by.
Zainab, 20.
As a gay person, you’d think I have no reason to still want to stay in this stupid place, but I have a family. I don’t know how to explain it, but the queer community in Lagos is my home. How do I just leave all of that and start again? I know how long it took me to find family, I’m not ready to navigate all of that again. I’d be lonely, and I’m an only child so I’ve been lonely all my life. I can’t. Eventually, I’d have to leave, but I’d put it off for as long as I can just because of family.
George, 28.
As much as I want to leave this underground Super Mario level disguised as a country, I’m terrified of starting a new life in a country where I know no one. Simply put, I’m tired of living here but I’m too scared to leave. Talk about an abusive relationship.
Bamise, 24.
Alright. So my late father was pro-stay in Nigeria. Not because he thought it was imperative to stay and build – he’d been heartbroken by the country several times – he was just not crazy about going abroad because he was aware that nowhere is without its strife and problems. And my father was/is one of my biggest role models, so his stance made the japa mindset alien to me. Also, I’m a young creative and given Nigeria’s booming creative industry, my target audience, community and employers are all here. I love my job and I’m excited about my other interests as well. I’m also convinced that my star and even ‘my Jesus’ is in Nigeria and that all that going abroad holds for me is crazy hustling, disillusionment, cold and racism. Then again, despite my father being a heartbroken Nigerian, he still had a smidgen of hope in the coming generation fixing things. I’m also quite heartbroken and my pro-stay in Nigeria stance at times has me feeling very hopeless because this country is very much so.
But somewhere, I still have hope in us being the change we want to see. We had #Endsars as proof that we can band together for good. So till then, I’ll keep working and living here, I hope to start earning in dollars soon and then, find a way to better my immediate community and hope it tides over the nation at large.
