•As Young Professionals Are Leaving NIGERIA In Droves
It’s common to hear ‘japa’on social media these days, as many young professionals from Nigeria are leaving in droves to seek greener pastures in the UK, US, Canada, Dubai, and some other countries where the pay is much better. And they’re guaranteed excellent security, regular electricity, and a structured system.
Worst hit are the Technology, Banking,Education, and Health sectors.
Last week, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) said more than 150 nurses resigned their appointments with the tertiary hospital within the last 3 years.
The Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Prof.Adetokunbo Fabamwo made the revelation at a Press Conference. He said this was because the nurses were relocating abroad to practice.
And that applications for positions of nurses and resident doctors had reduced in the tertiary hospital in recent times.
On the part of medical doctors, 5,000 of them were said to have relocated within the last 8 years to the UK.
The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Uche Rowland made the revelation during a symposium to discuss the brain drain in Nigeria’s health sector in October 2022.
He said data from the UK medical councils shows that there are 9, 976 Nigerian doctors in the country.
The statistics are really shocking with Nigeria said to have the highest number of doctors in the UK after India and Pakistan.
And, this has further led to a poor doctor-patient ratio of 1:5,000 in Nigeria as against the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 1:600.
It’s not just medical doctors and nurses who’re caught in this web. Dentists and pharmacists are also relocating in droves!
Mr. Rowland attributed the relocation of medical professionals to poor funding of the health sector. While noting that this was one of the reasons, the NMA boss said the Nigerian government allocated less than five percent of its annual budget to the health sector in 2021.
He also said the doctors are poorly paid as the government has not done acomprehensive review of health workers’ salaries since 2009 despite inflation.
And that security of their lives was a concern to these doctors as they had suddenly become victims of kidnapping and other attacks. So, they’re relocating in order to be safe.
Teachers are also relocating seriously.
In 2022, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, said over 260 Nigerian teachers migrated to Canada.
He also said the United Nations had hinted of its intention to embark on mass recruitment of teachers from Nigeria.
The banking industry is also affected!
At the post-Bankers’ Committee meeting press briefing held in April 2022, the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank Plc., Abubakar Suleiman, told reporters that exodus of Tech talents had hit the industry.
“So many of our very experienced talents, especially in the area of Software Engineering, are either leaving the industry or leaving the country,” he said.
Suleiman stated that the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), the umbrella professional body for lenders in the country, would “drive the process of training more skills in the area where we see deficits.” The bank CEOs at the meeting discussed plans to fund training for new tech-focused staffers to replace those who have left.
The first ‘Japa’ incident occurred when President Muhammadu Buhari first came to power.
This was about three decades ago!
At the time, popular Nigerian musicians, both gospel and secular singers, stormed the recording studios to communicate the situation to the government and discourage emigration, reassuring their fellow citizens that Nigeria would be great again.
The wave of mass emigration was over dissatisfaction with the state of the nation and popular songs like Veno Marioghae’s “Nigeria go survive, Africa go survive, my people go survive ooo, Nigeria go survive”, which was released in 1986, with the title ‘Nigeria Go Survive’, came to be.
The song aimed to raise the hope of the hopeless and discourage the prevailing ‘japa’, the slang now given to mass emigration.
Since then, doctors and other skilled professionals have been moving out of the country and the government is concerned about the situation.
In November 2022, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) said the high rate of relocation, popularly known as ‘japa’, was disturbing.
The Comptroller of Immigration in Enugu State, Joachim Olumba, expressed concern on Thursday, November 3rd, 2022.
He spoke at a sensitization campaign on the Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) in conjunction with the International Center for Migration Policy and Development (ICMPD).
The senior officer stated that the exodus of the young, the old and professionals had become an alarming trend.
“Not only the youth, but older generation of Nigerians exhibit interest to leave the country. This is creating a worrisome phenomenon which has come to be popularly known in local parlance as ‘japa’, he said.
Olumba observed that the desire to leave Nigeria was borne out of social, economic and security concerns.
The comptroller said to some, what is paramount is migrating from the country, not the means of reaching their destinations.
Olumba said such persons were not bothered about being smuggled, trafficked or hidden in ships.
“The ultimate interest is to relocate to foreign lands. As far as the vast majority are concerned, the end will eventually justify the means”, he noted.
If you still don’t know, ‘japa’ is a Yoruba word for escaping or fleeing away.
Suffice to say that many young people are crazy about leaving Nigeria for a better life.
In a viral video recently, a young Nigerian, who successfully travelled to Canada, laid face upward on the ground screaming on top of his voice in excitement that he had exited Nigeria and had found himself in an environment of freedom. He thanked God for successfully running away from hunger, killings and hardship allegedly under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Many people in Canada may not understand why he was very happy in the video, other Nigerians who are making similar move to run away from Nigeria told The Guardian that in Canada, a person could sleep on the street and be safe.
The unnamed young Nigerian who laid on the ground with his two legs and hands up in the video, screamed: “I have arrived oo. I’m delivered from Buhari. I’m delivered from Nigeria. Thank You God. Thank You Lord of Host for delivering me from slave trade.” He likened living in Nigeria to that of a slave.
But, Presidential aide, Femi Adesina is not moved by the recent wave of migration, saying many Nigerians have always wanted to leave the country.
He spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics on November 27th, 2022, maintaining that the situation does not apply to Nigeria alone.
“The average Nigerian had always wanted to leave. And it is not just in Nigeria. It is in most countries of the world, particularly in the third world,” he said during the show. “They always believe that it is greener on the other side.”
“You see, the truth is that if you have an opportunity to better yourself in any part of the world, there is nothing wrong with it. If you think migrating legally is good for you, all well and good. By all means, go!” he added.
“But you cannot now say that because people are leaving, then it is a sign that something is fundamentally wrong.”
As far as he is concerned, “There are Nigerians who would never leave the country no matter how things are”.
Unfortunately, majority of Nigerians would disagree with Mr. Adesina as they see no future in the country. It is sad to to note that 36 years after the first ‘japa’ incident, the hope of a better Nigeria is still a mirage for citizens while the country faces challenges of senseless killings of innocent citizens, hunger, unemployment, lack of vibrant justice system, infrastructural deficits, brain drain among medical doctors, nurses and other professionals, and lack of political will to deal with the remote and immediate causes of the various crises in the country.
This prompted the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor to say that “Delay in the trial of terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and others for terror-related crimes is undermining efforts at curtailing security threats in the country.”
Recently, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, while speaking with leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to intimate them of his presidential ambition, said Nigerians were migrating abroad because the country was not working.
“Our economy is in a shambles. Insecurity is ravaging the country, things have never been this bad.
“The general summation of the situation of the country is that we are inching towards a failed state. I’m not saying that Nigeria is already a failed state, but we are inching towards that. Therefore, it is our responsibility to collectively work together towards rescuing our country, retrieving it from the All Progressives Congress (APC) before the deed is done,” Tambuwal said.
In an interview with the Guardian in September 2022, Charles Okolie, in his mid-40s, said he was set to join the league of Nigerians leaving for greener pastures abroad. The only reason he is still in Nigeria is his wife, who is in a nursing school.
“We have started making some moves towards travelling. My wife will be graduating by December. Once we get her licence, she will practise for like a year to have experience in the country, we will take off. Our destination is Canada.
“Many people who traveled out of this country that I know are doing well and building houses in their villages. Some of my friends who have traveled would call and ask why I have decided to waste my life in Nigeria. You can’t compare life in Nigeria and abroad. They are two parallel lines that can’t meet.
“A domestic servant in the US is richer than a professor in Nigeria. I will rather serve jail terms in the US than stay in Nigeria and die of hunger or get killed by criminals. Very soon, bandits will force everybody out of this country to become refugees in foreign land. The hope in Nigeria is getting darker every day yet the government is treating it with kid’s gloves.”
While they get greener pastures, a working system, and better opportunities for their children, life is not always rosy for these professionals who relocate abroad.
2 weeks ago, a Nigerian man, Phillip Obin, shared his WhatsApp chat with a Nigerian lady who recently relocated abroad to work as a nurse.
The lady whom he described as a friend and nurse by profession, complained about the lifestyle in London.
She insisted that she will return to Nigeria after she is able to raise a whopping sum of N20 million from working in London.
That’s just one case of regret. Several more abound!
Some of them even lose their lives while trying to relocate!
Between January and early July 2014, unconfirmed reports said over 500 migrants drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea on boats off the Italian coast. Buried land mines and security operatives killed many others who tried to enter the country of their choices illegally via land border.
So, how do we stem the tide of emigration?
A lawyer and Public Notary, Mr. Lawrence Ndukwe told the Guardian that government needs to reassure the youths, create jobs, and build infrastructures comparable to those abroad.
“The government needs to seriously tackle insecurity in the country because people relocate because of insecurity. Even ex-governors and other politicians are on the run. Almost all the politicians have their first home abroad and use Nigeria as tent.
“The proprietress of my child’s school lives abroad because of paucity of good medical care centres in the country. She needs to live in a country that would help her manage her old and fragile health. So, we need a government that genuinely wants to salvage this country, else Nigeria would continue to experience mass emigration of young and old citizens with negative consequences for the country,” he added.
– IYABO OYAWALE
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