Nigerians have expressed their despondency on the harrowing economic situation in the country and how they are left with little choice but to leave the country for ‘greener pastures’-Japa. They highlight jobs, insecurity and a general sense of hopelessness as part of the reasons for relocating.
As a follow up to our trending stories in the ‘Japa’ series where we reported on organisations that recorded high turnovers of staff in the month of July and into this new month; as well as emigrations occasioned by the resumption of academic activities by foreign schools after the summer holidays, we report on the views of Nigerians on the exploding, if fashionable trend.
While some Nigerians have expressed solidarity towards the mass movement/brain drain, some have blamed the government for leading the country to a degrading state, encouraging mass emigration of Nigerians.
On the other hand, others have highlighted the need to stay in the country and build the nation together, citing the no-place-like- home cliche. In all, Nairametrics compiles a list of comments based on its second “Japa” series.
You can read the first and second articles here and here respectively.
- Speaking on the motivation behind the mass migration, Ochuko said, “what is self-esteem to a man who is in danger? A man whose next income (salary) is not guaranteed? A man whose children’s future is not guaranteed?”
- In the same vein, another comment from Zainab reads, “Abegiiii, I am 30 years old now and those of my age mate at 15 that had the opportunity to travel are way better because of the flexibility of the life they are exposed to over there. 15 years down the line and we are still in a spot and spinning. Biko those that have the means, feel free to flee, God bless you jare,” she wrote.
- Uloma wrote, “we are not running away. We will continue the fight from abroad… He who runs away lives to fight another day init?”
Meanwhile, Wale Folarin gave a different perspective as to why Nigerians are leaving the country, “most of us left the country not necessarily because we were hungry at home or in search of better pay abroad, but we fled for our lives. For example, I was almost kidnapped in Osara; a community between Okene and Lokoja in Kogi State about 3 years ago. We were already surrounded by heavily armed bandits until soldiers came to our rescue.”
“God’s goodness! After narrating the experience to my family, my 8-year-old said to me, ‘daddy, if you cannot take us to the UK or the US, can you please take us to Ghana?’. My job involved a lot of travels across the country, and I literally spent several months after the incident worried and troubled on every trip. That’s a bigger problem than being unemployed,” he added.
David Mayokun wrote, “a brilliant article. One sector that comes to mind is the banking sector, particularly their IT department. And generally, our government is really clueless on how to deal with this. It all started with the medical sector when qualified hands fled & still flee the country for better terrain. There’s hope sha – that I submit.”
Meanwhile, Gift in her comment, suggested that she is open to fill in some of the vacant positions as a result of the resignations. She said, “tell me companies that want to recruit around Onitsha, so that while their workers are japaing, i’ll fill up at least a position.”
However, some readers also made positive comments as well as hopeful predictions for the country in the future. O.J.E for instance, believes that Nigeria is prime for better days, which would encourage those abroad to return home some say.
“I’m not saying that anyone who wants to ‘Japa’ should not because they have their reasons for doing so, but I tell you that, few years to come the situation will change to the opposite. There will be more and better opportunities for the professionals and the educated people in Nigeria than over there.”
People should know that nothing is permanent. Some countries we see as better than Nigeria today will have lesser blessings than Nigeria not so long time from now, and you’ll begin to see Nigerians abroad coming back home. This is a good opportunity for many who are not doing well now to fill up the spaces left behind by our fellows who are relocating abroad.”
According to an Instagram comment by @cidiassignature_properties, “companies won’t lose anything anyways because a lot of people/graduates are out there looking for jobs. All you need to do is recruit.”
Meanwhile, Wole Akinyooye noted that, “this problem is compelling and HR professional and recruiters have to develop more agility to help organisations from collapsing. In a way, it is good for the young ones who now have opportunities to export their talent.”
Note: The voices in this article were extracted based on comments on our previous stories on “Japa”.
