Thread by @toluogunlesi

I find it genuinely puzzling how people taking advantage of immigration opportunities to move abroad has come to be equated with “dark days” or an apocalypse. There’s nothing apocalyptic about it. People will always move in response to perceived better opportunities. #thread

https://twitter.com/oluyomiojo/status/1179776025615650817

People are relocating in significant numbers to Canada & elsewhere from countries that are much more prosperous than Nigeria - China for eg. Let’s quit this apocalyptic outlook. People will always migrate in search of a better life, new opportunities, a 2nd passport, etc.

Nigerians have been emigrating since forever. A century ago we were flooding to Ghana, we built the railway system there, & dominated the mines. Since then we’ve flocked to the US, Ireland, UK, Australia,Canada, Angola, etc. Everywhere. Canada will not be the last.

It is in human nature to move. Sometimes its a push sometimes a pull.

But it has never really made sense to me - this apocalyptic obsession: ‘30 people quit my office today for Canada oh so the world is coming to an end.’

I don’t think there’s any basis for it.

By some stroke of serendipity, just after I typed first tweet in this thread, I met someone at a dinner I’m at. Nigerian. Asked how long he’s been at current job (in Naija). 1 Year he said. Where were you before then? Canada. How long did you spend there? >10 years. Interesting.

I shared with him a theory of mine: that a good number of today’s migrants will someday come back home. It’s only natural. For various reasons the lure of Naija will someday surpass (for some/many) the ‘Stay’ Impulse (SI); same way today the lure of Canada etc surpasses the SI.

He agreed. Its not even a prophecy or anything. It’s just the way of life, the way of humans.

Those leaving should not look unfavorably (“stupid!”) upon those who have chosen to stay behind (& there are many,but there’s no reason for them to announce why they’ve chosen to stay); & those staying must not look unfavorably (“unpatriotic!”) upon those who‘ve decided to leave.

Those leaving, if you can, please, don’t, in the exhilaration of perceived ‘liberation’, burn your bridges in Naija. You will need them someday. It can be tempting to think that you can get away from Nigeria forever, because of justifiable present frustrations.

On another note, I don’t think the numbers going to Canada annually today have reached the numbers going to the US at the peak of ‘Visa Lottery’ in the 2000s. Both waves of course happened because the receiving countries opened their doors. And the doors will not be open forever!

But because we tend to be a Society without Memory, without Remembrance, we act like everything is new — and apocalyptic. Hardly.

Hardly.

Hardly.

Let everyone who will go to Canada or elsewhere go, without making it seem like it’s their going in search of a better life and better opportunities that will bring Nigeria crashing down.

It’s not going to happen. I’m not praying or prophesying. Just telling you the koko.

I also think those who’ve made the decision to relocate have a responsibility to be truthful about their experiences & frustrations abroad. (No one can be forced of course). But it helps.

No one warns you abt how quickly the high of relocation-excitement becomes the new normal.

SM also plays a role in the apocalyptization of migration. Take this June 2015 story: “Nigerians are Flocking to Work in Texas Prisons”,chronicling a migration wave from Naija starting around 2008

But we didn’t know about it cos SM wasn’t what it is today themarshallproject.org/2015/06/03/nig…

With social media stuff that’s always happened takes on an unfamiliar sheen, a perception of something cascading, running out of control. We’ve seen it happen with tensions between herders and farmers, so that there are people who genuinely believe it started in 2015 😂