Are you a young person who just wants to “leave this place” and move abroad? Are you in that state of complete helplessness where no one is giving you a chance? No job, no money and no immediate hope for the future? Considering even Libya route? Let’s talk about that this morning
First, some caveats: I am not a psychologist or one trained in migration or social work. I was part of govt until recently and my generation has to accept part of the blame for the state of Nigeria today. I once emigrated too, so I won’t give a hypocritical motivational speech.
It was important that I accept my limitations. When I was a kid, my mum always said: “If you tell everybody first that you have big eyes and thin legs, they won’t be able to tease you about it again.” It worked every time. Having done that, let me now share with you my thoughts.
Let me first pay tribute to @CallmeGoldeneye who said: “Ezemmuo, slave Trade is happening and you are not saying anything about it. Shame on you and everyone else that has more than 10,000 followers and is not advising the youth!” Also to @OyomwanO for raising it in another way.
Some “Overlords of Negative Twitter” will tell the youth to emigrate and tell them there’s no hope in Nigeria. They themselves are here o. They are not going anywhere o. They’ll keep threatening to give up their Nigerian citizenship but they never do. Shine your eyes o, my people
Don’t let Overlords use your difficult situation to further their political agenda. Let’s see if I understand my audience. You’ve gone to a federal or state uni. You made a 2:2, not a first class. You have no “connections.” You lack “international exposure.” FV If this is you.
You see when you are in this situation where you are unemployed/underemployed, desperate and depressed, anywhere but Nigeria seems a better option. The anger towards earlier generations is real. It takes real effort to be polite. Everyone in government is an enemy. FV if true.
Look, if you are in that situation and you have the opportunity to move abroad, only a hypocrite will tell you not to do so. But here’s the real gist: If you must move abroad, do so LEGALLY! If you emigrate illegally, you will suffer if you are lucky, and die if you’re unlucky.
I can hear you asking “What’s the difference between the life I’m living now and death? I might as well risk death.” Well, listen to the tales from Libya. Metal inserted into your rectum, torture, degradation, being sold like cattle, rape of both males & females. Is it the same?
Thanks to @naijama for reminding me that many that encourage the youth to emigrate are themselves abroad, and they do it to justify their inability to come back home. Let me tell you something funny: I don’t know any Nigerian abroad who is not looking for a way to return. Me o.
But I’ll come back to how life is abroad and how people there get trapped a bit later. For now, the young person is thinking “It can never be worse than my current situation. Let me leave first. That was then. What happened to them won’t happen to me.”
As I said, emigrate legally if you must. There are a number of ways to do that and I am not an expert, but you could win the American Visa Lottery or gain enough points to go to Canada. You could also go as a student but you probably need about N2-3 million & it’s not guaranteed.
Perhaps the surest way is to marry a citizen of a foreign country. If you are a woman, be careful and make detailed enquiries. Some of these guys are sick monsters who will tap into your deepest wish and lure you with the illusion of a perfect life abroad. Check well well.
They’ll make sure the wedding is in Nigeria. They won’t arrange for you to visit them on a visitors visa and for you two to get married over there first and then come to Nigeria for the big wedding. You see, there is more protection for women in developed countries.
Immediately after the wedding, they’ll find a reason why you can’t join them immediately. All the while, they are trying to get you pregnant. Before you know it, you have two kids before you learn he actually lives with his oyibo wife and their 4 kids. Check well well o. Ehen!
So, FINALLY, you are on the plane. As the moving map shows that you have finally left Africa, you say a silent prayer: “Dear God, what ever will make me return to Africa in this my life time, may I not see it!” One day that prayer will become a lasting curse!
As you land, your heart is pounding. You’ve heard of people that were sent back at the airport having sold all their stuff, having said goodbye to family and friends. You think “I hope that passport that guy did for me in 24 hours is a genuine passport o.” 🙏🏾
Everything goes well and you pass through immigration. First thing you think is: “Is that it?” You see people there too weighed down by problems, looking sad and miserable. If you go in winter, the cold jolts you like 😳. You think “Hey God! This is like living in a freezer.”
Fast forward to when you get your first menial job. It might be cleaning toilets, moving furniture, picking fruits in a farm, etc. You won’t get a job in an office or even a shop without a work permit and references. As a Masters student, I was selling sweets at a train station.
You get your first pay check and realise you can’t cash it as you don’t have a bank account. You can’t open a back account without utility bills in your name (unless you are a rich Nigerian visitor!😂) You realise you’ve suffered in vain. You laminate that cheque. One day sha!
After a while, you find a way. You start to earn foreign currency. You convert it to Naira and assure yourself you made the right decision. Then income tax takes 30%, you pay Council Tax, TV License, car insurance, road tax etc. You WILL go jail if you don’t pay any of these!
Then you pay rent, pay for transportation, but food, pay for heating, electricity, water and warm clothing. You send something home too, because the people you left here are expectant. After all, you are now earning forex. At the end of the week, there’s nothing left. I swear.
What happens to you next is really in the lap of the gods. Some people remain in this state for decades, living in Naija neighborhoods where people shout “Iya Basira, borrow me small salt!” They even have a babalawo. Everybody bleaches and speaks fake “phonere”, like “Innit.”
This guys are the ones that work all hours of the day and send money home. Unfortunately, relatives in Nigeria claim to be building houses for them but are really chopping their money, living large. They have no papers yet & can’t return. They keep hoping to come back soon though
If you are lucky, you’ll get a proper job in an office after regularising your papers. You suddenly get access to lots of credit. You can buy a house on a mortgage, buy a car on hire purchase and furnish the house on credit. You send pictures home of you in the shiny big car.
That’s when you join the rat race. As your income rises, you get a bigger house and a bigger car, both on credit. By the time you add your bills and all the repayments, there’s nothing left. You realise that every year, you are at square one. Only that square 1 gets bigger yearly
Now, you plan to come to Naija in December. You start saving from January. In addition, you take a loan and max out your credit card. People back home must know that you are “in the abroad” na. You “declare” for everyone. You spend the whole of the next year paying off the debt.
While you are in Naija, you walk around with a towel round your neck, so that anybody that doesn’t know you’ve “just returned” will know. You ask everyone how they manage to cope with this heat/ mosquitoes. “Mehn, it’s hot!”You tell them how much better everything is over there.
After about 10 years, you start to stabilise. You are now rising at work and coming face to face with racism. The anger begins. Then your mates you left in Naija start to visit. They shop in places you’ve never even entered. I’m talking legit people o, not govt or politicians.
Then you start thinking about going back home. Only that you can’t. Your wife is a nurse. How much will she earn as a nurse in Naija? You are a social worker. There’s nothing like that in Naija. The debt is huge. Mortgage is high. Kids are in school. You realise you’re trapped.
You can’t even take 3 months off work to look for opportunities in Naija, because you can’t miss even one month’s mortgage. Now that you are well & truly trapped, you start looking for ways to justify your situation to yourself. You start lying to the youth that everything’s rosy
As you approach your 50’s you become more and more bitter at the foreign country you are trapped in and more and more bitter towards Naija. You become a Twitter overlord that castigates everything Nigerian. Secretly though, you start begging people to help you return.
Of course, the picture I’ve just painted is not everyone’s trajectory in life. Some are luckier (I was), some are not as lucky. It just depends. I don’t do this thread to discourage you from going but to tell you what many won’t. Write off 10 years of your life if you’re going.
As I said at the start,if you have no job, no connections and no hope, and can emigrate LEGALLY, I’ll understand. Just know it’s not easy anywhere. I’ll suggest you go before you are 30 and aim to return before you are 45. Beyond that age, just stay there. God bless your hussle!
