Making Slaves out of Nigerians Abroad

Experience they say is the best teacher. I remember when I was planning to relocate to the United State of America in 2005, I had the privilege of meeting, now late, Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun, the founder of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), from whom I sort advice on what he considered the prospect of my plan. He graciously obliged me his advice and said that Nigeria has been messed up and therefore, he will not discourage me from travelling out, but after asking me how old was, he said he however expects me to be back in the country after 10 years, because in his own estimation, he feels 10 years is long enough for me to have been able make the fortune that will give me a good startup in Nigeria.

It is important to note where Nigeria was in 2005 and where it is today. I am still unable to return back home till date having spent more than 19 years abroad. There’s no gain saying the fact that I have been able to achieve some basic things of life that are needed for survival in Nigeria. But as things are going, in the country today, making it fit in for description, I doubt it much if my living a comfortable life for the rest of my life is guaranteed if I return home to settle down permanently or finally. The situation, as I have painted it, is even worse with many Nigerians that I met in the United States and I believe with many others, who are immigrants in other advanced countries of the world. This is the situation that our leaders have subjected us to, making the saying “no place like home” become to us like a taboo or a curse.

Looking at the statistics, one would see for example, how alarming it is, going by the number of Nigerians, especially the youths, that have migrated to the United Kingdom especially in the last 2 to 3 years alone. This is what is called the “Japa Syndrome”. It is estimated roughly that between 2015 and 2024 more than 17 thousand medical doctors have migrated out of Nigeria in search of a greener pasture. Why everyone, especially the youths will carry his or her bag at every given opportunity to check out of Nigeria, is a question which has its answer as not farfetched. Poor leadership and corruption in the corridors of power culminating in poor living conditions and hopelessness for the average Nigerian, is a sad reality that stirs everyone in the face.

There is no doubt in my mind and it is evident also that our leaders in Nigeria are indifferent to the plight of those of us in the diaspora, because of the erroneous complacency they hold onto giving them assurances that brain drain is brain gain. The remittances coming from Nigerians in diaspora are far more than all the foreign investments that have accrued to the country in decades. Take cognizance that these remittances are like blood, forcefully drawn from our bodies for dollars or pounds, are not easy to get and can hardly be found on the street. It is important to make categorically clear that the more the Nigerian leaders are losing their youths to their former colonial masters, the more the likelihood the African countries will not know progress, because what the African leaders are doing indirectly or unconsciously is playing the script of their colonial masters, who are interested in keeping their former colonies underdeveloped.

This is food for thought. The End Bad Governance Protest was a wakeup call and it is worthy of mention that the reason why the protest was not as violent and destructive in the South, as it was in the North, can be attributable to the fact that most of the youths in the south have their relations living abroad from where they get financial and material support from time to time. This alludes to the saying that a hungry man is an angry man and the hungrier a man is, the more violent and destructive he is likely to be at any given opportunity.

Finally, important lesson should be drawn or learnt from the most recent attack against the immigrants living in the United Kingdom and that incident was just an escalation of it, because before it became an open attack, it has always been the case where our people played the second fiddle wherever they find themselves abroad and regardless of how qualified they are academically and professionally. A worse scenario should be expected in the United State of America, if the former president, Donald Trump, becomes the next president, and this is the more reason why all well-meaning Nigerians and other immigrants leaving the United State of America should not allow him to win. Blessings do not come from abroad but from above and a lizard in Nigeria will not turn out to be a crocodile in America. It is time for the African leaders to allow and make a room for our charity to begin at home, for there is place like home.