The harsh economic realities of the time have continued to nourish the “Japa” phenomenon, as the desperation by Nigerians to travel abroad for the famed greener pastures assumes a life of its own.
According to a data released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the population of Nigerians in diaspora as at 2024 stood at about 17 million.
The organisation added that Nigeria ranks fourth among African countries, in the diaspora population equation.
This is notwithstanding assurances by the federal government that ongoing reforms will yield desired results in no distant future.
Investigations by TheFact have, however, confirmed the time-honored saying that, “all that glitters is not gold”, as mixed reactions continue to trail the “Japa Syndrome”, known in literary parlance as the “Journey Motif”.
A cross section of Nigerians abroad, who spoke in exclusive chats with this platform, shared their experiences, many of which betray expectations, to say the least.
Below are the “voices from yonder”, identities of which are pseudonymous, being the precondition upon which the revelations were anchored.
Hear Mrs Gift Nwosu, an entrepreneur:
“The challenges of spouse traveling and leaving the other behind varies depending on individuals and everyone’s experience is unique.
“Personally the emotional challenges are more draining as I miss the emotional support from him as well as his physical presence, as this has made us to loose our physical intimacy.
“Anxiety and worry plays its own where I always have this concerns about my spouse safety, wellbeing, fear and uncertainty about us uniting as a family.
“The financial challenges cannot be overwhelming as shouldering all household expenses is more on me as his financial support has reduced because of his studies…
“In all, I will say the journey hasn’t been easy but its for a good cause as we trust God that everything will fall in place.
Mrs. Grace Benson offers her perspective: “Writing on my experience so far, I will say relocating from your country of birth can be challenging especially if you had build your life and grown in a particular country, having to leave family, friends, career to start up in a new environment is not easy, especially if you are not passionate about it.
“Relocating affects your emotions, trying to adjust to a new weather, new culture, learning to carefully relates with other people can be stressful, you cannot easily move around like Nigeria that the atmosphere is friendly, too many issues of mental health, so everyone is unsecured.
“Working in the USA for me, is not what I will do for a long time because they are so many taxes to be paid, imagine working for $3500 monthly and almost $800 is removed as taxes, you are not talking of those who will pay water bill, energy bills, car bills, phone bills, house rent and any other bills on their pay, so at the end of the month, they barely have much left to save with or attend to family needs.
“For a couple living abroad, is easier for them to get things done together with their salaries but as a single person, it’s challenging financially.
“Looking at healthcare, for me I feel Nigeria is far better in healthcare accessibility than in the USA because everything is on appointment to see a doctor, at times you can be given three to four months appointments for something that is very disturbing, or you go to the emergency, even at the emergency you will wait for hours and when they eventually attend to you, even your five months salary won’t pay for it, reason why people will rather wait except is life and death situation before you can go to the emergency.
“Also, Nigeria’s health insurance scheme is better and cheaper, over here you will pay almost $400 monthly for health insurance, which is compulsory, whether you use it or not and if you don’t have insurance, it is very difficult for you to see a doctor, only very few hospital will accept you and what you will pay, will be ridiculous. Imagine paying $400 monthly on the salary left and you will pay for eye clinic and dental separately because if you have any issues suddenly, you may not get to see a doctor who is ready to accept new patients, so that is also disturbing.
“The only thing that is good over here is that there are opportunities, free school for the kids to have the best education, career opportunities for adults, access to food, food are very cheap and affordable, sports career paths for the kids, lifetime opportunities in certain fields, access to scholarships and safe neighborhood”.
As for Mrs Marylin Oche, “What necessitated our leaving Nigeria was that my daughter is a United States of America’s citizen by birth and my son who was supposed to be, came earlier than expected so with that in mind we just felt.. what will happen when he grows up and start asking questions like , why is his sister an American citizen and he just a Nigerian. So in trying not to explain all of that we now taught of relocating to the United Kingdom. So that by the time he is old enough to start asking the questions, we would have gotten something in the United Kingdom.
“So I would advice that anybody that wants to relocate, should have a skill.A lot of people relocate thinking with their university degree everything will be fine.Even with your professional course that you read in Nigeria, you will still need to right a lot of exams here before you will need qualified to work . So while you are writing those qualification exams, you need a handiwork to keep you going like barbing, seamstress, hairdressing, painting, plumbing etc. These are people that make serious money here.
“We have been told a lie in Africa how they made us believe they going to school is the ultimate. When you come over here, you will discover that going to school is good but by the side, you are supposed to have a skill because those skills are what matters here”.
Edu Clarence who lives in Scotland made the following submissions, albeit emotionally: “Relocating can be emotionally draining and challenging. Sometimes I feel home sick, I feel like coming back to Nigeria. The best thing is to allow yourself feel that way. And things that really help is staying connected with my family, my loved ones . Calling them all the time and they call me all the time too.
“Another that helped me is getting used to my new reality, learning the culture of the Scottish people, learning how to eat their food, mix up with people here, church. Home cell is really helping me. Once in a while we do socials, we go out.
“Like last week, I went to the Scottish islands, the borders, you will see a lot of snows. I did a 13 hour trip . There was a tour guide.
“I do a lot of meditations. It is challenging but you have to make up your mind. It is depressing if you don’t have a lot of people that check on you.
There is nothing you can do. You just have to get used to it. As each day comes, you wake-up go to work, go to school and the day is over, watch movies, read novels, that is how I have been keeping up.
Mr. Ade Boyo also let off the steam:
“Everybody has different reasons for relocating. As for me it was for greener pastures but when I got here I discovered it was more than a greener pasture, especially in terms of education for the children.
“You cannot compare the life here in America to Nigeria, it is far better here.When you go to the hospital you will be attended to and when they discharge you, they do follow up to make sure you are okay.People live longer here than in Nigeria.
“Here, it’s not about work work, they make a lot of things easy so you have so many jobs available to do especially in health sector.
“It just that in America unlike Nigeria, we don’t have luxury of catching fun. Not like Nigeria where you will work and have time for enjoyment with friends. Here is more like mind your business.
Life here is better not just work, they balance it. You can work , go to school.
“I don’t think I will have any reason to return to Nigeria when there are several amenities here to help me plan my life. Here there are opportunities for you to plan your life like owning your own home even when you don’t have the money to buy a house.you can be paying like monthly, Mortgage.
As long as you are not into crimes, life is so easy here, they only thing you can miss about Nigeria is the food”.
