Japa: The good, the bad and the ugly
Recently, a friend of mine made a post on her WhatsApp status which says that “UK licences another 266 Nigerian Doctors. We will soon be left with only native Doctors!” Someone responded to the status by saying, “even the native Doctors are beginning to relocate to Congo.” This is hilarious isn’t it? But it’s not funny. Nigeria over the years is losing its best hands to developed countries in their search of greener pastures as well as where to guarantee a safe future for themselves and their families.
According to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), over 3.6 million Nigerians migrated to other countries in 2022 and 2023. Data from NIS’s Migration Information Data Analysis System (MIDAS), showed that about 2, 115, 139 (two million, one hundred and fifteen thousand, one hundred and thirty-nine) persons emigrated from Nigeria in 2022, while 1, 574, 357 (one million, five hundred and seventy-four thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven), left the country from January to September 31,2023, making it a total of 3,679, 496 that have left Nigeria in the last two years.
The 2024 World Migration Report shows that up to 402,186 Nigerians moved to the United States and 205,773 to the United Kingdom. Additionally, over 169,600 Nigerians relocated to Cameroon, 154,739 to Niger, and 103,462 others to Italy. Nigerians are daily exiting their nations border daily in large numbers. While reading this article, chances are that one doctor is planning or relocating from Nigeria.
While this Japa syndrome may be one of the best decisions for some individuals and families to make, there are obvious disadvantages now and in the future. It has effect both at the family level and on the nation. Worst hit is the health sector. While we are lacking medical doctors in our health facilities, hundreds and thousands of Nigerian Doctors are relocating. Infact, Nigerian Doctors are ranked amongst the best in developed countries. For example, Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, is a renowned fetal and pediatric Nigeria born surgeon based in Texas. In 2016, he successfully operated on a baby-in-utero. The mother, at the 23rd week of pregnancy had gone for a routine ultra-sound and it was discovered that her baby had a rare birth defect known as sacrococcygeal teratoma, a large tumor located on the fetus’ tailbone. Olutoye led a team of 21 Doctors to remove the tumor. The five-hour surgery involved removing the baby from the uterus for 20 minutes so as to remove the tumor and then placing the baby back into the womb for the remainder of the gestation period, after which she was safely delivered.
Nigeria’s Health Minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, sometime in April this year, said between 15,000 and 16,000 Doctors have departed in the past five years. Meanwhile, Nigeria has just 55,000 Doctors for a population of 220 million. The impact of the migration on Nigerians are multifaceted. It has reduced access to quality health care, especially in the rural areas. There is increase in death rates, and an overall deterioration in the health status of the Nigerians.
Nigeria is a country with values and family ties. The Japa syndrome, like a thief in the night, is taking it away from us. It might not be evident now, but it is creeping in on us. Many families might never be together again. This may not be deliberate. A family whose children are in different countries may not have the opportunity of been together at same place and time. Parents in Nigeria, if the opportunity presents itself, will visit their children once a while in different countries.
This post I read on social media begins to make sense. They are all getting married and having children who will never really meet or know each other. They become virtual cousins. Their best shot is group video calls which will rarely happen because there’s no convenient regular time that works for everybody due to different global time zones. When their parents die, their homes become desolate, and in no time, the family name becomes a distant memory. They’ve all had to travel because their country failed them, and they needed to leave for another country where they could have a shot at life and their children wouldn’t suffer what they went through.
This is the high price of migration that you can never put a financial value on that very few people talk about. The destruction of families and the tearing of siblings apart. One day, we will realise the extent of the damage and the destruction that we have done to ourselves.
The desire for Nigerian youths to relocate is so high, that they would go to any length to leave the country. It has become has become a do or die thing. When visa fails, some decide to take risks by traveling through the desert. Many Nigerians have died trying to reach Libya, and many more have died crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. Migrants have to travel through several different countries and experience many dangers along the way to their destination in Europe. Sadly, many die.
Research shows that, there may be more migrants dying in the Sahara Desert than at sea. The Sahara Desert is a huge ungoverned region, and there are many criminal gangs and bandits who attack and kidnap migrants or rob them of their belongings. The journey through the desert can take weeks. The terrain is difficult, and the temperatures are very high during the day so cars can break down, leaving migrants stranded in the desert. Migrants can die of starvation and from the heat. Sometimes migrants suffocate and die in the back of trucks and their bodies are not discovered until the truck is unloaded in Libya. People also die falling out of overcrowded trucks. Migrants regularly report passing dead bodies on the journey. There have been numerous official reports of hundreds of corpses being found in the Sahara. The number is likely to be higher, but nobody knows, because the desert is so large and has no roads. Many migrants’ bodies become buried in sand and are never found. What a dehumanising way to die.
Nobel Laureate, Professor Woke Soyinka, over two decades ago, at a conference, compared migration of the 1960s with the present. According to him, while migration of the 60s were regarded as kings, the contemporary ones are regarded in pathetic terms. Soyinka, whose paper was titled ‘Soyinka’s Othello’s Lament: The Migrants Rues the Waves,’ said when migrants of the 60s arrived their destinations, they were accorded the status of kings, but noted that it was no longer so at present.
He said the circumstances that triggered migration in the 60s (search for knowledge) has changed now to economic reasons, making those embarking on it so pathetic. The circumstances and conditions under which migrants travel now, through deserts, Mediterranean sea, etc., he noted are so hazardous and different from those of the 60s in which people travelled legitimately in safety. He used Othello in Shakespeare’s play as the archetypical migrant
So, the whole truth is simply to know that migration may be worth it, but it is also a journey that comes with a lot of pain and a high price. We can make Nigeria work if we speak with one voice.
