“Japa.”
A Yorùbá slang word meaning to escape or run away.
“Japa.”
Somewhere along the line, Nigeria gave it a new meaning:
"To leave Nigeria for another country in search of better opportunities, functional systems and most importantly, peace of mind."
Here is a fascinating trajectory:
Our forefathers also wanted to “japa.”
Only that, their destination was freedom.
They wanted to escape colonial rule and the foreign masters who controlled their country.
Today, some of the countries our forefathers wanted to escape from are the same countries Nigerians are desperately trying to japa to.
They wanted to escape their masters.
We are trying to escape to them.
WHAT AN IRONY...
And before you start to lash out at those joining the "Japa" flight—
“Who will build Nigeria if everyone leaves?”
You ask, bringing up the question of patriotism.
First, look at what history tells us about some of our strongest patriots.
✓Nnamdi Azikiwe travelled to the United States for his education, studying at institutions including Lincoln University and Columbia University, before returning to Nigeria in 1934.
✓Obafemi Awolowo pursued his education and legal training in Britain before returning to Nigeria in 1946.
✓Even our recognized father of Nigerian nationalism, Herbert Macaulay, studied civil engineering and surveying in England before returning to Nigeria in 1893.
They travelled abroad.
Or, better still, you could call it “japa.”
They encountered other systems.
They acquired knowledge outside Nigeria.
And they came back.
Going abroad does not automatically mean abandoning home because their education and exposure were eventually channelled into a country where they could participate in nation-building.
You can't compare that with Nigeria today.
What exactly are we asking these brilliant Nigerian minds to stay and build with?
Because patriotism cannot simply mean asking citizens to endure.
That's "Suffering and smiling" not patriotism.
Sometimes people leave to grow.
And sometimes, they leave because another country has recognized something their own country failed to recognize.
The countries receiving our people have recognized values that Nigeria has continually failed to acknowledge.
The people you preached patriotism to decided to look at those left behind—those still attempting selfless patriotism.
✓20 October 2020.
Lives were lost.
Lives that determined to live for a change.
✓Look at Nigeria's healthcare workers.
Doctors and other health professionals continue to raise concerns over salaries, working conditions, and the implementation of government agreements.
✓Education?
ASUU disputes over salaries, allowances, and the execution of agreements have become a familiar headache for Nigeria's educational system.
Yet we ask:
"Why are they leaving?"
Every country has needs.
A country needs doctors, so it needs systems that train and retain doctors.
It needs teachers, engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators, so it needs an environment where these people can thrive.
But what happens when a country fails to recognize its needs?
News flash! Another country does.
And until Nigeria learns to do the same, brain drain will remain more than a migration problem.
It will be a recognition problem.
Nigeria has natural resources.
But our greatest resource is not beneath our soil.
It is above it.
The doctor.
The teacher.
The lawyer.
The entrepreneur.
The young Nigerian creative.
All with ideas capable of solving a Nigerian problem.
Nigeria has an enormous company of human resources.
Yet, successive administrations have too often failed to extend a genuine hand of recognition, development and retention to them.
This is where we need to rethink patriotism.
Patriotism is not geography.
A Nigerian can be in Lagos and contribute close to nothing to Nigeria.
Another can be thousands of kilometres away and still contribute meaningfully to Nigeria.
So Nigeria's responsibility is not to force its citizens to stay.
It is to give them a reason to.
The spirit of patriotism prevailed and the green and white flag was raised to signify the end of colonialism.
But today, another banner flies high—the banner of brain drain—signalling a mass migration to the very nations of our former colonial masters.
They called this — NEO COLONIALISM.
Because back home, many now live under a different kind of colonialism: colonized by the cost of living, burdened by broken systems, and pushed by circumstances to seek survival in the lands of those who once ruled us.
The masters may have left.
But somehow, colonialism found a new face.
This is my greatest lament.
And I call this...
DUO COLONIALISM.
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