“If you’re reading in a room and the light bulb dies, do you leave the room or change the light bulb?”

When I was about 7 years old, I had a friend named Amir. Amir lived with his aunt because his mother lived in London and sent money to Nigeria monthly. This was the first time in my life that I had seen a family that had one of its members outside of Nigeria.

As time went on, I would gradually see people leave the country. I had cousins who left too; at the time it seemed normal, and people were leaving to find greener pastures. But as some left, many preferred to stay. They all seemed to like living in Nigeria. Times were good, GSM had just come to the country and people had just started getting phones; the world was connected.

Few people ever really traveled abroad when I was growing up. Going abroad was some sort of glorious thing. For a family to suddenly have one member go abroad and begin to send money was the luckiest thing that could happen to anybody then. In Nigeria, once they find out you’re abroad; they imagine that you’re automatically rubbing shoulders with Elon Musk.

Going abroad was a calculated effort until my generation became young adults. You see, in Nigeria, the systems depreciate as time passes. Stuff that used to work, doesn’t work anymore. Stuff that didn’t work, might never work again. Even the government obeys this rule. The previous government is always better than the government that follows. The government that is supposed to leave office this year is having a hard time showing us the accomplishments they made. Nigeria just had a sham of an election and installed someone in power. Someone that cannot win an election fair and square has 8 years to rule. And that’s where the problem lies.

While a lot of people live by the saying “When the going gets tough, the tough keep going”, it would seem that my generation is not trying to be tough again. Hence; Japa!

What is Japa?

Japa is a popular reference word for leaving Nigeria. It’s an originally termed Yoruba word which means ‘Run’. However, Japa isn’t a mere jog. It’s not a 6 am run through the neighborhood and you’re back to your home. For a lot of young people in Nigeria, to Japa means to leave and never return.

Generation Japa

I used to watch a lot of American movies in the late 90s and early 2000s; it was from these movies that I first heard the term ‘American Dream’. I found it particularly interesting that a group of people had a particular goal and aspiration that was dedicated to life in their country and early on, I asked myself “What is the Nigerian Dream?”

I didn’t have an answer at the time; I was a child and stuck in my childish ways. I’m an adult now, I don see shege and so I know what the Nigerian Dream is.

The Nigerian dream is migration, to Japa. To flee from all the problems that come with being Nigerian in the present day.

My generation exists in a time when we live in a country that makes us have to buy our money, we cannot afford petrol but we live in one of the biggest oil exporting nations in the world. As if that’s not enough, we’re unemployed and struggling to survive. To top it all up, we have to stay safe from the police, bandits, kidnappers, unknown gunmen, and a number of other terrorist groups.

Living in Nigeria is a chore that never really seems to have an end. Every day is a series of chaotic incidents with politicians gulping public funds and letting people starve. In the end, the same politicians capitalize on poverty and hunger, pay people to vote for them, and get reelected into office.

And while it all seems dark, light is always waiting at the end of the tunnel. You begin to hear about your peers. The ones who managed to leave earlier with their parents years before, you’re in a tiny room you can barely afford to pay for scrolling past Instagram and you see your friend who has just spent 10 years in the U.S. He’s in the US army, has become a citizen, and is living well. He comes to Nigeria once in a while, oppresses everybody, and leaves. You begin to think of all the work you put in just to end up with no achievement because you live in Nigeria. How you make all the money and either lose it because your bills outweigh your earnings or because your cousins got kidnapped while they were in school and everybody has to chip in some money to save them.

And so you begin to think; “What could I become if I put in the same energy in a country that works?”

Japa!

And it’s off to Spain; you’re still unemployed, but there are no bandits or kidnappers, and neither are you afraid of going out on Mondays. It’s not paradise and you might not get full-time employment but you can live in a homeless shelter while trying to kickstart a roasted corn and coconut franchise.

Either way, the moment you’re out of Nigeria; the problems are a lot less, and as such everybody in my generation wants to leave. Almost everybody, children of politicians have no choice in the matter; they must stay abroad.

The quality of life outside of Nigeria holds so much promise that you want to leave almost immediately. Sure, other countries have their own problems but what could be worse than living in Nigeria? A week in an average Nigerian’s life is an extreme sport.

And so it begins. To Japa, you must first identify a country. Canada is a top choice, it used to be the U.S., but it seems Canada is less dramatic and for someone looking to escape from chaos, the U.S. is not the best of choices. The UK follows closely, as it seems they actually want Nigerians to show up on their doorsteps with different favorable visa options, several cities in the UK should just hoist a Nigerian flag already.

After identifying a favorable country, you would need to figure out how you would get there. The most popular method of achieving this is getting an education. There are thousands of Nigerian students getting a postgraduate degree in a foreign country right now. This year, there might be up to a thousand more that leave.

Everybody suddenly wants another degree. After all, the first one we got; what do we really use it for?

People also opt for getting jobs abroad. This option isn’t too clear for our generation yet. It seems like something for older people, as most of us prefer remote jobs. It still doesn’t mean that if I get a job in Estonia, I wouldn’t be on a plane flying to that country.

Despite all of the hurry to Japa, and the craziness that comes with living in Nigeria; Nigerians miss Nigeria.

I spoke to someone living in Germany and we spoke at length about life without pounded yam. I couldn’t even imagine it. I mean why would anybody want to miss out on Pounded Yam and egusi soup with okporokpo and proper goat meat being the obstacles in the mix? Why would anybody want to go years without Jollof Rice that smells like firewood and particularly burnt rice at the bottom of the pot?

Why would anybody want to forsake the communal living, the days when you knew everybody on your street; and every mother was trying to outdo the other when it came to sharing food on Christmas day?

Why would anybody intentionally want to sabotage their hopes of building a nation, where future generations could live in freedom; in what could be the greatest nation to ever exist?

Well, it simply happens because Nigeria doesn’t seem like it can ever get better. The criminals keep on stealing, the government does nothing. The people get kidnapped, stolen from, or killed by terrorists, and the Police that is meant to protect them are either involved in the same acts or are ready to look the other way. The universities stay closed while the leaders have kids in schools abroad. The deafening sounds of generators kill your hope for stable power supply. You won’t have running water unless you decide to do it yourself.

There really is no hope for Nigeria anymore. The only thing that we have going on is Afrobeats and Nollywood. After that, nothing else works.

That’s the reason we Japa. We cannot continue to stare at hopelessness and maintain the gaze as we wait for something to kill us.

We leave to stay alive, to stand a chance, and to give the future some hope.

Japa is for the lost people who want to be found, it’s a chance for the living people to stay alive, and it is a small sacrifice to pay and if losing your home can get you a chance at a better life; lose it.

Listen to the Diary of a Naija Immigrant podcast to hear about what happens to generation Japa after buying that one way ticket.

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts