Farewell Nigeria — why young Nigerians are leaving home for good

Vehicles travel along Broad Street in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. Africa's most populous nation heads to the polls on Saturday, and the next president will inherit an economy and country on its knees. Photographer: Benson Ibeabuchi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

By Radio Workshop

30 Dec 2024

Adedamola Adedeji is a young dentist living in Nigeria. She says she has a fulfilling career and earns a middle-class salary by Nigerian standards. But she has decided to leave behind everything she’s ever known, including her recently widowed mother.

According to a 2022 survey, 70% of Nigerians aged 15 to 35 would leave the country if they could. The wave of young Nigerians leaving the country is what many are calling japa, a Yoruba word meaning “to flee”.

Following the end of the 2020 #endsars protests, emigration numbers in Nigeria have spiked to the point where some Nigerian legislators have called japa a national emergency.

The word “japa” has become a cultural movement in Nigeria over the past few years. There are memes about it, songs about it and even companies built around it. It has become the theme word for a generation of Nigerians emigrating from the country in search of a better life.

Adedamola Adedeji goes by many names. Damsel, Dam Dam, DM, but most people call her Damola. She’s one of many young Nigerians who have decided to leave the country. Damola is a dentist with a fulfilling career, and she’s chosen to move to Canada to restart her life. She’s decided to japa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MZYqk6rUNk

Damola’s story is essentially the African story. Young people on the continent, frustrated by lack of opportunities, are taking matters into their own hands. Nigeria’s economy has been on a downward spiral for the past decade, pushing many young people to search for greener pastures abroad.

In 2022 alone, 22,000 Nigerians moved to Canada through its permanent resident programme, an increase of 7,000 from the previous year.

Damola’s decision to relocate was made in September 2023 when her diabetic father was rushed to the ER. He needed a down payment of 1.6 million naira ($960) to even be admitted.

“I think one of the things that’s hounded me for a long time was the fact that I realised that in Nigeria, if you don’t have money, you will die,” Damola says.

In her lifetime Damola has watched her family fall from upper middle class to “much lower than middle class”, through no fault of their own.

A general view of congested traffic in central Lagos on July 15, 2008 in Lagos, Nigeria. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Vehicles travel along Broad Street in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. Photographer: Benson Ibeabuchi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Since the election of President Bola Tinubu it’s been difficult to keep up with Nigeria’s increasing cost of living. Damola saw many friends leave the country to find more promising lives overseas. Two of her siblings left in early 2023.

“I knew that I wanted to leave when I saw that they could leave as well. If there’s a way to leave, why not?”

Medical professionals are leaving Nigeria at a staggeringly high rate. At the start of 2023, the president of the Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors reported that 2,800 resident doctors had left the country in two years. A survey of its remaining members revealed that 85% of them had plans to leave.

The head dentist at Damola’s clinic, Dr Aisha Tayo Adewale, said she had a complete staff turnover in the four years since she started her practice, adding: “I love my dentists, but at the same time, I’m not blind. I can see what is going on in the economy. I can see what is going on in the environment. I can’t be selfish and say, ‘oh, they shouldn’t japa’.”

Damola boarded a plane for the first time in her life on 29 September. She had a one-way ticket to Toronto.

The date was meaningful – just two days before Nigeria’s independence day. It marked both a year since she had begun her emigration process and nine months since losing her father. Her mother was at the airport to bid her farewell.

“This japa, it’s robbing us, the parents, of having a close relationship physically with our children,” says Damola’s mum. DM

This episode is produced by Radio Workshop, an award-winning documentary-style podcast about young people in Africa.

To find out more about Radio Workshop, visit radioworkshop.org or follow us on social media: @radioworkshop on Instagram and Radio Workshop on Facebook and LinkedIn.

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