"I WAN JAND OH!": THE QUEST FOR ‘GREENER PASTURES’

Over the decades, it has been a usual trend for young Nigerians to jet out of the country in search of the so called “Greener Pasture”. How many have really paused for a while to ask if the so called “greener pasture” is indeed greener than what Nigeria has to offer? Only a few percentage of these adventurous youths eventually get legitimate visas into the various countries in Europe, America, Asia and lately South Africa. The others who can’t get legitimate visas resort to various illegalities just to enter those countries where they probably think manner still falls from heaven and money can be picked on the streets. [Fallacy of the mind or as my friends will say “Self Wash”.]

I’m not against people going out in search of a better life. But I believe you can also lead a very successful life here in Nigeria. There are lots of really successful business men who made all their fortune here in Nigeria. Top on that list is the household name in Nigeria, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. This is a man who at a very young age of 21, got a loan of N500,000 which is approximately $3000 USD and started a business that has earned him an estimated fortune of $20.1 Billion USD  which is about N3.2 Trillion as at march 2013. This is just one example of Nigerians who have made it within the fore walls of this country.

Most of this our supposed “Janded” brothers and sisters actually go to these countries and get to discover firsthand that life there isn’t as rosy as they once thought. But the truth is you can’t survive in those countries if you don’t have a good job. Unlike Nigeria where you have family members that can take care of your essential needs like shelter, food and perhaps clothing pending when you can get a job that will give you financial independence, over there you have no family to provide you with this lifeline till you finally get your feet.

There’s so much bills and tax to pay in these countries and if you don’t have a good paying job, your chances of survival is very low. The funny thing about most of these our “I wan jand” brothers and sisters is that they don’t have a college degree. I was with a family friend on Sunday evening and we were talking and he told me he is strongly praying that his visa application to one of the European countries [can’t remember which exactly] works out as soon as possible. This fella does not have a college degree or its equivalent. He’s one of my Anambra brothers’ who rush into trade after high school, just because they can’t wait to be in control of money. He once had it good though but I wonder what happened and now the dude is back to ground zero. I strongly believe he would have done better with a college degree in business administration or something of the sort. When I told him that a mutual friend of ours just graduated from college, he was startled and couldn’t believe it because she just left high school some four years ago. He went like “Omo if to say I further my education, I for done be big man with wife and children oh!” He also went further to tell me that one of his high school classmates who now works in one of the multinational oil companies and resides in the garden city of Port Harcourt with his wife and two kids. I can only imagine the level my friend will probably be now if he pursued a college degree when he left high school about a decade ago. They feel they can easily survive with their high school certificates but the truth is far from that. They end up with menial jobs that can’t even get them a proper meal not to talk of a decent accommodation. Most of them work about two to three jobs to be able to survive. And I’m quite sure we are aware of what some of our young girls do in these European countries. It is no longer news that most of the girls that are trafficked to countries like Italy, end up being city escorts or “Ashewo” as it is generally called in our “9ja” lexicon.

Just like my Pastor said on Sunday and I concur that most of the people who “check out” of the country in search of “Greener Pastures” end up living frustrated lives full of debt. He also said that “some of them go as much as borrowing money to come and either marry a wife or bury their parents.” During Christmas holidays, you see some of them spending money that they have been able to save for the 5 to 10 years that they’ve spent in their “Obodo Oyibo” in 2 weeks. If you have no idea what they do or go through to have the few dollars and pounds they come home to profligately spend during festivities. One of my uncles, who opted to go to London in search of “Greener Pasture” in 1998 as a young man with just high school certificate despite all the calls for him to get a university degree, came back to Nigeria over a decade after with nothing tangible to show for the years spent there. He currently resides in the village [Owerri] with his wife and kids. Just like my other friend, I wonder where he would be now if he took hid to all the advice he was given to further his education here. But at least he would still be referred to as a “one time Londoner”, if that can be considered an accomplishment.

I’m not rebuffing the fact that some Nigerians are doing really well in the different countries they find themselves. As a matter of fact, there are Nigerians doing well in different sectors in America and Europe.  Worthy of note are Dr. Philip Emeagwali, the inventor of the world’s fastest computer. He has also been called the Bill Gates of Africa, Jelani Aliyu, who designed the Chevrolet Volt, a state of the art electric car, for General Motors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award winning writer, Hon. Olusegun Aganga, the current Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment who was the Managing Director in hedge funds at Goldman Sachs International in London, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the current Minister of Finance who was appointed Managing Director of World Bank in 2007.

If we take a close look at the people listed above, it’s quite obvious that they all possess a good educational background, some as high as the Ph.D. level. I strongly recommend that anyone looking to travel abroad in search of greener pastures should either have a college degree already or hopes to get one studying in their eventual country of refuge. As a matter of fact, I strongly admire people who go out there for either undergraduate or graduate studies, get all the knowledge and experience required and thereafter come back to work  and contribute their quota to the development of our beloved country Nigeria.

I don’t know why, but I feel that Nigeria as a developing nation should have more job opportunities for our teeming population of youths than all these already developed “Obodo Oyibo” countries our youths queue up in front of their embassies in Nigeria, day and night in a quest to be granted visas. Those countries are already developed and therefore there are fewer job openings as most of their institutions have been in existence for centuries with already existing infrastructure, this leaves our unskilled emigrants with a slim chance of landing their dream jobs. When we juxtapose between the job opportunities in the developed countries and the developing countries like ours, it’s quite obvious that the opportunities that abound here in Nigeria transcends what is tenable in the developed countries. I wonder which labourer would opt to travel to a different state and work in an old building undergoing renovation, when there’s a new “modern” building springing up just at his backyard. I doubt that any right thinking person who has that huge opportunity right at his backyard would opt to spend money travelling a long distance to work for a lesser pay.

Nigeria can be likened to a virgin construction site for a proposed mega structure. There is a whole lot of work to be done and the services of different professionals and artisans will be needed if we must reach the ranks of a developed country.    For Nigeria to actualize its goal of being among the top 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020 [Vision 2020], a lot of work needs to be done in every facet of our social existence. There is need for huge financial and human capital investments in infrastructural development which will translate into the creation of innumerable number of jobs for both our skilled and unskilled labour force.

I strongly believe in the “Nigerian Dream” and I believe that there are a lot of things that our youths can do back here in Nigeria to live the life that they think is only tenable in the “American Dream”. So many opportunities abound here at home and it only takes being perceptive enough in identifying them and getting down to business to attain the widely desired success and also contribute in the development of our beloved country Nigeria, Africa and indeed the entire Universe.

I must extol the efforts of some of our enterprising youths who have been doing really good in their various career parts most especially the daring entrepreneurs who despite the numerous challenges like insecurity and inadequate power supply faced by businesses and industries in Nigeria have managed to create companies and brands that are championing Nigeria’s quest for a reasonable level of development.

God bless our “hustles” and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!