The illusion that greener pasture exist outside has been the mirage mindset in most third world Nations majorly African and Asian. I am not of the opinion that it is wrong to travel to another country, even people from well-to-do Countries still travel to other Countries, and some even own properties and companies overseas.
Leaving your home Country to studying or working abroad is a big decision which requires adequate planning. Gone are the days when you sleep, wake up and then decide to uproot your life to another Country without taking certain measures and proper strategic planning.
On the course of writing this article, i decided to do a survey on the reasons warranting continues migration of youth from Africa to Europe. Also I asked questions from friends and close associates, so this article is not only my thoughts and opinion.
After you are done reading, I would appreciate your own contribution as i know that we may not have covered this topic entirely.
First of all, there is nothing wrong traveling abroad in search of greener pastures, so long you don’t intend involving in crime or illegitimate means of making money.
For Nigeria and other African Countries ravaged by poverty, leaving the shores to seek greener pastures is something that is indispensable, millions of Nigerians risks their lives across the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea all in search of greener pastures.
How did we get to this stage?
The government has failed to plan for the future of the youth given rise to an army of unemployed youth with resultant gullibility for crime and search for greener pasture elsewhere. Least I forget to mention brain drain. All this kidnapping you hear about, increase in criminality is not unconnected to the level of unemployment in Nigeria. According to Prof Dakas CJ Dakas “If the poor cannot sleep because they are hungry, then the rich must be ready to stay awake because of poor not sleeping.”
All these agitation for self-determination is not unconnected with the sad leadership problem in Nigeria. God help us.
There are over thousand reasons why Nigerians travel abroad. Looking around you, the answers are not far-fetched. All over Africa, Nigerians have the highest number of international travellers. The reason is partly because of our population of 180 Million with untapped resources to take care of her people. Our schools are not properly equipped with facilities for learning.
The major reason is because of economic instability. Over the years, the economy of Nigeria has continued to go down in geometric progression. Those who are in charge of the economy are not doing anything in terms of reducing unemployment in the country, every year thousands of graduates are released into the labour market with no hope of landing a job. The Economy is the major reason. The government has not created an enabling environment for business to thrive talk more of encouraging new businesses. The cost of running a business in Nigeria is very high because of lack of constant power supply and we largely depend on imported raw materials to finish production, and off course you know how exchange rates affects importation
In the Europe regardless of your pay or job title, you are assured of the wage at the end of the month or week.
In Europe even if you are not rich you are given priority as the rest of the residents. There is access to sound health care and social amenities. There is the opportunity to be what or whoever you want to be in life.
Do we achieve the purpose?
Yes we do. We might not be billionaires but we sure living a good life.
In some cases depending on which jurisdiction you find yourself, you are satisfied but in other jurisdictions you may be totally disillusioned and disenchanted by what you see. Sometimes is not even up to the standard back home in Nigeria. We must tell ourselves the truth about the so called greener pastures as sometimes it may be hell on earth and it’s better we remain where we are. Nigeria really has all the potentials and indices of a prosperous nation; regrettably this has been robbed by bad leadership over the years.
ADVICE
If you are in Nigeria and you want to immigrate to Europe, you have to consider the economic situation of your proposed country of choice of residence. What is the spoken language of this country? How are you going to go about when u finally arrived at this proposed country? Have you got any sort of support there?
Depending on the reason for traveling abroad, just know where you are coming from and where you are going to, make enquiries, ask questions on where you are going. Ensure you have adequate financial support for your entire study period if you are a student. If you are travelling for a different reason other than academic you must first and foremost exhaust all available avenues in Nigeria before looking elsewhere. We need re-orientation of Nigerian youth on the erroneous perception on anything foreign.
This impression about fast money is the reason we find Nigerians in Malaysia selling their body parts, women going into prostitution in Italy and indulging in so many acts of criminality. This has also accounted for the continuous deportation of Nigerians from different parts of the world or Nigerians killed or incarcerated.
At the end we don’t always find what we are looking for, many people find other things in place of the greener pastures they seek for.
This question is a tough one but if we all move from Nigeria in search of this Greener pasture who will remain to make Nigeria great again? Just thinking out loud…..
Professional freelancer and webmaster.
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