JAPA Is The Only Way Out | Hive Learners W108E3
Happy weekend guys. It's amazing to come your way again and with such a great topic on cost of living being compared to that of other nations of the world and whether or not one would consider relocating, leaves a lot of discussions on the board. Let's get to it already.
In a country like Nigeria, my beloved country, a place I have known as home and second to none, living has now gotten into an intense competition with surviving or dying due to the high cost of living.
From eating our daily bread and to rent and to clothing and even moving from one place to another, life has become very tough. It is even worse because most of the citizens are low-income earners whose take home can not even take them home. Some people's monthly remuneration cannot buy a bag of rice, let alone the ingredients to prepare it, as if that is even all that matters to the common man.
One adage in the Yoruba mythology says:
When food is removed from poverty, the rest is nothing.
The Whole World Is Experiencing Inflation But Ours Is Man-made
What we are currently facing in Nigeria is already being experienced in the whole world too. For instance, the government of our nation is not open to the populace. They just come out in the open to tell us of something that does not exist in the name of subsidy. Our inflation is man-made.
One could say that our government has pampered us to a fault.
There is no price control. Every market man or woman has the personal will to fix the price of commodities, make life more miserable to the populace.
How can we explain the rubbish that exists in the public sphere? We extract crude oil and import petroleum products. The corruption in our nation has pushed us to this level of wanton hunger and hopelessness.
In other countries, salaries and wages are paid in commensurate proportion with the cost of living. Little wonder you can work in parts of Canada, US and Europe and earn as much as $20 per hour. That is over #20,000. If perhaps, one works for 5 hours in a day, then the fellow will be earning over #100,000 in one day. Multiply that by 20 working days in a month, that's a whooping two million naira. How many Nigerian professors can you beat your chest that could earn that much in Nigeria? My people, life in Nigeria is a living hell.
Don't be surprised, most people who are still here are likely gathering money and documents to leave.
Truth is that you cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to get a different result. The bottom line here is that I do not trust the government of the day to deliver the dividends of democracy and good governance to the people. Though there has been some momentous move towards adjusting the state of things, the move hasn't brought the needed change as some people are bigger than the state.
I Have Considered Japa
This seems to be the only way out. Japa! This word is the most used word among the teeming youth of the Nigerian state in the recent past. And you can't blame them. Most people who are ready and available to be gainfully employed are not and those who are employed are under-paid.
Recently, I have done some research and found that there are millions of skilled and unskilled jobs available all over Europe. Some of these jobs are well-paying. The organisations where these jobs are located are even footing all the bills to bring in Nigerians who are ready to relocate.
So, I ask the question. Should I not relocate after graduating from the university for over seventeen years and not be gainfully employed?
My brother, life is too short to begin to hope that Nigeria will be better. It is not a curse, those who lived before us hoped so. The Nigeria Go Better syndrome has been a slogan from independence and till now it has only gotten worse.
Please, do not blame me. I also want to live like a normal human. I like to own a house of my own, drive a car and have some investment that would take care of me at old age. But with the current situation in our beloved country this goal may not be met. Let me JAPA
LoL! I understand with you, who no like better thing? in the midst of a terrible situation like this, only a few will still want to stay in Nigeria if they have the chance to leave.
You pointed out something very big, "price control," this is one of the things killing us in Nigeria but the government are not even doing as if they know something like that is happening. Honestly, our problems in Nigeria is man made, those at the top could resolve this thing over night, but they won't because they know what they are gaining from it.
It is business as usual. The rich keep getting richer at the expense of the poor and no one dares challenge the process.
People like me want Nigeria to be greater but we are not giving the opportunity to do so. Hence:
LoL, no long story abi😂
If I may offer a little perspective? I am Canadian and my son is 20yrs old making $30/hr (Canadian not USD) which equates to about #27,000 Naira per hour. Sounds pretty good, right?
Except even making that much money it took him over 6 months to find somewhere to live and now he is sharing a house with two other guys paying #700,000 Naira ($700) monthly and that's a cheap rent. He saves money by driving an inexpensive car (his job requires a vehicle). He's frugal in what he eats. He is smart with making purchases and at the end of the month he does have some money left over to save for the future.
most of his co-workers do not. It only takes a few frivilous purchases to go from money left over to no money left. Plenty of things to buy here and many places willing to finance you for it.
Should you JAPA? Despite what I just said I'm going to say YES, absolutely. But please do it right!
Now my wife is Filipina (from the Philippines) and OFW's (Overseas Foreign Workers) sending money back home to support family is the 3rd largest source of income for the nation. The Philippines national export is NURSES ..and caregivers. But some do it right and some do it wrong.
Some nurses come to Canada and work hard here to make a new life here. God bless them.
Other nurses come to Canada and work hard here to make money here....then return back to the Philippines with cash and investments ready. When they return home they help the local economies because they have steady income every month from investments and cash to buy local products. they drive the local economy and make things better (generally).
You say the rich have all the power in Nigeria. My humble advice: Work abroad and save well to become rich. Then return to Nigeria and use that power to make things better.
Just my quick thoughts and feel free to disagree of course :)
This is just what Nigerians do when they come over to Canada to earn some average pay and send their money over to Nigeria where they build an investment and then return home after working a while.
Like you pointed out, one has to be frugal in spending like your twenty year old son does. What you call food here can no way be compared to what is available here.
Do you know that an average Nigerian citizen cannot afford poultry products like chicken and even eggs because of inflation? They only have to squeeze themselves hard to buy chicken during festive seasons like Christmas and new year.
Seriously, if I have the opportunity to even be a fruit picker in Canada, I will definitely Japa because I could earn up to $17/hr.
Close on the fruit picker thing. Fruit pickers don't get paid minimum wage. I know because my parents in law pick fruit every summer :) They get paid 600 Naira for every 500g of blueberries they pick. In two to three months they earn maybe 9 Million Naira but they work everyday from dawn until dusk. Then they return to the Philippines where that money goes a lot further than it does in Canada :)
As for what my son eats... Well, he is not a good cook and his girlfriend says he is living on survival rations. One can of tuna, a couple cups of rice and some hot sauce. Meager by Canadian standards but from what I'm hearing not a bad meal by Nigerian ones.....or maybe I'm incorrect, never been to Nigeria.
Personally if I was in Nigeria I think I'd have go make fast friends with beans .. tasty, nutritious and not as expensive as chicken :)
Hmm! This is deep!
I hope our bad leaders can read this and work on making things better for their citizens🤔🤔
It is not today Naija go better,it has been in existence since the days of our forefathers.
A lot of my colleagues, who are teachers have JAPA and they are doing well compared to many years working experience with nothing to show for it😢
May God heal our land🙏
The Japa campaign is not going into extinction anytime soon. People will move, if you have an opportunity, move ooo.