Nigerians Abroad: What it says about Nigeria -By Ginika Mbata

Some days ago, a very disturbing video clip surfaced online. The video entailed a young Nigerian man jumping from a whooping twenty-seven storey building just to avoid immigration officers in Indonesia. I cringed as I watched him hit the ground and although he was carried away to a hospital, later we heard that he had died from his injuries. Further investigation also revealed that his elder brother had also kicked the bucket three months ago, the same way.

Now, let’s digress a bit. Nigerians and migration are not new friends. Almost every Nigerian family has a member that’s abroad and almost every Nigerian has plans to look for greener pastures in other countries.

This longing is exacerbated every December when the ‘been to’s come back. They bear nicknames such as ‘Odogwu na Malay’ and ‘Onye oma na China’. They look well-fed and drive expensive cars, they spray money like water during occasions and get the bevy of beautiful women. This flashy life is quite attractive to many but they don’t know what some of these people do to get their money.

Granted, some Nigerians leave the country legally, work legally where they are based and have complete papers but there are also a lot of Nigerians who do not.

Many choose to take the tortuous route of crossing the Sahara all the way to Libya, then on to Europe. This is a very debilitating task and very often, these migrants do not get to their destinations.

Even when they do, they never have a moment’s rest as they’re always playing a game of cat and mouse with the Immigration officers. This brings us back to the man who jumped. One runs from Immigration officers because they have no papers or their papers have expired. If a foreigner watches a young man jump from such a height rather than face deportation, he would conclude that Nigeria must be so poverty-stricken or war-torn.

It’s no longer news to hear what Nigerians do these days just to survive abroad. Some of them marry indigenes, others beg and do menial labour while some resort to illegal means such as Internet fraud, stealing, prostitution and drug pushing just to make ends meet.

Later, these set of people come back to Nigeria flaunt their ‘wealth’ and make residents feel that they’re not earning enough here or that it’s easy to earn money abroad.

The grass looks greener on the other side is a saying we are all familiar with and it definitely applies here. Do not believe anyone who tells you that living abroad is easier than living in Nigeria. If anything, you as a migrant, have to work extra hard to prove yourself to employers and citizens of that nation.

Nigerians in the diaspora should remember not to engage in any criminal activities as that will paint Nigeria in a bad light. That being said, my hat goes off to the Nigerian man in Japan who returned a bag filled with cash and credit cards. We need more people like him.

Lastly, I think we should play our part in order to develop Nigeria so that we no longer have to go elsewhere in search of greener pastures.