The Japa Movement: Drain and Gain -By Adewole Adeola Peace

The term “Japa”, a Nigerian local parlance gotten from the Yoruba language, is literally translated as fleeing or deserting a place. It is used in cases of imminent danger or in recent times, migration. This word, has over the years, spread like wildfire in use and in deed and has become a movement preached on social media, corporate environments and even informal settings. The Japa Movement, therefore, is a migration trend in various fields or social categories of a geographical territory with the people sharing a common ideology or trying to achieve the same goal of moving out of the country.

From a recent PEW research survey, about 45% of Nigeria’s adult population plans to relocate to another country within five years. In another study in 2021, it was revealed that seven in every 10 Nigerians plans to relocate if given the opportunity.

A new report by the UK government shows that the 13,609 Nigerian healthcare workers granted working visas within the last one year (2021) are second only to the 42,966 from India. There were 4,000 applications for permanent residency by Nigerians in Canada in 2015. By 2019, the number had climbed to 15,595 – an increase of over 214.9%.

Back in the early fifteenth century to the seventeenth century, Nigerians were forced on ships to leave the country and go work in other places. Records of people jumping into the sea rather than risk the fear of being tortured were taken for historical purpose. Now, it is another story entirely as more youths and vibrant adults would grab every opportunity presented to jump into ships or airplanes and flee the country. What has changed from the early years to now? What has caused this uptick in the rate of people migrating?

Foremost, the government of the country is in a worse state than it was at independence. Corruption and unscrupulous political behaviours has eaten deep into the very fabric of the country, clutching in its hands the promising future of the populace. Unemployment rate has broken the scale of normalcy and has become the new normal in the country. University students regard side hustles than the actual course they pay to study in the institution. Health workers are clearing out workspaces and resuming new jobs abroad. This is because the country has hugely failed to provide basic infrastructural facilities for all sectors. It has failed to provide security for her own citizens. It has failed to ascertain a better tomorrow for her future leaders. The consequence of this en masse movement of technically and academically skilled professionals is the existence of brain drain in the country. Everyday the country loses her finest brains to a developed country. How then do we meet up with development if the people who can help departs to the diaspora?

Furthermore, the gain of the japa movement favours the migrant more than the country. There are life-changing opportunities for a comfortable living condition. There’s a structured and well-organised system of living. There are better chances of improving financial security for one’s household.

Do we then leave our homeland to continue to wallow in an abysm of retrogression, despair, and a lingering doom? If we continue to run away from ourselves out of anxiety, who then, is to meet the challenge? No matter how we try to deny it, “once your homeland, forever your homeland” is a saying that will continually stay true. Sad as it may sound, we all can not join the bandwagon of the Japa Movement, so join the train of people who are ready to vote for the right leadership in this coming election.

To conclude, please pick up your PVC. Vote the right human. And welcome our fellow citizens to a new dispensation.