What with Japa?

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Lola and her mum did not utter one word to one another all through breakfast time. They happily consumed the sumptuous Akara and Pap without complaint.

After the meal, Lola burst out in tears and hugged her mum. Mum pray for me, I think I just lost a man that God brought into my life. God forbid, retorted Lola’s mum, your father’s people will not succeed in Jesus’ name. Where is the man, let us go and find him, don’t worry I will plead with him on your behalf.

It’s been two months and no call came from Craig. Lola took some days off work as her annual leave from work was already piled. She decided to take 20 days out of her 35 days spill over from previous year. She took a vacation and travelled to the UK.

A lot of her friends have “JAPA” in the last one year. Since 2020 “Japa” has been the reigning phenomenal in Nigeria. The economic hardship has forced so many people to leave the country in search of greener pastures in overseas countries. «Japa» is a Yoruba word for “to run, flee, or escape.” Japa has also been described and seen by some people as a “MIGRATION PHENOMENON”. Others call it “EXODUS OF TALENTS”.

More than 80 million of the country 210 million live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Between 2010 and 2020, the country’s unemployment rate rose five-fold to more than 30 percent. In July, inflation reached almost 20 percent.

Many Nigerians are deeply worried by worsening insecurity, with criminal gangs kidnapping people for ransom in northern and central states and bandit groups waging an insurgency in the northeast.

According to the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the number of international migrants from Nigeria in 2020, the latest year for which figures are available, was 1.7 million, up from 990,000 a decade earlier. British statistics show that in 2019 — the year before Covid struck — about 14,000 UK study and work visas were issued to Nigerian nationals. That number, which includes dependents, almost quadrupled in 2021.

Skilled workers from the healthcare sector were the largest recipients with more than 16,000 visas out of about 22,000 granted since January 2021.

In Canada, more than 15,000 Nigerians were granted permanent residence in 2021 compared to about 4,400 five years prior.

In no time, Lola found so many of her friends waiting to eagerly hangout with her as many times as possible. There was no dull moment for Lola, so much so that she forgot the main reason why she took the vacation in the first place.

Her first week in the UK was pretty tight as she had no breathing space to even do any soul searching as she would have loved to.

By the second week, she managed to check into an Airbnb [Airbnb, as in “Air Bed and Breakfast,” is a service that lets property owners rent out their spaces to travelers looking for a place to stay.], and she moved out from her friend’s place.

She got a suitable Airbnb in the quiet side of London. She spends her morning to pray and meditate on the happenings of her life in the last 6 months; then she goes shopping in the evenings.

About two days to the end of her vacation she decided to hang out with a family friend who lived nearby, they went clubbing that night and they both planned to drink to stupor and go back home to sleep.

As they both walked into the club in their black top and jeans to find a cool corner to knock themselves out while enjoying the music, a young man in a designer jersey with Arsenal logo walked up to them and said Hi to Lola’s friend.

Lola startled as she could vividly connect to that voice, she hurriedly disconnected the phone call she had, walked straight in between her friend and the gentleman who was saying Hi and she said, Hi Craig, with her face lit up.

Craig was as shocked to see Lola, as Lola was as well. They hugged immediately, he gave her a peck on the cheek, Lola felt an emotional connection to Craig immediately. She was super excited. She hurriedly took him away, leaving her friend to sort out herself…

To be continued.

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