By Igho Akeregha, Olusegun Olanrewaju, Aleke Linus, Muhammad Alkali, and Paul Onwude
Nigerian youths are leaving the shores of their countries in droves, and several multi-layered reasons have been adduced for this.

President Muhammadu Buhari himself acknowledged this during his visit to Brussels, Belgium, last week, for the sixth EU-African Union conference.

In the Belgian capital, Buhari has lamented the mass migration of African youths to European countries, saying the development drains the continent of the talent pool while provoking political crises in Europe.

Buhari called for the creation of more opportunities for Africans at home, as well as providing alternatives to the decision to take a life-threatening boat journey to seek them elsewhere.

He also advised that the economic relationship between the two continents must be recalibrated to focus on job creation.

As Buhari noted, several factors, including structural barriers, economic hardship, unemployment, bad governance, and other vices have been identified as the main factors responsible for the migration of Nigerian youths, especially to European countries.

• The stats
This year, it has been estimated that the unemployment rate in Nigeria would reach 33 per cent.

The World Bank data pinpoints the percentage of unemployed Nigerians with advanced education at 13.69 per cent in 2016, and 15.3 per cent in 2019.

This is considered worrisome as it translates to a bulging youthful, energetic unemployed population, with no contribution to the economic growth of the country.

Faced with inept leadership, massive official corruption capped with debilitating insecurity nationwide, experts have raised the alarm that an increasing number of young Nigerians are looking to leave the country in search of a brighter economic future. Even the World Bank has confirmed this.

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In a study entitled, “Of Roads Less Travelled: Assessing the Potential for Migration to Provide Overseas Jobs for Nigeria’s Youth,” which was released recently, Nigeria placed third in West Africa among the nations polled, trailing only Liberia (70 per cent) and Sierra Leone (60 per cent), in terms of respondents who would relocate permanently to another country.

The Niger Republic was the lowest placed country in the study, coming in at 10 per cent.

The report went on to say that Nigerians were the largest group of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) coming into Europe in 2016 and 2017, with almost 40,000 landing in Italy in 2016, and over 90 per cent arriving by sea.

It added, “A greater proportion of Nigerian migrants arriving in Italy were women (32 per cent) than migrants from the rest of SSA (24 per cent),” the bank stated.

Part of the report also revealed that while the number of asylum seekers from Nigeria has declined in recent years, “this does not translate as decreased demand for migration from Nigeria”.

The drop in migration levels from Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries to Europe, it added, is a result of tighter border control policies supported by the EU in transit countries such as Libya and Niger.

A doctorate researcher at the Department of Health, University of Bath, UK, Babatope Babalobi, notes that there are about 15 million Nigerians in the diaspora.

In 2017, the United Nations Population Division’s estimates, according to Pew Research Centre, also reported in 2018 that 60 million Nigerians (or half of the adult population) presently resident in the country “are planning to leave Nigeria by 2023 if they have their way”.

The report said 74 per cent of Nigerians surveyed desired to relocate and start a new life in another country within the next five years if given the chance.

A similar study by Afrobarometer in 2018, was also quoted to have revealed that one out of every three Nigerians has seriously wished to leave Nigeria to start a new life in another country.

•No hope for us, youths lament *Insecurity, unemployment also cited
ThisNigeria spoke to a cross-section of Nigerians on why there are increasing numbers of citizens willing to leave their country to settle in another country.

An academic, Mr Kenneth Udeh, said he is already planning to leave the country for good.

He said he has already concluded arrangements to move over to Canada with his family, adding that his reason for wanting to leave the country is that things are not working.

According to him, “People are underpaid in this country, there is job insecurity, and security of life and property is also not guaranteed.”

Asked what becomes of Nigeria if everybody takes flight, he said: “If everybody is killed, what becomes of Nigeria? He concluded that Nigeria will become a tourism centre where people visit to see the cemetery.

A taxi driver, Chukwuemeka Ezugwu, said he prefers to leave the country to Europe where life is better.

On why he wants to leave, he said, “Nothing is working here, my brother. A taxi driver in Europe or America makes more money than a banker here. Aside from even better pay, there is a constant power supply, good road network, and security and job opportunities.

“I have been struggling to leave this country but luck has not smiled at me.”

Asked if he can take the risk of traveling through the Sahara desert with the dangers associated with it, he answered in the affirmative.

“Life in itself is a risk. One thing must kill a man. If I see the opportunity, I will grab it with two hands. Nigeria is synonymous with suffering. Can’t you see that there is hunger everywhere? No job and things seem to be moving from bad to worse as the day passes by,” he further lamented.

A businessman, Mr. Arinze Okorafor, said that even if it means selling land to leave Nigeria, he would not mind. He said that life is better over there than here.

“So, if you see the opportunity of leaving this country you will not grab it? If you are not tired of suffering, me, I am tired. I don’t want to die in poverty, so I will do everything humanly possible to travel out of Nigeria,” he said.

Asked what kind of job he is going to Europe to do? He replied, “What are others doing there, even if it is a cleaning job or security, it is better for me.”

In an October 2021 interview with Channels Television, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and ex-presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu, disclosed that young people leave the country due to economic frustration.

Moghalu pointed out that his family and children are also living abroad.

He said, “My family has always been international under my career, and my kids all want to come home to Nigeria.

“That is why they encourage me in my political career because they feel that if I can win, I can lead the creation of a Nigeria to which they can return to very happily. And many other families return too.

“Look at young people in this country, everyone wants to go, leave the country because there is so much misery, so much economic frustration. And I don’t blame them for leaving. My heart goes out to those young people. I want to lead the creation of a new Nigeria to which they can return.”

A northern youth, John Fwah, explained that “No one is ready to help or sponsor the youths”. He maintained that leaders have been paying lip service to the slogan “youths are the leaders of tomorrow.”

Fwah further lamented that the youths cannot even run for elections, largely for economic reasons. Another youth, John Aduku, asked rhetorically, “Can Nigeria be fixed?

Habuh Rajan Suleiman believes that “Nigeria can be fixed to fulfil the needs of all citizens”. However, he posits that if nothing is done as it is, post-2023 will see an exodus of both skilled and unskilled Nigerians to other less-endowed African countries, compared to what happened to Ghana in the 1970s.

According to Suleiman, “As things stand, most people see Nigerian resources as wastes that should be scavenged by any fitting hands we know. Fixing Nigeria needs serious patriotic reorientation of both old and the young.

“We must take Nigeria as ours rather than as theirs. We must instil collectivism in place of the current individualism that tends to drive our people apart and chart a course for democratic redistribution of our national resources, which is not possible under the present system of capitalism.

“Setting the stage for it must start with a Socialist takeover of power come 2023, and with that, we can start a re-education process for both educated and less educated Nigerians.”

This, he said, is possible, “and a must if we are to save the nation from impending catastrophe.”

Ahmad Rufai Muhammad, a staff of KINGFEM Nigeria Limited in Abuja, blamed politicians. While many young Nigerians are rising above their economic challenges through innovation, technology, and enterprise, he said they continue to be hampered by a repressive political and security system that has stifled the freedom of the youths.

Many people, he added, are leaving Nigeria because of wrong priorities.

Muhammad believes that there are many challenges facing Nigerian youths, which have led some of them to indulge in various criminal activities, including drug abuse, prostitution, and violence.

Another respondent, Elekwachi Ogbuka, explained that the youths are leaving because they feel there is no hope in the country.

“For example, when you are done with your NYSC, there is no hope for a job. Even if you get a job, it is just like modern slavery. You will be paid peanuts. The money will not be enough to cater for you and your family. They feel that wherever they are going, the economy is better.

“(Abroad) everything is well organised. You can work and earn well. Nigeria’s economy is collapsing already,” he said.

Also, an Abuja-based civil servant, Victoria Opeyemi, told ThisNigeria that the youths are fleeing because of bad governance, insecurity, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, one chance, pickpocket, cybercrime, among others

“Simply put, Nigeria is not even safe for its citizens,” she said.

• ‘There’s a total failure on social contract by the political class’
Reacting to the development, a security expert and President, of the African Narcotics Council, Mr Rekpene Bassey, said, “There is a total failure on social contract by the political class, unfortunately. Recently, I was in a cab and the driver, apparently a graduate who left school many years ago, I engaged him in a conversation and he said a lot of his friends have left the country.

“I asked why they were leaving in droves, he said it’s not only for employment purposes but for the fact that those countries are better organised. You are sure nobody will attack you while driving and if you live within the limits of the law, you will enjoy the serenity and peaceful environment, among many others.

“But it is not so in Nigeria because you cannot be sure of what will happen to you the next minute, life is so uncertain and unpredictable here. Some of them are not leaving because of unemployment, but they cannot just understand why the situation is so chaotic.

“It is like we have gone back to the state of nature, survival of the fittest. People are so brutal and they are on the edge with the least provocation- they could attack you and that is beside the high level of insecurity all over the country. You get up from your house, you pray for God to bring you back home safely. Not everybody who goes out comes back safely.

“Look again at the level of desperation, more young people are going into ritual killings, using friends, families for rituals. These were things that were unheard of a couple of years back. It is a reflection of the failure of the social contract. We millions getting admission into schools annually and the same number pass out and not up to two per cent are gainfully employed.

“Elsewhere, these issues are addressed through social security. The President is also not helping. His comments on young people are not inspiring. If a President comes out to say there are no jobs anywhere, how uninspiring can this be for the young people? They are frustrated.”