“Opportunities once flowed in Nigeria as abundantly as the Niger River, but that narrative has long changed.
Nigerians, known to be resourceful, educated, and fueled by ambition are leaving the shores of their motherland in droves, not in a casual drift but in a frantic exodus.
They’re running from a crucible of crises that boils and overflows, leaving a residue of despair with no extinguisher in sight.
A country of numerous resources has become a labyrinth of misfortunes. Governed by the worst of leaders who have weaponized poverty for their selfish interest—that is, when patriotic Nigerians rise to question, and fight, the government, their opponent would be fellow poor Nigerians, fighting tooth and nail for the same politicians who have kept them so.
Nigerians find themselves locked in an ever-intensifying cycle of multi-dimensional problems. From economic chaos to sometimes, unbearable insecurity, the nation’s woes accumulate like sediment, each layer more crippling than the last.
The government that the masses put their hopes on as custodian of public interest, has turned the country into a family enterprise, brokering ill-advised deals that mortgage the country’s future. Deals that have dwindled the Naira’s value like melting ice.
Petrol prices have soared skyward to three times what they were just months ago, pulling along dreams and ambitions into fury flames.
And yet, our leaders plead for patience in a land where patience has bled dry. With this reality, the rich find their escape routes, seeking refuge in developed countries that offer a semblance of stability, leaving behind poor Nigerians tethered by financial constraints.
The only thing that seems permanent in Nigeria has become the disheartening truth that our yesteryears often outshine our tomorrows. This mass migration of Nigerians isn’t just alarming but frightening—a “brain drain” as it’s called, because it’s the middle class and skilled Nigerians who are leaving the country in droves.
Those who can no longer wait for the dawn are chasing the sun elsewhere, hoping to find what has become elusive at home— a life of value, a life worth living.
Nigeria has, year after year performed below expectations and for every emigrant, the implication is clear: faith in the motherland has eroded, leaving behind only the skeletal remains of what was once a thriving belief in a shared future that Nigerians can unite and make something out of themselves for the good of everyone who calls Nigeria home.”
Cc: Victor Dirikebamor