There is a massive brain drain in Nigeria as lots of creatives are running for their lives.
As of April 2021, Kariola Mustapha landed an awesome job with a top journalism firm in Nigeria. He was assigned to cover stories around maritime, road transportation, and railway. Four months later, the news made the rounds that he had quit the job. He quit a good-paying job for an opportunity at the University of Florida.
This phenomenon has become a reality for most Nigerians in recent times. Several Nigerians have continued to just up and leave the country and then pose on Twitter to announce their departures. Others have sought to explore academic avenues to get themselves out of the country to secure a better future.
Research by Afro Barometer in 2018
It revealed that one in three Nigerians have considered migration to advance their lives. This phenomenon has contributed to a brain drain that has continued to hurt the economy’s growth.
Also, it noted that the popular age bracket is younger than the age of 35. The major reasons were economic, others were looking for better jobs while some others wanted to escape poverty. The popular destinations were North America (32%) and Europe (21%). “About one in five say they would go to Ghana (9%), another country in West Africa (5%), or somewhere else in Africa (6%),” Afro Barometer reported in the survey.
Mustapha said there was every reason to leave Nigeria. Prior to this moment, he considered himself a patriot and wasn’t looking anyplace else.
“Six, seven years ago, I was very jingoistic about Nigeria. Honestly, I never thought I would leave Nigeria. Everything was fixable, until now. Even though I had a stable job in Nigeria.
“So, number one, the economy, that keeps falling and falling was a major reason. Number two, you don’t have equality of anything in Nigeria, whether it is education or the standard of living. In fact, I had to abandon my master’s program at the University of Ibadan- I never went for it. This is after spending money and all that.
“I was earning in six digits in Nigeria. Why would I leave six digits for four digits in the United States? This is because the economy is stable. The standard of living is right, the cost of living is cheap,” he explained.
A techie, Adebimpe Omolaso, noted that the desire for comfort is part of the reasons why people leave the country.
“It is usually about pay comparison when it comes to design creatives. However, the first thought for any creative is that they want to have a comfortable life. They don’t want to beg for food and work many hours before they can get funds. We want an enabling environment and all of this Nigeria doesn’t provide. That is why they leaving.”
Mental health conundrum causing the brain drain in Nigeria
Mental health is causing brain drain in Nigeria. For Toni Olarinonye, a Nigerian who has been in Canada for over three years now, she moved away because of the mental health attached to her plus-size features. Both Mustapha and Toni believe that there is some sort of mental health issue young millennials face in Nigeria.
She said, “Major reason I left was that I wanted to be in an environment where I wouldn’t have to feel insecure about my body. Everywhere in Nigeria is lose weight this, you’re too fat that. And I knew it was because of a poor lifestyle and access to better clothing would solve it. And also being away from toxic people. Even family could be toxic.”
Mustapha also added that though he was well paid, he still couldn’t afford accommodation.
“My take-home was close to N180,000. My monthly stipend is over N200,000 I can’t boast of savings. I was still managing and couldn’t even boast of getting a good apartment in the area where I lived. So everything boils down to, mental health, and I thought, okay if I have what it takes to travel, why should I remain here?”
Toni added, “If I were in Nigeria, I probably would have been married off by now because they wouldn’t want me to be this fat and also be too old, nobody would want that. That’s the Nigerian mentality. Mostly for my body and mental health, I knew I had to leave. That’s why the cost never matters to me. In cash or kind.”
A report by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
has listed the desire for better livelihoods and opportunities but also
escaping life-threatening circumstances such as persecution, violent conflict, war or natural disasters as part of the reasons people migrate.
The body in its October 2022 report titled, “Crises of Inequality: Shifting Power for a New Eco-Social Contract” explained that this was the reason why migration has increased.
It read, “Over the last two decades, the stock of all types of migration has increased, encompassing people moving to seek better employment, to join family members or to study abroad, internally displaced people (IDPs) and international refugees. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of international migrants increased by 48 million globally, and by 60 million between 2010 and 2020, reaching a total stock of 281 million in 2020.”
Even CEOs leave
On September 2, 2021, Chief Executive Officer at TalentQL and Founder & CEO at Techpoint Africa, Adewale Yusuf tried to detail his journey to Rwanda. In a viral tweet that soon got traction, he posted his Rwandan work permit on his page.
He tweeted, “I just got my Rwanda work permit (W2). I will be hosting a space this evening to discuss how we incorporated in Rwanda in less than 12 hours and how I got my permit in less than 7 days. W2 is entrepreneur’s permit.”
Right after that post, he hosted a Twitter Spaces meeting. He was welcomed by the CEO of Co-Creation Hub, Bosun Tijani who had long incorporated in Rwanda. In the online conversation, Yusuf explained that Nigeria’s policies have stifled tech businesses hence his decision to go the Rwanda way.
BBC recently reported, several Nigerians have resorted to schooling for several years just to extend their stay abroad. One of the respondents explained that amassing post-graduate degrees were a means to an end of staying abroad. This is following the high unemployment their home country is characterized by.
All these moves have attracted little or no reaction from Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari. In a 2019 report, Buhari said Nigerians who have another country to relocate to are free to do so.
“Anybody who thought he has any other country than Nigeria, Goodbye,” he said.
“We are determined to rehabilitate our country, especially for our children and grandchildren,” the president added.
Medical services suffer brain drain in Nigeria
Last year, Operatives of the Department of State Services dispersed medical doctors, who stormed the Sheraton Hotels, Abuja, to take part in the recruitment interview organised by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health. This is coming as medical consultants in their hundreds flooded the Ladi Kwali Hall of the hotel to participate in a recruitment exercise that will benefit their lives.
All of these were ongoing as the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) started the nationwide strike on August 2, 2021 in Nigerian public tertiary hospitals. They cited several reasons, including delays in the payment of their salaries and allowances.
The strike coincided with a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country. Many were worried that it could have serious consequences for the battle against the third wave of the pandemic. In Kaduna, 112 doctors reportedly left on the state’s payroll, which brought the doctor-patient ratio to (1:7000). A PricewaterhouseCoopers report said that there are 1.24 million migrants from Nigeria domiciled in the diaspora. This figure is likely to be higher in 2018 and 2019 with the recent trend in migration from the country. It also added that almost half of Nigerian adults have indicated their willingness to leave the country in the next five years, according to a 2018 survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre.
The report titled, “Strength from abroad: The economic power of Nigeria’s diaspora” stated that migrant remittance flows from Nigeria grew from $22 billion in 2017 to $23.63 billion in 2018. The top countries from which Nigeria receives this remittance are Canada, Ireland and Benin. Germany, Spain, Ghana, Italy, Cameroon, the United Kingdom and the United States account for the rest.
The Canadian rush
Checks have shown that Nigerians continue to opt for immigration to Canada yearly. A Wikipedia report noted that 51,000 people live in Canada as far back as 2016 with over half living in Ontario. A website, Immigration. ca revealed that between 2015 through to the end of 2019, the number of Nigerians becoming new permanent residents in Canada more than tripled, rising from 4,090 to a high of 12,600 in 2019, just before COVID-19 hit Canada. Nigeria has also become a source of new permanent residents that year, behind India, China, and the Philippines.
Economic programs, including the Atlantic Immigration Pilot, Canadian Experience, Caregiver, Skilled Trade, Skilled Worker, Investor, Federal Self-Employed Class, and Start-Up Visa programs as well as the Provincial Nominee Program, accounted for 76.1 percent of all Nigerians who became new permanent residents to Canada in 2019.
The Africa Polling Institute in its 2020 study report titled “Deconstructing the Canada Rush: Motivations for Nigerians Emigrating to Canada” tried to analyze why Canada is a top choice for Nigerians. The Canada rush study has identified Nigeria’s weak economy, heightened insecurity, and perceived poor governance as the key “push factors” driving the recent trend of seeking migration opportunities to Canada and brain drain in Nigeria.
In addition, favourable Canadian immigration policies appear to also constitute a key enabler and “pull factor” attracting prospective migrants.
It read, “Based on the online survey conducted, the result showed clearly that the top 5 motivating “push factors” for Nigerians seeking migration opportunities to Canada are: the search for better career opportunities (75%), heightened insecurity and violence (60%), the desire to provide a better future for their children (55%), for further education (40%), and perceived poor governance in Nigeria (35%). In addition, other relatively fewer respondents identified the search for business prospects (12%), family reunification (3%) and the weather (1%) as less important driving factors for their intention or decision to migrate.
“Interestingly, across age demography, the search for better career opportunities and educational advancement appeared to be a more important reason for emigrating amongst respondents aged 18-35years (82% and 45% respectively), than for older folks aged 36-60years (55% and 26%). On the other hand, “heightened insecurity and violence”, the desire to provide a “better future for my children”, and “poor governance” appeared to be of more concern to older respondents aged 36-60years (74%, 69%, and 39% respectively), compared to the younger folks aged 18-35years (55%, 50%, and 33% respectively).
“A resounding theme from this study is that most individuals are migrating in search of opportunities, whether in the form of employment and career advancement, educational opportunities, or for a safer and more secure future for their children. This highlights sentiments to suggest that these indicators seem somewhat elusive in the Nigeria of today. The results however suggest that migration is fueled more by the pursuit of opportunities, than by the fear of danger(s).”
The rise of study visas
Canada is not the only destination. The United Kingdom immigration statistics as at June 2022, revealed that there were 486,868 sponsored study visas granted. They granted visa to both main applicants and their dependant, 71 per cent (202,147) more than 2019.
Of the study visas issued by the UK, Nigerian nationals saw the largest relative increase in sponsored study grants compared with 2019, increasing by 57,545 (+686 per cent) to a record high of 65,929, making them the third largest nationality group.
Similarly, the number of Nigerian students enrolled in universities in the United Kingdom reached the highest of all time. This is according to a report by an education search platform, Erudera.com.
According to the report, the number of Nigerian students who enrolled in the 2020/2021 academic session stood at 21,305, which represents almost a 64% increase from the 2019/2020 figures.
Techies are not left out. A report said that “an average of 509 software engineers, since the beginning of this year, have secured better offers abroad majorly in Canada, the US, and the UK.
A Bloomberg report confirmed this trend, noting that Nigerian banks have been hit by an exodus of tech talents, and chief executives. “So many of our very experienced talents especially in the area of software engineering are either leaving the industry or leaving the country,” Sterling Bank Chief Executive Officer, Abubakar Suleiman was quoted to have said at a bank CEO meeting in April 2022. Going further, in another meeting, he said the resignation could also represent an opportunity and not a crisis.
On November 2, 2022, the Canadian government unveiled an immigration plan to welcome 1,450,000 immigrants between 2023 and 2025, in a bid to curb the labour shortage. Already, in 2021, Canada welcomed over 405,000 newcomers, the most in a single year.
The brain drain has made Nigerians resort to selling their properties. They do this just to make the cut to emigrate to better opportunities. A report by SBM Intelligence revealed that Nigerians contribute as much as £3,250,000,00 to the UK economy.
It read, “As regards productivity, a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute showed that international students are worth £29 billion to the UK economy while analysis from London Economics on the economic impact of the international students that the UK took in for the 2018/19 session showed that the UK gained a net figure of £25.9 billion for the year in question with new Nigerian students alone arguably responsible for a net economic gain of £3,250,000,000.
“The UK gains from school fees paid by Nigerian immigrants to British schools, visa fees, NHS payments, rent, economic productivity, income taxes (where the students work), etc. Also, speaking about the issue of dependants coming with international students, only postgraduate students who are expected to be older and likely to have spouses and children have such privilege and those students are well-vetted for proof of financial competence.”
A silver lining?
Omolaso makes a profound observation that lots of people who are leaving would most likely return in the future.
“For a lot of people are leaving, there is a popular saying that there is no place like home and in the long run, they would want to come back. Lots of the people that left Nigeria ten years ago are some of the people current;y in the tech industry leading to more growth in Nigeria. It is really nothing to worry about,” he explained.
Similarly, General Manager at M-KOPA & ex-Country Director, SafeBoda, Babajide Duroshola, on a Twitter space in August noted that the japa trend was not for average persons.
“People who can emigrate today are not your average individuals. They are most likely living a comfortable life in Nigeria. When I talk about comfortable life I am talking about what Nigeria allows you to have,” he said.
Omolaso and Duroshola agree that the issue of strikes in the academic sector, unemployment and poor pay, are reasons for the brain drain in Nigeria. They also believe that the lack of a talent pipeline is the major reason.
“There are more droves of middle-level managers who are responsible for training entry-level people leaving the country. That is where the real danger is. It is very easy to pick people from the streets and put them in the job. However it is the ones who should be training are leaving,” Duroshola explained.
He noted that the future of mass migration would be enjoyed by those who stay in the country and charge a premium for their services while others leave.
