In recent years, Nigeria has witnessed a mass exodus of its people. For instance, in the first quarter of 2023, the number of Nigerians moving to Canada surged to the highest figures in nine years. A 2021 Africa Polling Institute survey reveals that seven out of every 10 Nigerians will choose to leave the country if given the opportunity. Indeed, young citizens intending to migrate may have strongly contributed to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) issuing a record-breaking number of 1,899,683 passports in 2022.
However, Nigerian youths are among the worst hit by the country’s economic woes, If those affected want to enroll in university and gain the qualifications needed to stand out in a crowded job market, it’s difficult to do so within Nigeria.
With limited capacity at home and ongoing industrial disputes interrupting the education of those who do get into the country’s universities, students are increasingly looking abroad for qualifications. Students are also pulled to these destinations by attractive, student-friendly policies.
Increased insecurity: Nigeria has witnessed a steady increase in insecurity since 2015 with a rising increase in daily terrorist attacks in the North-eastern parts of Nigeria by Boko Haram, banditry in the North-west, farmers and herdsmen clash in the middle-belt leaving houses razed, and thousands of farmers killed, kidnapping and armed attacks in the South-west and South-east, political uprisings in the South-south, and clamour for a sovereign Biafra nation in the South-east part of the country. Hundreds of school children are being kidnapped from schools, mainly in the Northern part of Nigeria. This increased insecurity make some citizens leave the country for more peaceful and stable nations.
Moreover, incessant strikes in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions like Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), recently resumed work after a year of strike, which covered a greater part of 2020. This is one of the constant strike actions plaguing the Nigerian tertiary education, which has a long-term adverse effect of producing half-baked graduates who spent six years or more for a three years course in foreign universities.
Attending a private university may not be an option due to high tuition fees, making private universities unaffordable by a greater Nigerian populace. This leaves one with no option than to desire quality education with a stable academic calendar in high-ranking tertiary institutions outside Nigeria.
High unemployment rate: Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest unemployment rate in the world. Nigerian graduates churned out from the country’s teeming tertiary institutions are left with no option than to compete for the few employment positions available, thus breeding corruption and job racketeering.
Taking the self-employment route is no easy task either. You will be faced with myriads of challenges ranging from bad government policies and corrupt officials looking to rip you off to epileptic power supply crippling businesses and contributing to the increased cost of doing business in Nigeria.
There are thousand-and-one reasons to leave Nigeria’s shores to seek greener pastures in countries where the system works. What is more worrying is the loss of young Nigerian professionals and academics
Therefore, government at all levels should put more efforts to tackle these challenges to utilise its hardworking and talented youth.
Yusuf Ibrahim,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri.
