Japa: Emancipation or disloyalty?, by Mohammed Buhari Umar
‘Japa‘ is a Nigerian term meaning to migrate. Japa is at an all-time high as more Nigerians embark on journeys to different parts of the world in search of better opportunities. According to the Ministry of Interior, in 2022 alone 625,000 passports were issued to Nigerians desirous of acquiring the travel document. Let’s not even talk about those who ‘japa’ to other countries illegally because I don’t think there is reliable data on that. But we know that thousands of Nigerians attempt to reach Europe via the Sahara desert each year.
Some of the most preferred destinations for Nigerians include Western European countries like the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and other countries that are Schengen member states (The Schengen area is an area encompassing 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their mutual borders). Other places Nigerians fancy migrating to is North America i.e. the US and Canada. Two more countries that are becoming more popular among Nigerians to ‘japa‘ are Australia and New Zealand.
‘Japa‘ among Nigerians is not an entirely new thing. We have heard/read about the mass exodus of Nigerians in the 1980s, when a large wave of Nigerians immigrated to the Western world, especially to the US. The wave of migration then was driven by political and socio-economic problems exacerbated by the military regimes of the day.
The reasons that prompted the mass exodus of Nigerians to Europe and North America in the 1980s are the same reasons that are prompting ‘Japa‘ today. Political and socio-economic problems like bad governance, unemployment, unfavourable working conditions, insecurity, lack of opportunities and unprecedented high cost of living are the root causes of ‘Japa‘. Professionals and non-professionals are leaving the country in droves. Among professionals, academics and healthcare workers are leading the bandwagon and I want to focus more on why these two groups are leaving the most.
For academics, the reasons they are leaving en-masse are why ASUU and other similar unions are always at loggerheads with the government. Years of neglect by successive governments have resulted in the decay of tertiary institutions. Facilities that are prerequisites for training students who can go out there and compete with professionals from other parts of the world are grossly inadequate, to say the least. Lecturers are overworked as they are made to teach/instruct hundreds of students week in, week out and in difficult conditions. Their take-home pay cannot take them home. The meagre salary of lecturers is not enough to sustain/fend for even the lecturers themselves, talk more of their families. According to ASUU, Nigerian academics are the least paid in the world. Even Niger Republic, a country we see as backward and look down upon pay their professors more than double the amount of what professors are being paid in Nigeria. The situation of academics in Nigeria is simply a disgrace. It is this lack of welfare and unfavourable working conditions that is making teaching generally unattractive in Nigeria.
Having been in academia for almost five years now, I can say that Nigerian academics are some of the most committed, dedicated, disciplined and conscientious set of people one could meet. But the system is frustrating them out. Some lecturers, after giving their all and going out of their way to impart knowledge and character to students, without any reward or recognition for their selflessness, all they get from the government whenever they demand their rights are threats, blackmail, and ridicule. Lecturers have had enough.
Right now, I know many lecturers who have applied for lecturing positions in countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and elsewhere. More are planning to follow suit. This exodus will further contribute to the ‘Brain drain’ of Nigeria’s intellectual resources to the detriment of its future. The future is bleak. Because the numbers coming in are not close to the numbers going out. Moreover, some are simply irreplaceable. The ASUU president sometime in 2022 captured it best when he opined “…dedicated lecturers leaving Nigeria, frustrated ones left.”
With regards to healthcare professionals, focusing more on doctors, it’s the same story. I first came to know about the extent of the brain drain in the health sector when, in mid-2016, I read a newspaper article about an association of medical doctors of Nigerian origin in the US. The report revealed that there are over 5,000 doctors in the said association. It was almost unbelievable because I thought 5,000 was a huge number. I later came to know about a similar association in the UK which has about 3,500 members. That was more than eight years ago.
Why do Nigerian doctors ‘japa‘? Many factors come into play here, among them is burnout. Most public hospitals in Nigeria are understaffed and so doctors are overworked. The amount of work they do is taking its toll on their health and well-being. And so the moment they feel they cannot cope any longer, they leave.
Another reason why doctors ‘japa’ is the inadequacy of facilities in hospitals. Many doctors believe that if they were to stay here, they would be left behind in terms of skill upgrading and getting exposed to the latest technological advancements and medical breakthroughs. They simply want to keep up to date with the latest medical practices.
This reminds me of an experience I cannot forget. In 2017, I went to see a dental surgeon due to a persisting tooth issue in one of the public hospitals in Katsina. After examining the tooth, the dental surgeon suggested that I undergo Root Canal Treatment (RCT). I said fine and followed by asking him when I would be scheduled to have the procedure. I was aghast when he told me that the two machines used for that purpose in the hospital were faulty. I came back home and told my mother what transpired at the hospital and sought her counsel on what to do next. My mother was still in service then, serving as the head of one of the healthcare centres in the city. After making a few phone calls, she told me to go to another hospital whose RCT machine works. I went to the hospital and was given an appointment for the procedure. On the scheduled date, I waited for almost two hours for light to be restored, because their generator is faulty, according to them. During the procedure, the hose connected to the machine snapped twice. What was to be a 10-15-minute procedure took over 30 minutes. I came back home disappointed and could not stop thinking about why some of the basic facilities and tools could not be provided at our major health facilities for the benefit of the general public.
Moreover, a study carried out by Nneka F. Nwafor and Uzoma O. Okoye of the Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and which was published in the Journal of Social Work in Developing Societies concluded that the Welfare of Healthcare workers in Nigeria is inadequate, making this another reason why doctors leave.
Last year, a doctor friend of mine told me that eight of them were given appointments as Medical Officers in one of the biggest public hospitals in Kaduna in 2020. Within three years, six of them have left the country. Doctors have even devised a new way of quitting their jobs. They call it ‘quite quitting’, which means they just stop coming to work. If management reached out to them for absconding their duties, they simply informed them that they had quit.
Looking at the bigger picture, in April this year, the Minister of Health revealed that between 15,000 and 16,000 doctors have departed in the past five years. Today, Africa’s most populous country has just 55,000 doctors to look after a population of 220 million.
Nigeria has been losing its best and brightest for far too long. We all know what needs to be done, but it seems like there is no political will on the part of our leaders to do the needful. If this trend is allowed to continue, then we are doomed. Some people blame the Western countries for taking our best, something I find highly illogical. Why can’t our country provide favourable working conditions, security, and adequate welfare to these people? What’s stopping the government from providing our professionals with the enabling environment for growth and self-determination?
More so, one thing that’s making teachers and doctors feel underappreciated and even betrayed is how the public doesn’t seem to understand their plight. Whenever doctors and teachers express their dissatisfaction about inadequate welfare or difficult working conditions, the public asserts that they are just whining and tagging them as ungrateful. They are also quick to tell these professionals that they should stop seeking better welfare because they are into these professions to serve and not to accumulate money, that their reward is in the hereafter. I find this exasperating.
What the public needs to understand is that teachers and doctors are humans just like everyone else. I mean they have families to fend for, they have rent to pay and school fees to settle. They have other bills to clear. They also love to travel and recreate. Teachers can be penalised for absconding their duties and doctors can have their practising licence withdrawn if they are found guilty of negligence. Until the public understands this, they will continue to side with the government whenever there is a disagreement between the two groups and the government.
I used to think that those who ‘japa’ to other countries are not patriotic. But I have since changed my position. We humans are goal-driven. We have an innate desire to feel appreciated and valued. We hate to remain in environments where our talents and gifts are not recognised. So if you feel like you are not being appreciated enough and adequately compensated for the job you do, don’t hesitate to go to where you will be valued, where you will have enough resources and facilities to fulfil your potential and become all that you are capable of becoming. Don’t ever allow anyone to use morality to make you feel that you are not patriotic enough to leave the country to fulfil your dreams and ambitions.
To sum up, I love teaching and conducting research. I hold a firm belief that teaching is my calling because teaching gives me the sense of accomplishment and fulfilment I crave. But with the situation of teachers in Nigeria at all levels, and with the clear lackadaisical attitude of the government towards reforming the education sector, if I were to get a teaching job elsewhere, I wouldn’t hesitate to ‘japa‘.
Written by Mohammed Buhari Umar.
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