Journalist David Hundeyin has questioned the pervasive “japa” syndrome among many Nigerians.
In a post shared on his X handle, Hundeyin reflected on a friend’s ongoing journey of moving his family from country to country in search of the elusive “greener pastures.”
He expressed concern that Nigerians are increasingly becoming wanderers, “roaming around the world like nomadic cattle herders, hawking their certificates and skills to anyone who will grant them residency or citizenship.”
Hundeyin emphasized that no matter where Nigerians go, the system remains the same — designed to exploit, humiliate, and dehumanize immigrants, regardless of their qualifications or professional achievements.
His post reads:
“The day I realized that my life was already ‘over’ was the day I realized that from the second half of this year, I’ll officially be closer to 50 than 20. I’m no longer a ‘youth.’ Whatever I wanted to accomplish when I was younger is either no longer possible because I’m too old, or it needs to happen now because I’ll soon be too old.
And knowing my time is limited, I decided I might as well die doing something worthwhile, because, whether I like it or not, I’m getting older and will eventually die.
There’s someone I know who left Nigeria in 2000 to study medicine in Ghana. After qualifying and working there for a few years, he moved with his wife and kids to the UK in 2017. Now, after seven years working in the NHS, I opened LinkedIn last week and saw that he and his family have now “japa” again, this time to Australia in January 2025. This person started this long journey of “japa” 25 years ago when I was in Primary 6, and now, at nearly 45 with a wife and two kids, he’s still in the midst of yet another “japa” plan. “Japa” has become a lifelong journey with no clear end point.
What kind of life is this? Is this really what we believe Nigerians are meant to do? Our role on earth is to endlessly roam around the world like nomadic cattle herders, trying to sell our certificates and skills to anyone who will grant us residency or citizenship—until they grow tired of us, and we pick up our families again and start submitting passports and documents to move to yet another corner of the world?
When does this cycle end?
The same challenges Nigerians face in the UK are present in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other “japa” destinations. I’m currently working on a story about Nigerian doctors in Canada who passed the RCPSC exam in 2020, only for the college to retroactively raise the cutoff mark to exclude them from practicing in Canada. This didn’t happen to their white counterparts who took the same exam with the same results. They don’t want us there unless we’re entertainers, athletes, or part of the underclass, economically exploited through cheap labor or as part of the prison industrial complex.
Whether you “japa” through Europe or the English-speaking world, the system is the same. It’s designed to exploit, humiliate, and dehumanize you, no matter your qualifications or achievements. As long as you look like you do, the only place where you can truly experience full personhood is Africa. So why not do something bold and use your skills, knowledge, and assets to help free your country from the foreign-imposed systems that pushed you to “japa” in the first place?
Or do you want to be 55, still submitting your passport to people half your age, praying for visa approval to maybe Estonia or Latvia this time? Is that really what life is about?”
