₦airaland Forum

koning: Thank you for reminding them. They are not aware or refuse to accept that there are many Nigerians who can easily emigrate to the west, but chose to stay put in Nigeria. There was even an American man that fought his deportation from Nigeria in a Lagos court.

Over 90% of passengers on any flight leaving MMA to US, Uk, Europe or UAE reside permanently in that " Shithole " called Nigeria. The lamest excuse given by Diasporan Nigerians for not wanting to return to Nigeria is 'Security' . A Nigerian is more likely to be murdered in New york city and S.E London than in Lagos. Go and check the statistics. I don't mean stats obtained from prejudiced people in the US or UK.
Japan has everything that Nigeria hasn't. But more Japanese people kill themselves than Nigerians. The Netherlands has a higher suicide rate than Nigeria.
People who are not in a position to make it back to Nigeria will always use the condition of the country as an excuse. Over 150m people still live there. 40% of whom are children.

Many Nigerians cannot easily migrate to the west. In most cases only the elitist can. If you consider them "many" then ok. The American who fought migration obviously has potential business deals where he'll hama. Then I'm sure he won't mind leaving after. Your security comment is comical. Go return all the girls before you worry about New York or London. The same government who lied and said they got all the girls returned originally, this is the same gov't you want me to trust their stats ? Stop it my friend.

kaboninc: Bro...one or two personal experiences do not in any validate the claim for the mass exodus of Nigerians just because we're in a mess! I also doubt if you're in tune with the current realities on ground. In as much as we may not have a functioning ambulance service, that's no reason for us to say our health system is wa.cked.

This is a country with her own peculiar ills and if you must survive you must learn to adapt. In my local community, I don't think we have an ambulance service here but its very rare you find people dying because no one came to your rescue.

Besides if we all leave for the West, how then do we improve the health services?

Chineke mere ebele. So not having a functional ambulance system is not a reason to say the healthcare sucks ? Furthermore, I must learn how to survive with all the jaga jaga? So you don't have an ambulance service at your present local, but it's ok because you rarely find people dying because nobody came to rescue you. You are a very rational person. Anyways most are a product of your environment, I can't blame you guys.

mployer: You guys still don't read.

I never said my cousins returned from Europe. Nawa oo.

I said they schooled in Nigeria and prefered to work in Nigeria than move to Europe. How is that a failure? Poverty mentality is eating you guys up.

They work in big organisation here and still travel to Europe on vacation yearly. My surprise is that I thought they would want to start up their career in Eu but they choose Nigeria despite being Eu citizens.

Opportunities are here but you guys are not seeing it, all you are talking about is taxi driver earning 60k per month. FYI, Lagos danfo drivers earn more than that.

I said they make anywhere from 65k-100k dollars per year. So Danfo drivers make 9,550,855.90 to 14,693,624.46 naira per year with good benefits and pension ? And they come home to good infrastructure, running water/light each day ? Your cousin don't represent everyday Nigerians. Let them denounce their EU passports then I'll take them seriously. Religion and delusional are eating you guys up.

mrmetoo1: Exactly what I've been the saying the arrogance is kinda annoying. What do you mean no reasonable person?? Maybe you need to hook up with the right people when you come to Naija. There are a lot of people who have moved back with family that are living a good life. Can you guarantee the life of your child wherever you live? I honestly don't think you're exposed enough with that thinking. All my family live here and we thank God that so far none has lost their life just because they live in Naija.

Naija is difficult no doubt but that to me is an ignorant statement, I honestly don't mean it as a diss

My friend take it how you want. It's the truth. I have a family member who recently died because the public hospitals was on strike and nobody was there to give him medical attention. And when the private hospital was called, they said the ambulance driver did not show up for work that day, and if we want medical care, we'd have to bring him ourselves. Of course he ended up dying in pain at his house. Dogs get better treatment who are in distress here than Nigerians do in naija. I haven't even got into the 3rd world class of care he would have gotten even if he made it to the hospital on time. After all that, as my people walked around ABJ to clear their mind, they now had to be mindful and stay away from crowds because you never know if a bomb will go off AGAIN.

Another story. A guy I knew through a mutual friend did his undergrad and masters in the US. He got his MBA. He married a black American woman and they have 3 children. He was one of those patriots. He made capital in the US and moved him and his wife/kids to ABJ. He opened up an restaurant in ABJ (won't say the name). About a month ago he got in a car accident, and ended up dying slowly on the spot. Like usually no ambulance or emergency medical services came to his rescue. He was only 30 years of age. His wife, now a widow, have respected herself and moved back to the US with her kids. Why the hell would I subject my kids to such a life? Why? You call it arrogance, I call it common sense. Keep your money. This is about more than money. Its a lifestyle.

Chinom: I have deliberately avoided this thread because i'm sick and tired of the same line of arguement over and over. Nigerians stuck in de diaspora would continue to justify their stay in US, Uk and Europe by castigating, insulting,degrading and rubbishing Nigeria as a country.
No single one of them will tell us their PERSONAL reason for living Nigeria for good. It's always the same chorus of " Nigeria is a shithole, Nothing works, No power, no roads ..bla bla bla". They are mostly not true to themselves.They hide behind cliches.
I have a question for all Diaspora Nigerians. Give an honest especially to yourself. Do not answer to legitimize your stay in the diaspora or for the sake of winning an arguement. I'm not interested in that. Answer from the deepest of your soul.

Here is the question. IF YOU SHOULD WIN A LOTTERY JACKPOT OF $25M IN THE US, UK OR EUROPE, WOULD YOU STILL CHOOSE TO LIVE THERE OR MAKE MOVES TO RELOCATE TO NIGERIA.

Honest answers please.

No reasonable person, especially with children, would move back even if they won 1 billion US. What is money when you can't even guarantee your child's safety ?

mployer: Your problem is commenting without reading. You are probably under-employed here, whatever caused it for you here will still do same over there.

I didn't say my cousins live abroad, I said they have EU passports. Their mum is from Belgium. The schooled here, preferred work here to working in Europe.

I used to wonder within me, if European citizens as they are do not want to return and work in their homeland do to their race what makes me think I as a foreigner will find it easy over there
.
And FYI, you won't do more than wash dishes with that your Nigerian certificate you are bragging about.

Europe is getting tougher, but its still better pass naija. I feel North America is more stable. Either way your cousins seem like failures, incompetent or both. Whatever their irrational reason was to come to naija and work, nobody is buying because its better. Stop insulting our intelligence. Now to address the stereotypical "Washing dishes" again. In Canada for example, there are minimal but good paying jobs where you need little to no education to do. Driving public transit for example starts you at a minimum of 65k to 100k dollars per year. With good benefits and a government pension. All you need is a drivers license and be over 18. Police officers here start at 80k and reach 100k annually within 3 years. Again all you have to be is over 18 and have a high school education with no criminal conviction. An ordinary mail man here pulls in 60k a year or more with overtime. So if you're in naija and have finished secondary school, the least you can do here is get these minimal jobs which pays well. If you come here when you're young and have higher ambition, the sky is the limit. Nobody "washes dishes" here. You'd have to be an idiot to come here and start washing dishes.

johnsonolajide: @safarigirl, you are totally wright, i,am living in sydney australia here for the past fifteen years now,and i,worked hard here in sydney to make money,but it,s very very difficault to save money here,thought we had stable of electricity, good roads,foods. hospital etc,but it,s very very expensive to leave in this country call australia. before i,came to sydney in australia, when i,was still in nigeria,my thinking is that i,can just come here and work in australia for five years save money,then come back to nigeria and start my own business,but i,found it very difficault to save big money here,if someone never been to western countries before,you will surely never understand how this western countries look like,last week i,read on nairaland that LINDA EKEJI bought a new range rover suv in nigeria with cash and carry,let me tell my fellow nairaland,it,s only about 1% of people in australia can buy such a range rover in cash.i,spoke to many of my friends in sydney about linda ekeji suv car,i,think the problem with we nigerian,s it,s laziness that killing us,we like something call ready made,africa is the most blessed continent on earth,but we african,s don,t take that opportunity,and we african,s people like theory instead of pratical,and theory cannot take us to anywhere,thought if you come to western world you can have some exposure about life,but all this exposure did not just come like that,people worked hard to make it happen,

And you wont be able to save money in naija as well. Except you'll be in the dark, no power, no roads, no food, and bad hospitals.

LORDI: Nigerians just need to change their mentality, Don't think about what the government can do for you but what you can do for the government...if we can contribute to our economy despite the corruption,nigeria will still be a better place....

An country's government is like the engine to a car. A country simply cannot function without it.

mrmetoo1: Ok! about 9 months, so maybe I should have said almost a year instead of less than a year. Anyway if where you're going with this is, to let you know if I still feel this same way in a couple of months. The truth is who knows? The US is just a flight away for me, my papers are intact, wifey is a citizen, daughter was born there. All I'm saying is this, if that happens, I pray not, at least I'll have done my own part in trying to help solve a problem even though I wasn't successful. On the other hand, if I'm successful (not just making money), it means I solve a problem and move Nigeria a little closer to being a better place. Apart from me achieving my goals, I would have provided employment for a bunch of families and made their life better. Even at this point, without being anywhere to close to what I want to achieve, I know how many families have benefited from us being able to employ them (crawling).

I was talking to a "politician" that said "we don't campaign to the elites because the elites don't vote" (and by elites she necessarily didn't mean rich people, she meant educated people). We cause a lot of our own problems, then complain.

I'm on your side. I also have some businesses there which has employed others. My issue is we (I did anyway) got the capital by coming abroad. And if it doesn't work out like you said, I'm a flight away from North America as well. The average Nigerian does not have such a luxury. My point is would your moral be the same if the US wasn't a flight away ? Would you be so pro fix naija ?

mrmetoo1: I wonder where you're going with this but its been less than a year

That's broad. You know exactly where I'm going with this.

mrmetoo1: I actually don't think I've compared that much. What I've said is we can learn from these countries and apply them here. The "flying doctors" girl hasn't solved the healthcare problem in Nigeria but she's taken a step in the right direction (crawling). The Konga/Jumia guys are nowhere close to the Amazon in terms of service or profit or anything but they're doing well (crawling). What I mean is let's try to discourage the "abandon ship" mentality and find solutions (still crawling) to some of our problems.

How long have you been back.

mrmetoo1: Interesting topic!!
I'll start by saying there's absolutely nothing wrong travelling abroad. I kinda wish every Nigerian somehow in their lifetime could travel somewhere and live there for at least 1-2 years and come back. Its called exposure whether good or bad it just opens your eyes to certain things.

Now something I can't stand is Nigerians that travel abroad and start acting all high and mighty. The fact of the matter is most of you did NOTHING to make those countries the way they are. As someone said in one of the responses if the citizens of those countries come and take over Nigeria today, in 5yrs they'll turn Nigeria to those countries and if Nigerians were to take over those countries today, in less than 3 years those countries will be like Nigeria. A Nigerian looking down on Nigeria is like a babe that's dating an older rich man with a family and looking down on a babe dating/supporting a young guy still trying to get himself together. The truth of the matter is, with the right support and hard work the struggling guy could become tomorrow's billionaire.

Nigeria is crazy I can't even lie, its insane but like someone else said Nigerians could be intellectually lazy. Nigeria has loads of problems but there are always solutions. Most people however are not interested in problem solving. There are few young Nigerians that have been exposed to the way things work in more developed countries and move back to Nigeria to help implement these things. E.g "Flying Doctors" the idea was born out of her sister being sick and dying due to the lack of the proper infrastructure. Now she could have just shaken her head, packed her load and vowed never to come back to Nigeria again but from there she recognized a problem and got to work on how to solve it. Another example is Jumia, I met one of its ex-executives in NY, now by all means this guy was doing very well in NY but he saw an opportunity/problem in Nigeria, got to work and helped create a very successful brand. Njoku (Irokotv) is another example and many others.

I lived in the US for 11 years and I'm back here and my focus is real estate. I already have a couple of building projects I'm working on but my goal is to develop houses where people get what they're paying for. Again identifying a problem and working on a solution. I was looking at renting a house, my budget was 2.5m - 3.5m kinda trying to match what I was paying in Dallas. Now problem with that is you almost cannot find anything close in terms of quality, design, finishing and so on. You see some kitchens and bathrooms and you just want to weep. Now many Nigerians, not all, don't see these things. I saw something close to how my place in Dallas looks in Lagos and rent was $60k/annum, that to me is ridiculous. Funny thing about this is, it doesn't necessarily cost more to get the quality/design/finishing you'll get abroad, sometimes all it takes is paying attention to details and making sure you're on top of it. Haven homes/Grenadine homes is a company right now that's doing well as far as quality of their homes and sensible pricing, my plan is to beat them both in quality and pricing.

So just to finish this off, nothing wrong in living in a more developed country as a matter of fact I recommend it but don't go there and start acting like you're better than people you left behind because you were lucky enough to get a visa. If all the brilliant minds left the US during the depression for greener pasture without looking back, the US won't be there today for some of you guys to run to. Let's identify problems in our country and try to solve them. No one is saying its going to be easy, believe me there are days I just want to book a flight and go back. At the same time, I look at what I've been able to achieve and what the future holds, the kind of people I've been able to meet here and do business with and then shake off any regrets and keep going. Truth is, I don't pray to have to go back and live in the US, I want to be successful in Nigeria and provide my own solutions to problems.

I agree, but there's a difference between being patriotic and being stupid. To compare the quality of life and opportunities between Nigeria and some of the world's richest countries is madness. Lets crawl before we can run with the big boys.

Silkmoth33: Wait till u go there and see for urself

I am there. Never seen a Nigerian wash plate here. You either go and do what you were doing in naija, or you find a minimal but well paid job.

brixton: OP, God bless u!

I was discussing wit my fiancee this morning about just getting degree and giving birth in yanky rather than trying to fix arrangee marriage as well as marrying me at d same time. Dis woman kept arguing with me about what kind of job she would be doing in Nig, how u can make 150k in a month by washing plates in Yanky while u need all the degrees in the world to earn same figures in Nig.. (funny). I simply told her i am not going to do arrangee for myself, if she's smart then she knows i am not doing it for her either. I can always renew my yanky visa if need be! I think it is lack of proper orientation and our lack of appreciation for our dear land, i have seen too many suffer heads here and i keep thanking God i was raised in Nigeria. Fact is life is economical in Nigeria than most of these foreign land.

I don't understand these washing plate statements. It's exaggeration. Most abroad get simple but very good paying jobs. Most restaurants have automatic plate washers now, and "washing plates" is simply putting it back on the shelves. Regardless most don't wash plates. Where is this coming from ?

majekdom2: yes , because they choose to love the next neighbour ..... but how long do you think canada will be poviding for refugees when the numbers increases in a geometric ratio .... not africans alone , the haitis , guyanas are flooding these countries.

They make money off these refugees. In a few years they'll be up on their feets and working/paying taxes. So the 20k they may spend on them upon arriving, in 20-30 years living in Canada they would have paid way more in taxes. It's common sense. Invest in people to get a return later on.

mployer: The taxes are used to implement policies you are not entitled to as a foreigner. The healthcare policy for instance is for citizens. As a foreigner, you pay your bills to the last penny. Others like scholarship schemes that are financed by your tax money are still out of your reach. Tell me, what else is slavery?

False. I don't know where you people get your info from. Canada for example gives free healthcare service to refugee's. If you're there for any reason and need emergency medical attention, you cannot be denied it by law regardless of your status. The hospitals will try to collect their money later on, but you will not be jailed if you cannot pay. They also give refugees money every month, and a place to stay where they first get there. I know people who came that route. Though international students are required to buy insurance. But you conveniently forgot to mention things that are financed by foreign tax dollars which are in reach such as proper infrastructure, police, roads, running water, etc. What's slavery is having a better quality of life in a foreign country than yours.

safarigirl: you apparently know nothing if you assume you'll just travel out and a job will be waiting for you no matter how degrading.

I'll have you know that even the citizens of wherever you're travelling to would also be interested in that shiiit cleaning business you were hoping to snag....

Whatever money you'll make there will be taken away from you in the name of tax. Nigerians don't even know how good they have it here. You watch a few American movies and you think going abroad will be awesome. Na when dem ship your dead body come Naija na that time your relatives' eye go clear.

Only a lazy man will be poor in Nigeria, people in this country run businesses and make up to 100,000 naira per week, some per day even, when they've settled all bills, they cart home at least 2 million naira quarterly.

Seun, Linda Ikeji and co didn't make their money abroad. Banky W, tiwa Savage, seyi shay, Don Jazzy had to leave foreign lands to come and make money here. You never ask those oness wey go come back wetin make them return, you wan go.

I wish you adieu and make sure some red-neck racist c?nt doesnkt end you while you're hustling there

[b]

safarigirl: you apparently know nothing if you assume you'll just travel out and a job will be waiting for you no matter how degrading.

I'll have you know that even the citizens of wherever you're travelling to would also be interested in that shiiit cleaning business you were hoping to snag....

Whatever money you'll make there will be taken away from you in the name of tax. Nigerians don't even know how good they have it here. You watch a few American movies and you think going abroad will be awesome. Na when dem ship your dead body come Naija na that time your relatives' eye go clear.

Only a lazy man will be poor in Nigeria, people in this country run businesses and make up to 100,000 naira per week, some per day even, when they've settled all bills, they cart home at least 2 million naira quarterly.

Seun, Linda Ikeji and co didn't make their money abroad. Banky W, tiwa Savage, seyi shay, Don Jazzy had to leave foreign lands to come and make money here. You never ask those oness wey go come back wetin make them return, you wan go.

I wish you adieu and make sure some red-neck racist c?nt doesnkt end you while you're hustling there

[/b]

safarigirl: you apparently know nothing if you assume you'll just travel out and a job will be waiting for you no matter how degrading.

I'll have you know that even the citizens of wherever you're travelling to would also be interested in that shiiit cleaning business you were hoping to snag....

Whatever money you'll make there will be taken away from you in the name of tax. Nigerians don't even know how good they have it here. You watch a few American movies and you think going abroad will be awesome. Na when dem ship your dead body come Naija na that time your relatives' eye go clear.

Only a lazy man will be poor in Nigeria, people in this country run businesses and make up to 100,000 naira per week, some per day even, when they've settled all bills, they cart home at least 2 million naira quarterly.

Seun, Linda Ikeji and co didn't make their money abroad. Banky W, tiwa Savage, seyi shay, Don Jazzy had to leave foreign lands to come and make money here. You never ask those oness wey go come back wetin make them return, you wan go.

I wish you adieu and make sure some red-neck racist c?nt doesnkt end you while you're hustling there

Just to inform you, TAXES KEEP THE CIVILIZED COUNTRY/SOCIETY FUNCTIONAL. Yes abroad you pay a lot of income tax and sales tax, because with those tax revenues the country keeps the roads paved and in good condition. They keep the hospitals up and running so everyone can have healthcare. They pay the police and legal system to have law and order, a foreign concept in Nigeria. The fact you mentioned taxes as a negative things shows your ignorance.

Sanchez01: Truth is, you said my mind without mincing words. We claim Nigeria is bad, yet it birthed Seun and Linda, Japheth Omojuwa, Psquare, Tu-face, and even the so-called D'banj who was abroad did not 'make it' there until he came home. I have always concluded that Nigeria is a natural resources which does not require the regular mining to tap her wealth. Politicians keep looting, yet, it has not barred those who think outside of the boxing from succeeding.

P Square has a house in the US and travel there a lot. Didn't he have his kids there ? Tu-face recently had is daughter in the US, why ? Banky is an America who travels there for important needs like healthcare. If naija is all that let me denounce his American citizenship. Most of these people simply make their money in naija because that's where the market is for their product. Like if Banky didn't blow up in naija he'd leave yankee for naija. Nonsense.