The ‘Japa’ Exodus: Exaggerated or Underreported?

For every hit TV series or movie that is widely accepted on social media, there are always memes from the movie that resonate with daily life experiences. For the King of Boys Netflix series, it is that of the legendary Sola Sobowale holding a glass of wine with the caption Welcome to a new dispensation that captures every Japa tweet or post you must have seen on social media.

There is a new wave sweeping Nigeria called japa and for those who are not Yorubas, japa simply means to run away from something or someone. In this context, Japa is the legal migration of a Nigerian from Nigeria to a developed country.

Since the aftermath of endsars movement, we have witnessed an increase in the exodus of young Nigerians leaving the country for a system they consider will be more beneficial to their growth. I won’t bore you with the reasons why they are leaving their birth country(people relocate for reasons best known to them), but rather discuss if indeed the media is exaggerating or under-reporting this exodus.

Social media is an amplifier, with just a tweet or video, thousands of people can be reached irrespective of the intent of that post. Japa content is now a norm on the timeline, in fact, these posts garner more traction and engagement from Nigerians. It is either the newly japa folks are being congratulated for leaving the country or are being abused for not staying to build Nigeria.

The exaggerated angle

A screenshot of a report recently trended on social media. As at June 2022, at least 62,000 Nigerians have relocated to several countries. This was a massive increase from the 34,000 Nigerians that was reported in 2021.

In a country of 200 million people, one would certainly assume the aforementioned have no significant effect on the population because for every 10 Nigerians that japa, there are 1000 more to replace them. To put it clearly, if a backend engineer resigns from his role on the 1st of September 2021, there are 10 more backend engineers who will be scrambling for the vacant role and a new person will be employed before September ends.

This is just a vivid example to knock off the intending boom that some experts feel awaits Nigerians and Nigeria.

Some time ago, there was a series of recruitment going on simultaneously in Lagos and Abuja by some middle eastern countries for medical practitioners. Hundreds of them who met the requirements were granted easy access to relocate and work. Some even had the option of relocating with their families. Although, many Nigerians raised eyebrows about it but that didn’t stop the process.

One thing is clear, migration is bound to happen irrespective of how viable or epileptic the economy is. It is in our nature as humans to seek new adventures. Nigerians leaving Nigeria should ordinarily not make news but a large part of social media disagrees.

Japa social media influencers are also on the rampage, they might tag you as unserious if you don’t buy their product. They see those who chose to stay behind as seemingly lazy, scared or they lack ambition. To be honest, I think many of these influencers are merely after their paycheck hence the disregard for nuance in their marketing approach.

The truth is, not everyone is relocating. 200 million Nigerians can’t relocate. When you also consider the huge financial cost to relocate legally, how many Nigerians can conveniently afford it? So social media needs to tune down the volume of the japa exodus gospel.

The under-reported angle

The dynamics of Nigeria’s situation in relation to the japa exodus should be a cause for worry according to some experts. To put it clearly, some of our brightest and talented minds are easily being snapped away by developed countries.

For instance, a country that struggles to pay doctors should be worried about the gloomy days ahead. According to the WHO, the accepted doctor to patient ratio is one doctor to 600 patients, but in Nigeria, it is one doctor to 4000–5000 patients. These numbers are scary and alarming. We have a dire situation in our hands if many of our doctors who enjoyed subsidised tuition fees keep leaving Naija because of the poor health system.

Recently on Twitter NG, it was alleged that many Banks are facing some challenges in their tech departments because developers, engineers and the likes are relocating abroad with their wealth of experience. The result of this might be poor internet banking transactions. Fintechs also are not spared, there is a continuous rise in resignations and filling the vacant positions with the right qualified candidates might be tiring, If you comb through other sectors of the economy, you’d notice that they are also facing similar issues.

Family and friends are also affected with the japa movement. Members of same family, friends or even lovers now live in different time zones and it might be difficult to communicate daily with them.

Personally, two close friends I have known and made memories with for over a decade left in 2022. A couple of acquaintances and even my trad and tshirt designers also left for the United Kingdom. If you take a roll call in your office, church, community or school of people who have japa, the list could be endless.

Although, some would argue that the increase in the numbers of Nigerians leaving for greener pastures infer that more forex will be sent back home in few months or years. The World Bank revealed that Diaspora remittances into Nigeria were estimated at $23.81bn in 2019. In its 2023–2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, disclosed that Diaspora remittances were $17.21bn in 2020 and $19.2bn in 2021.

Prior to 2020, Nigeria’s remittance inflows had only fallen below $20bn once, when it fell to $19.7bn in 2016.

What do you think?