This Yoruba slang which means to flee, or run has occupied the minds of Nigerian youths and becoming something to look out for, in the hopes of greener pastures in a more structured sphere. The Japa syndrome is a wave of emigration of the nation’s skilled and youthful demography which, sadly, can’t be halted. It is in our nature as humans to seek better living conditions when our current state poses a threat to our existence, it is the current trend of brain drain experienced in Nigeria.
The state in which we find ourselves in Nigeria as things seems to be getting worse, have made some of these young Nigerians to see more reasons to leave for better opportunities. Some factors are seen as being responsible for emigration of Nigerian youths to European countries. They include lack of opportunities, structural barriers, corruption, economic hardship, unemployment, insecurity, poor health sector and bad governance.
The worsening economy, high cost of living not measuring up with salaries, the depth of corruption, bad leadership, hike in price of basic amenities and commodities and lack of democratic system has made Nigeria not the best of place to be in the state of things. Nigeria is faced with mismanagement of the economy as a result of bad leadership, policies fail to tackle current challenges like the educational reforms, healthcare development, power supply epilepsy, drop in price of crude oil, insecurity, nepotism, marginalization, kidnapping and many others.
All these have caused the increasing exit of young Nigerians to other countries, especially students going to study abroad. Endless strikes by university academic and non-academic strikes have made schools to close for a relative long time. As a result of this, some well to do parents now seek foreign universities for their children and when leave Nigeria with the little hope of ever coming back to Nigeria after studies.
The young one whom we depend on for the growth of this nation are all leaving. Our best brains and energies are being drained. Our technology gurus, our medical scientists, our engineers, our academics, our economists etc are leaving to better countries. And many of them do not intend to return back to Nigeria soon. It is an economic misfortune that most of our highly skilled Nigerians trained abroad do not want to come home. The cost of training our children abroad now benefits the developed countries, as this an intangible subsidies on the country in question. In so doing, we are denied the contributions from these best brains for economic development.
What can be done to reduce this brain drain ravaging our country? Government can consider prioritizing funding for education by providing free education not just on the primary and secondary, also at the tertiary level. Government should provide quality healthcare services for citizens through required infrastructure and funding. This will reduce the increasing number of people seeking medical attention abroad. Security infrastructure, intelligence and proper training of security personnel to curb the insecurity in the nation. Adequate training to be provided for the youth on modern agriculture and technological farming. There should be an arrangement or policy in which farmlands can be made available to youths who are interested in farming. In other words, governments and community leaders should make farming attractive so that youths can take it up as a profession. This will help to discourage youth illegal migration and its attendant consequences and at the same time boost food production.
James Nwachuya #EMBA28
Elections, the #EMBA28 Way