Japa: Nigerians relocating overseas to take jobs they rejected at home – First Lady

• Says Nigerians with their educational background flee the nation in search of menial work, like cab driving, at the expense of the dependents they left behind at home

Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has said that Nigerians leave their country of origin for affluent nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada to take jobs they would not do back home.

She said this in an interview with Arise TV.

According to the First Lady, Nigerians with their educational background flee the nation in search of menial work, like cab driving, at the expense of the dependents they left behind at home.

Tinubu stressed the importance of Nigerians supporting each other and assisting those in need rather than spending extravagantly on leisure activities, adding that the government cannot solve all the problems.

A total of 3,679,496 people have departed Nigeria in the previous two years, according to the Migration Information Data Analysis System (MIDAS), with around 2,115,139 people leaving the nation in 2022 and 1,574,357 leaving between January and September 31, 2023.

The First Lady said: “Look at all those people saying they are going to Japa, they go there. What work are you going to do? You know, work that you refused to do at home where you have loved ones, you now end up to go and do there. With all their education, they’re driving cabs, but they won’t drive cabs here,” Sen Tinubu said.

“Nigerians, we can help each other [sic], the rate we are doing parties and all that, why can’t we use the money to help your neighbours, until we can really get on our feet? And those are the things we have to look at. It’s not that the government has to begin to give food to everybody, by asking…’

“You know I believe in social development and social investment for people who truly need it. And, in the Bible, we even talk about Jesus saying the poor you will always have in the land, and it’s for people whom God has blessed to help the poor.

“Now you don’t even know who the poor are. If they don’t ride a car, they will say they are poor. If you don’t have your own home, they will say they are poor.”