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The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
In 2022, David Owumi decided to make his first trip to Istanbul, Turkey from Nigeria. He had no form of cash on him except his ATM card. When he landed at the airport, he needed cash in order to pay for taxi to his hotel. But unfortunately, none of the ATMs seemed to work for him.
“I tried and tried, but all the ATMs were rejecting my card! I was stuck at the airport for quite a while because I also didn’t have any friends in Istanbul to pick me up. Eventually, an ATM did work for me, but that was after I was stuck for God knows how long. I ended up leaving the airport tired around midnight.” he reminisced.
For every 9-5 employee, a vacation sounds like the next best thing after sliced bread. However, it is easy to forget to make proper financial plans in the midst of all the excitement, and probably go broke or get stranded in the process.
In today’s episode of Abroad Life, David and Damiliel, seasoned travelers, have tips to save you from premium embarrassment to help navigate finances while vacationing in a foreign country.
“Before you depart, make sure to CHANGE CURRENCIES”
This is David’s first tip, due to his experience shared earlier. As a traveller, it is important to always try to hold in cash, the currency of the country you are going to before you leave.
“Try to make this include the expenses in your entire vacation budget if you can,” he advise.
“Make sure all your daily bills are sorted for the next month”
Damaliel advises that we should not only plan a budget for the trip but also try “to plan for the month ahead when you are back in Nigeria.”
According to him, “Saving in the current economy is quite hard, but it won’t be wise to blow your hard earned money on just the trip alone and come back home hungry. Make sure your daily bills at home are sorted out for at least the next month too.”
“Get your basic amenities sorted out before you leave”
“This includes hotel accommodation, commuting bills within the city, and feeding,” David suggests. He recommends that you try to book a hotel ahead of time that can serve both breakfast and dinner.
“It’s slightly more expensive, but it’s great to get a hotel like this in case you run out of cash, so at least you’ll not be hungry. Most hotels don’t offer lunch, but some do. If you see any like these, you should book those as well,” he says.
In terms of commuting bills, he also suggests that you search online for dedicated taxi companies that can take you around. “At least, even if you run out of money, you can still take yourself to landmarks in the city.”
“In your budget, always make sure to add money for miscellaneous expenses”
Damaliel advises that one should always budget enough money for emergencies or unforeseen circumstances. And this was out of personal experience.
He says, “Sometime around 2020 or 2021, I travelled to Dubai and contacted COVID. I needed an extra $700 for a new hotel. If not, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government would have isolated everyone for safety purposes.”
“Always do the math of prices in your head”
David believes that if you are going on vacation, you should try to gather prior knowledge of the conversion rate of the country and how much things cost in general. Especially if you don’t speak their official language or lingua franca.
“If you are travelling to France, for example, and you don’t know how to speak French, it is very easy for you to get swindled of your vacation money. There are conmen everywhere, as well as ‘brick and mortar’ businesses,’ he explains, emphasising that you shouldn’t find it easy to let go of money. “Always do the math of prices in your head.”
“Get travel insurance”
Travel insurance is an important money tip for David, especially if you are travelling to a “visa-free country.”
“For countries that do not require visas, it is highly important to sort out your travel insurance. This is like an official extra budget for you aside from the one you’re carrying in case you fall sick or run into any trouble,” he advises.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Today, we are doing things a little bit differently. Instead of discussing the Japa experience for Nigerians in other countries, we will touch more deeply on why some Nigerians moved back home from abroad and why anyone in the diaspora might consider returning to Nigeria.
Just think of it like the usual “Japa” move,
The inspiration for this article came from a viral tweet that one of my editors spotted and tagged me on.
A marriage therapist, Shamseddin Giwa, shared the story of his previous life abroad and how he and his wife could barely make a sustainable income. This forced the couple to return to Nigeria.
The relocation story you don’t get told.
This was us several years back as a young couple looking for better life abroad. The dream was good, the intentions were good and we had enough to start. We just didn’t have enough information of how challenging it would get.
Many Nigerians received the story with lots of scepticism and speculation that they left due to “illegal migration.” It was unbelievable for many people. How could anyone make such a decision with Nigeria’s economy crumbling day and night?
Interesting! The moral of this story is- do not engage in illegal relocation, and if you do, have 2-3 backup plans.
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well and carefully planned! I'm glad things are working well for you now!
On this table, amidst the ongoing debates on social media, illegal migration isn’t always the sole reason for anyone to return to their homeland, Nigeria. There are myriad reasons behind such decisions. To gain a better sense of this decision, six Nigerians who previously lived abroad but have now chosen to reside in Nigeria share their motivations for relocating.
“I had issues with European culture and racism”
Bayo*, an entrepreneur, didn’t experience the stress of European culture and racism while seeking a Master’s degree as a student in Italy. His once cordial relationship with white people changed after graduation due to his lifestyle upgrade through internships.
“After I started to make money from my internships and look nice, I started experiencing racism. My neighbours harassed me and, at one point, even involved the police in minor incidents. For the average Nigerian, every day as an immigrant is stressful,” he shares.
Bayo moved back to Nigeria in 2020, and he has never regretted his choice. He has made “five times the income” he made in Italy, has gained more job opportunities, and describes his lifestyle as “feeling like a king in my own country.”
“My mother’s ill health drove me back to Nigeria”
Even though Dele and Dante relocated to Nigeria from the UK in 2011 and 2018, respectively, they have one thing in common about their relocation stories—their mothers. Dante’s mom fell ill, and Dele’s mom passed on.
But the one difference they have, however, is their feelings about relocation. Dante, a software engineer, hates that he moved, while Dele, a business development expert, has never regretted it because he is doing “way better financially” than the friends he left behind.
“I would still have been in the UK if not for my mother’s health. Life there was cool, and there were no worries. I miss the job opportunities and friends I’ve left behind,” Dante shares.
Dele is also of the opinion that Japa is only for “economic survival” and that most Nigerians only travel to “gain exposure and enhance their skillset”, not to reside there permanently.
“I came back to Nigeria because of the conflict in Sudan”
In April 2023, John* was among the many Nigerian students in Sudan who had to be immediately evacuated due to the conflict in the nation’s capital, Khartoum, and the Darfur region.
But even though he is grateful for life, John hates that his education has come to an unprecedented halt since he arrived. “I’m doing nothing at home and haven’t finished my studies yet. And I’m currently finding it difficult to get admission as a transfer student,” he complains.
“My dreams of becoming a diplomat can be fulfilled here in Nigeria”
For many Nigerians, they see the Abroad Life as a means of fulfilling their dreams. But not for a recent graduate, Osione. Moving to Nigeria after living in the UK, Switzerland, and Australia is one step towards her long-term goal of becoming a UN Ambassador or diplomat.
She sees this move as important because of “the connection one needs to have with his or her home country” before becoming a diplomat.
Does she regret relocating? Not in any way. She is determined to stay.
According to Osione, “Nigeria can be a hard country to live in and find job opportunities in, but nothing will deter me from my long-term goal of an international diplomacy career. If I want to achieve this, I have to stay.”
“I left Ireland because of COVID”
Peter* was halfway through the final year of his undergraduate degree in Ireland when the pandemic struck. As a result, he had to leave Ireland in March 2020 and only go back to school a few months later to finish his degree.
After graduating in 2021, he never returned to Ireland, and he doesn’t see the need to.
“I didn’t plan to work or live there,” Peter shares. “I have more family in Nigeria, and I am more comfortable here with my enterprises and accounting career. In Nigeria, if you find the opportunity to be who you want, it’s not as difficult to live here, unlike living an immigrant life abroad.”
The ‘Japa’ season is upon us. Nigerians who intend to study abroad, especially in the UK, are getting their bags ready with lots of delight to relocate. In recent years, the UK has become popular as the preferred destination for higher education for many Nigerians and Africans.
If you’re getting ready to travel, then you definitely need to know what it takes to acquire a key document, the UK student visa. As you continue to read this article, you will learn about the following
Who can apply?
When can one apply?
What are the fees?
When can you arrive?
How long can you stay?
Who can apply?
Being an accepted student isn’t the only thing that matters. You must also:
Have enough money to support yourself and pay for your course – the amount will vary depending on your circumstances. You must have enough money to pay for your course for one academic year (up to nine months). You’ll also need to show you have enough money to support yourself—unless you’ve been in the UK with a valid visa for at least 12 months on the date of your application.
How much money you need depends on where you will be studying. You’ll need either:
£1,334 per month (for up to 9 months) for courses in London.
For courses outside London, £1,023 per month (for up to 9 months).
Have consent from your parents if you’re 16 or 17—you’ll need evidence of this when you apply
When can you apply?
This depends on whether you are living in or outside the UK. For Nigerians in the UK, the earliest application is 3 months before your course starts. It must also be applied for 28 days before your current visa expires. You’ll usually get a decision within 8 weeks.
For Nigerians outside the UK, you need to start your application process earlier, as you’d need 6 months. You’d also get a decision on your visa within 3 weeks.
What are the fees?
UK student visas cost £363 (N356,000) for students outside the UK and £490 (N480,000) for students who wish to extend their studies or switch to a student visa inside the UK.
There is also a healthcare surcharge, which you can find out more about here.
When can you arrive?
You can arrive a month before your course starts (if your course is longer than 6 months) or a week before (if your course is shorter than 6 months).
But no matter when your course starts, you MUST NOT travel to the UK before the start date given on the visa. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
How long can you stay?
A pertinent question for students who just finished their studies is, “How long can we stay here?”
Do not worry; you won’t be kicked out (or at least not right away). Everything depends on the length of your course and what studies you’ve already completed in the UK.
If you’re 18 or over and your course is at degree level, you can usually stay in the UK for up to 5 years. If it’s below degree level, you can usually stay in the UK for up to 2 years.If you want to stay longer than five years, read more about the requirements here.
How do you navigate life after graduate studies? How do you get jobs? These are questions that today’s feature on #AbroadLife answers with Grad School Buddy, a podcast and carefully curated digital companion that helps simplify the grad school application journey. She shared her migration journey into Washington, D.C., and her inspiration for the podcast with us.
How did you migrate to the United States?
While studying for my undergraduate degree in Economics back in Nigeria, I became very certain that I would study Development Economics. I believe that if the world is going to become a better place in the long run, we’ll definitely need to go through some policy changes. During my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), I was posted to a primary school. I did a project to help sponsor kids who were out of school in Nigeria. These experiences then motivated me to look for the best places in the world where I could learn more about policy change.
Initially, I wanted to go to school in the United Kingdom. However, my friend then suggested Washington, D.C. This was because D.C. is a policy-centric location where I could meet with other policymakers and interact with organisations to get these policies done. So it was a step-by-step process. I first understood the course I wanted to study, and second was the location—where would I be most suited to study the course? I chose D.C. because of the people [policymakers], the jobs, and the exposure.
What was the process like?
So I applied on my own for my visa, admission, and all that because I had others who had gone through the same process, and they didn’t use agents. I had to do a lot of research. I had to check out which school in DC I wanted to apply to and why. How were the professors? What kind of funding does the school have, and what sort of funding do they have too?
Once I figured these out, I had to look at their requirements. I had to take the TOEFL to fulfil the language requirement and the GRE exam for proficiency. There was an analytical piece of writing where I was asked a policy-related question, and then there was also a Statement of Purpose (SOP) where I had to write about my own motivations for applying to the school. I also had to get my undergraduate transcript from my university, and I got a half-merit scholarship. I applied in 2018 and started in the fall of 2019.
Sweet! How was grad school for you?
So the first semester of my first year in grad school was all about focus. I really wanted to know more about the educational system and how to navigate life in America in general before water go carry me go. But by my second semester, I noticed that many students around me were “badass” and could do the things I was doing better, with brilliant projects. I also saw that some students had started having jobs since my first semester. I asked them more about their jobs and the professors they were working with, especially on impact evaluation across the world.
With this, I was able to start working in my second year as a research assistant, and I continued working with them until I finished. I had surveys, large data sets, survey designs, etc., which helped me get great internship or job opportunities outside school. Working gave me both the skills and the money.
How did you then get a job after grad school?
A lot of students abroad have probably heard of the use of networking to find jobs. It could be annoying and may be a bit out of my comfort zone, but I realised that this was something that had to be done if I eventually wanted an international career for myself. I had to meet people that I never knew to have coffee with me or meet somewhere just to get myself acquainted with them and keep me top of mind.
My first job was with a professor who I had worked with on a short-term project. After school, she introduced me to the very first job I got, which was a six month project. While working there, I was already looking out for the next job. I knew that I didn’t want to ask her for another job yet again.
So I started networking like crazy before I ended the project. I had to check organisations I wanted to work with and people in the sector I wanted to work in, as well as look at their previous projects to see if I had any affinity with them. I then asked my friends if they had emails on some of the people I had researched and started cold mailing them and setting up meetings with them. After these meetings, I only followed up with people that I felt I could work with.
Through these people, I was able to get recommended jobs from them. There were periods of rejection and tears. However, I had friends in my corner who served as a great support system for encouragement. I eventually reached a point where I could turn down jobs because there were so many.
What was your inspiration for the Grad School Buddy podcast?
So firstly, the Grad School Buddy is a podcast and carefully curated digital companion that helps simplify the grad school journey in an unconventional way. It started as a podcast, but now we have a newsletter and social media pages where we share information. What led me to start was that when I was going to grad school, I had people around me that had been through this process, including my siblings and friends. There was specifically one of my male friends who knew that I was very big on development economics in terms of education and financial inclusion policies. He was the one who made me start thinking of grad school beyond just the degree. But also about the importance of life after grad school. I had never really thought about what life after grad school entailed until he spoke about it.
Basically, I had knowledge of these things, but it wasn’t until I moved abroad to Washington, DC, and started school that people started to ask me questions about life after grad school. Then I realised that this information wasn’t accessible to everyone else out there. That’s how I got started. I wanted the podcast to encompass graduates from every walk of life, both the ones that paid tuition through scholarships, family income, or what have you. I also wanted to highlight alternatives to going abroad for a Masters. These included an online Masters or even having their Masters’ degree in Nigeria, how to get great internship opportunities, and so much more. If someone is trying to navigate problems surrounding their Masters’ degree and stumbles upon the podcast or newsletter, I’d love for them to get their answers via the Grad School Buddy Platform.
Why did you record your very first episode?
I recorded my first episode from a sad place. I was broke, and I needed an outlet to let out my feelings and thoughts. Then, I was starting to understand the process behind the “rejection before acceptance” process of getting job opportunities. I wanted other people who were like me also to experience what it felt like. There were friends who had different circumstances with grad school, and I felt like my friends and everyone else needed to share our grad school limitations and also share their solutions as well.
What’s the structure of Grad School Buddy like?
So, I initially started by myself, but now I have 5 people on the team. We plan the whole season to decide on a theme, then break down the topics and decide on profiles that could fit into these topics. For guests, it’s either have people call us requesting a feature or we contact them. We then interview them, and it gets to post-production where we edit the audio, send it to the guests for feedback, and once it’s approved, we start adopting and publishing it for different media.
Aside from this, Grad School Buddy also aims to get people of different nationalities, sexualities, and experiences to come together and share their thoughts. I would always like people to listen to the podcast or read the newsletter and find an episode or two that is for them.
What are your challenges with the podcast?
So I won’t necessarily call it a challenge, but I have noticed that some admission officers or counsellors request a fee when I reach out to them, and I feel that kind of demand doesn’t always serve the greater good. That’s the “challenge” in quote. Besides, Grad School Buddy is privately funded, and it’s not like we have the cash to blow. There are also the usual production glitches that I believe everyone else experiences, but there are always alternative episodes that we can always post in place to stay afloat.
What is next with the Grad School Buddy?
We are looking to launch Season 3 in October or November. I also hope to allow the team to handle more processes of the podcast in the long term as well as bring in more diverse voices.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Today’s #AbroadLife feature is an assistant audit manager who works for one of the world’s top accounting firms in New Zealand. He tells us how he got an amazing job opportunity and had to leave Nigeria. He is experiencing cultural shock that has shaken his views and stance on what morality truly is.
What inspired you to move to New Zealand?
So I didn’t have to leave; it was more of a work opportunity I could harness. Despite the economic difficulties, life was already good in Nigeria, and I consider myself lucky. In Nigeria, I worked for one of the biggest accounting firms in the country as an auditor. In September 2022, I saw an offer for auditors being able to work for the same firm in another country’s branch. I had already worked for this firm in Nigeria for three and a half years, so I said, Why not?
Nice! What was the process like for you?
So my migration path is different from others. My company had already worked everything out for me concerning my visa and other documents. I gained a work visa that allowed me to work for at most three years, and then I could apply for permanent residency. I came to New Zealand in February 2023.
However, there are different pathways. There are master’s scholarships and auditors that have now been included in the express pathway to permanent residency. If you know anyone in the audit line that can prove that they’ve been working in the field for at least three years, then they can apply.
Awesome! What would you say were your first experiences in New Zealand?
Because of the job pathway I came in with, settling in wasn’t stressful. My company already had mobile relocation experts that helped me settle regarding accommodation and immigration documents. I’d say the people there are extremely friendly, and the population there is only 5.1 million people, which makes it very small. The food here isn’t really great. I ate something during my first week (I don’t know the name of the meal), and since then, I’ve decided to stick with African dishes.
I can also say that you tend to see some crazy people on the street…
Crazy, how?
Well, I’d say the rate of gays, lesbians, and other people in the queer community is very rampant, like they are so open with their sexuality out there. I guess it shocks me more because I am a Christian. Anything goes here. The amount of people that take drugs here is crazy too. You can’t walk 100 metres without seeing a smoker of weed or other substances here in New Zealand. It’s impossible. Maybe it’s a normal thing out there.
Wow, are there any advantages so far in staying in New Zealand?
They have a structured economy in that even though you have a blue or white-collar job; you can rest assured that you’ll have a good quality of living. You don’t have to do too much to get food to eat, provided you work hard. With my NZ$10, I can feed for two days, more than you can get here in Nigeria. Over here, they pay workers’ wages by the hour, so you can make so much depending on how many hours you work. The value of the New Zealand Dollar is much better than Nigeria. Commodities seem readily available. The people I interact with, too, are amazing, as they have so much exposure.
What are the disadvantages?
In terms of raising kids, you don’t have so much control. You could be jailed in minutes if you spank your kids or chastise them in the smallest way. The kids here also seem to talk to their parents and act wayward. There seems to be a lack of a moral compass in that sense.
I would say my bills, too, are kind of high, but only because of the location I’m in. You pay rent weekly in New Zealand and can get a place for as low as NZ$300, like N120-150k in Nigeria. That isn’t bad at all. To live in nicer apartments, you must start paying NZ$700, equivalent to N400k in Nigeria.
With these disadvantages, do you see yourself settling permanently in New Zealand?
Well, New Zealand is not a bad place. It’s a very good place to start, but I’m not sure I want to settle down permanently in the long term. Maybe Australia or Canada perhaps. New Zealand can be very boring at times, and they also love travelling. Whenever public holidays come, the city is deserted because everyone has travelled to their villages for the holidays. It’s a great place to be, but one needs to manage the environment.
In January, I packed two bags, hired a cab for ₦110k and moved to Cotonou with a friend. We’d had a couple of rough months and needed a break from Lagos. Lagos wasn’t a city interested in my needs. I needed electricity, it gave me an anorexic power grid. I asked for an apartment close to work, and I lost my rented apartment to new house owners. Lagos was like a lover who ghosted once you started to want things. I needed better. Enter Cotonou.
I would’ve gone anywhere – as long as I had electricity and the air was cleaner. But I chose Cotonou because it was four hours away by bus and I could finally use my dusty passport.
Cotonou offered me three things in the first week we moved: 24/7 electricity, a clean city, thanks to cleaners who wiped the city at 2 a.m., and an apartment by the beach for the same price you’d get a boxy mini flat in the heart of Lagos mainland.
At a party, weeks later, when I explained this to a new friend who asked why I was in her city, she contemplated my analysis for a few seconds, then said, “Nigerians used to come to Benin Republic for trade or school… now they just come.”
It was my turn to contemplate. She wasn’t wrong. Nigerians at Dantokpa market, the biggest market in West Africa, may have settled in Cotonou for trade, but I’d learnt about a growing community of Nigerians with mostly flexible jobs, who, like me, had just come. What were their reasons? How did they decide?
Jite, a friend of mine, is one of these Nigerians. She’d spent her 20s in Awka and Nnewi, and loved their “small-townness”. Cotonou reminded her of those places. Friendly, quiet, with a passion to do very little.
“That jet feeling you get in busy cities doesn’t exist. If you go buy something and they don’t have change, you better just stay and wait. If the woman selling fruits has three people buying something, she’d attend to each person one after the other, not at the same time. Everyone is fine with that.”
During a five-minute stroll the evening I arrived, she told me to tone down my “Lagosness”. We’d been tearing through the street as though we were being chased, and she’d realised she was starting to pant. We laughed about it.
In her late 30s, Jite’s priority was peace of mind. Since 2020, before the move to Cotonou, Jite had been considering moving out of Nigeria. She, however, knew she didn’t want to move to a “white people country”.
EndSARS, the protest against police brutality was the trigger. “Something broke in me,” she said. She’d been a managing editor at a publication in Lagos for three years, and she quit. Six months later, she was in Cotonou for a friend’s birthday party, where she fell in love with the city. When she did make the move, she settled in quickly.
Networks
To enjoy a city, you need to understand how it works, and Jite had lived in Cotonou long enough to build a network. She had a guy and hack for everything. A guy for changing money into her Mobile Money (MoMo) account, which she used for transactions in shops on the streets; she knew what fruit seller spoke Yoruba, the fastest way to get to Lagos and back, how much internet data would last the month (25k, 75gb unlimited, the data cap lasts two weeks at best).
In my first week, Jite pointed out places and people I should know to have a good time: Her group of friends with whom she met once a month and checked out new places with, KaleBasse for the sensual, soft, Kizomba classes (we never went), the restaurant by the beach with tasty Bissap and a grilled Barracuda that melted in your mouth. She reminded me not to dress like a hippie when we prepped for a night at the hotel rooftop where a Nigerian singer named Gracia hosted live sets. “If you are black, you need to look wealthy in certain places to avoid disrespect.”
Loneliness is a byproduct of relocation, and people find moving to new cities or countries difficult because of the distance it creates between loved ones. When I asked Jite how she stays connected to her friends and family in Lagos, she told me she saw them more now than when she was in Lagos.
Since Jite started as a comms manager in a hybrid company in February 2022, she has visited Lagos once a month; she only has to be at the office once a month, so she takes a boat ride from Porto-Novo to CMS. The trip is two and a half hours. On these trips, she visits her mum and friends.
On our first night at the hotel rooftop, Jite introduced me to Ade, and the first thing I noted was that he spoke French to the waiter when he ordered a Mojito. For a second, I wondered if I could trust Cotonou bartenders with a glass of Moji baby, but I gestured for a Beninoise instead. As we drank and listened to Gracia belt Adele songs, he told me he’d lived in Cotonou for three years and knows the best spots. I’d meet Ade at various times in the following weeks. Twice at Jite’s for an evening of enjoying her meals and once at Erevan, the biggest supermarket in Cotonou. On one of those meets, we planned to visit one of his favourite spots: La Pirogue.
27-year-old Ade didn’t find settling into a new place with no friends as simple as Jite. Born in Shomolu to a strict dad who didn’t allow him to spend the night at anyone’s house – friend or family — he was shocked by his decision to move to a new city. He’d visited Cotonou for a short trip, a four-day work retreat in September 2021, and on his first night, he fell for the city.
“The time was 11 p.m. and everywhere was alive. I got to learn about the culture. For example, how it’s completely normal to have kids before getting married.”
Ade wasn’t averse to big decisions. He dropped out of the University of Ilorin in 2016 because he hated his course, taught himself to create websites with a friend’s laptop, and started an unsuccessful coaching business. Moving to Cotonou would be the fourth biggest decision in his life.
When I asked why he came, his reason was that he felt alive in Cotonou.
“I remember the moment I decided to move. I returned for another work retreat in December and found myself extending my trip. It was supposed to be for a weekend, but I stayed for two weeks. One night at a Sodabi joint, I immediately texted my mum, ‘I’m moving here.’ She freaked out. Had I considered the language, people, all the barriers? I hadn’t, but I didn’t tell her this. In fact, I had just paid rent for my apartment in Lagos.”
Where to live in Cotonou was easy to figure out. His boss ran their office in his home, and there was space for Ade. But the next three months tested him.
Building new communities
The idea of moving to a new city comes with the daydream of choices unaffected by previous folly. Everything is fresh, exes are not one Friday night-out away from tearing open new wounds and the prospect of getting to know yourself some more is electrifying.
You meet new people, find new spots. There are decisions to be made about everything from your hair salon down to your biscuits.
In reality, all of this was work, hard mental work that Ade, who hadn’t stayed longer than two weeks in a different country, was unprepared for.
“My first week was great. I was excited, checking out everywhere, taking pictures of everything. Second week was also great. I was working with my colleagues face-to-face as opposed to using virtual conferencing tools. From the third week, I started struggling.
“I realised I had to make new habits. If I felt low or had to talk, who would I go to? Living at work also didn’t help me. Even when I was done with work, it felt like I was still at work — the office was four doors away from mine.”
The skill that proved most useful to Ade was his ability to just get into things. Just like he decided to move after a shot of hard liquor, once he knew he had to learn French, he spent time outside till it made sense; he wanted to try new food, so he did.
“I’d jump on a bike and tell him to move. He’d be like, “Quel quartier?” I’d say just go. If I saw a place with a lot of light, I stopped.
“Paying attention to how places made me feel also helped. I found Luxury Lounge, the beach restaurant that helps me when I’m feeling overwhelmed. I also made friends to help me with my struggles here. They have context about how the people here are like and can give me contextual advice when I need help.”
In three years, Ade now had a network of Nigerian friends he met at places like Jite’s rooftop, friends from work and an aunt he found had also moved to Cotonou. These people, finding new places to visit and work keep him grounded. It took Ade about a year to settle fully into Cotonou.
When Life Gives You A Beninoise Passport
27-year-old Eli was born in Cotonou and moved to Nigeria when his dad’s trading business started to fail. We were eating bowls of ice cream from Ci Gusta, the best ice cream spot in Cotonou when he told me about his parents, a dad who moved to Cotonou in the mid-80s to expand his business and a mum who moved with his dad to build a family. Eli’s voice was soft and measured, unlike mine which was loud, competing with the music playing above us.
Eli’s dad left his import-export business in Abia, a state in South Eastern Nigeria when the Benin Republic opened its ports in the mid-80s. This is the story Eli was told to explain his Beninoise passport. His dad imported fabric from Gabon to Benin Republic, then exported them from Benin to the Netherlands. His business grew, and he built a house. He switched to importing clothes, towels, and fabric from Europe and selling them in Benin. When Eli was two, they moved to Lagos, and a year later, his dad was back in Abia State to continue his business.
“It was too late to be ‘Nigerian’. I was already in love with Cotonou,” Eli told me. He was back at the Cotonou house every school break, and once done with secondary school, he decided it was time to return. Eli had a plan.
“I told my mum we should come back, and she agreed. She also missed the calmness of Benin, and we still had a house. She moved back with me.”
Eli loved the city and the opportunities his passport affords him. “It’s very easy to get admission into universities here. Once you have 5 C’s in your O’Levels, you pay for a form, fill it, and you’re in. The quality of education is good, but the discipline is poor. No one will tell you to attend classes or punish you for not attending. So the bright students are very bright and the dull students are very dull. It’s entirely up to the students to succeed.
“I was a serious student. I studied Economics, and now I want to do a Masters in Social Work. I’m trying to transition because I want to travel. I’d like to do social work in a clinical setting, vulnerable people – giving care to people who need it. I’m working in a clinic now so I can do that.”
Johnny Just Come
Most Nigerians I met in Cotonou are fond of Jite, and that’s because she’d either convinced them to move down or they tasted her cooking. Jite hosts a once-in-a-while hang-out on the rooftop of her house. I’m eating yam and palm oil sauce on this rooftop when I meet Runor, who’d been in Cotonou for three months and was house hunting. He told me he came for the quiet.
Runor preferred not to think about Lagos, where he ran his generator daily because his apartment belonged to the section of his estate with low current electricity, and he had to pump the entire compound’s water daily because no one else would do it.
From him, I found out how much it cost to get a place. “The way these people build their houses can be very funny.” We watched a video of an apartment where the restrooms are outside and there’s no roof from the living room’s door to it. “What if it rains?” He bends his mouth in disapproval, but his forehead isn’t creased. It’s almost like he’s been enjoying the hunt. Runor knew he was very picky, and also knew that was a privilege he could only have in this city.
“I found a 2-bed with a small bathroom for CFA 85k. I found a two-bedroom place with a balcony. It costs CFA 20k per month. CFA 1.4m a year. One agent sent me a 3-bedroom flat for the same ₦120k. They showed me a one-bedroom with the toilet and kitchen in the same space, so I don’t ask for a one-bedroom again.”
At the time, CFA 1k was changing for ₦850 at Ajali, Dantokpa market area.
Runor was waiting to settle down to really experience the city, and with the options he found weekly, he’d be ready soon.
There are many reasons to enjoy Cotonou during a two-day work retreat, a month or three years. Everywhere is 20 minutes away, there’s 24-hour electricity, and close to the airport is an Amazonian statue I never visit because what if it falls on me?
For me, it’s my apartment.
My apartment is a two-storey white building which houses tenants I don’t hear or see. Security is a man in his late forties with whom I practise my bonjour, bonsoir, a demain. Francis is also the cleaner, gardener, and upholsterer of things.
He tries to teach me basic French, and I fail most times.
“Bonsoir madame, ça va?” “Bonsoir…” “No no. You say “ça va bien, merci. Et tu?”
I repeat, and I’m rewarded with a smile, then disinterest. I cannot bear to fail him.
Two months of this, and I still stutter between je vais bien and ça va bien, et tu and et toi. I’ve been religious with Duolingo, but tongue-tied in actual conversation. I know what it means to be happy — contente — but have no idea what conversation would lead to me saying I was happy, and if anyone would be kind enough to place one word after the other so I could follow. Very unlike the Duolingo owl, I chicken out.
In the middle of March, a week after Nigeria’s gubernatorial elections, we have a soiree on Sunday evening. There’s poetry, clinking glasses filled with zobo wine, a charcuterie board by Lara, my landlady; and art installations to mull over. Runor tells me he’s found a place. My struggles feel a globe away, even though I could get to them in four hours by road and two and half by boat.
I contemplate the people in the room, some here to fill or assuage something, each looking for a sense of balance or just a space to dream — a space that fosters dreams. I wonder how long it’d last, how long just until the stain of being Nigerian became a difficulty they had to contend with even here. We focus on the lull of the beach, Dwin the Stoic’s “God Knows Where”. Now is not the time for wondering; it’s for being contente.
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The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
The subject of today’s Abroad Life is Rukayat, a senior financial analyst in the UK whose side hustle is to connect foreign immigrants with job opportunitiesthrough RKY Careers. She spills the tea on her journey into resigning from a senior position at a legacy bank to relocate to the UK for her Master’s Degree and eventually starting her employment franchise.
What inspired you to move to the UK?
Oh, I moved to the UK to be with my fiancé (now husband) in 2019. As I started early, I was then at a senior level at Guaranty Trust Bank (not an executive). But I also wanted to further my education and get a Master’s degree.
What was the process like?
Well, I first have to start with the anxiety. I had to work through the fact that I was leaving my senior role at the bank to start a new life in the UK. I first tried to come in as a tourist to test the waters, as I didn’t have as much information on the process then as I do now.
However, I was later denied for reasons I’m not aware of. At the time, there wasn’t a specified student visa that could enable me to stay in the UK after my studies, so the “student visa” I got only allowed me access to the UK, which expired immediately after graduation. It was in 2021 that it became effective. I got admission to study Financial Technology at the University of Stirling, shortly after the COVVID in 2020
That’s wonderful! What was your Masters’ experience like?
I had the experience of taking physical classes for six months or four months after the peak of the COVID period. The percentage of Nigerians or even other Africans among the whites was very low.
In fact, I and one other Nigerian were the only two self-paid students in my class. The remaining two Nigerian students were on a Chevening scholarship. I also had the opportunity to pay my school fees in installments for twelve months. I was able to pay through savings from my salary at the bank, plus I had the support of my husband.
At that period, I had to live in Stirling, Scotland. Stirling was what I needed at the time because it was a very quiet and humble place. However, I didn’t live with my husband in England, so I still had to pay 350 pounds for my accommodation.
I got married a few months after I came in, was pregnant throughout the time of my studies, and gave birth at the time of my dissertation, so I needed a calm environment. It was also a struggle getting part-time jobs in the beginning (from September to December) because of the influx of international students rushing into the country. However, I could live with my husband’s support, and I finally got a part-time job in January.
Fantastic! How did you then come about creating RKY careers?
Getting my first job after school in the UK also birthed RKY careers in 2022. Going into the job market at first was scary because of the issue of not accepting Blacks lower rate than other races. However, this wasn’t the case. God favoured me with job offers, and I got various calls on salary expectations. At some interviews, I got rejected. At times, this happened in my final stage.
I was applying for jobs based on my research and had no guidance. I eventually got a job as a Senior Finance Analyst. After a couple of months, I then started to help Nigerians, from close friends and family to people in my current work who also had struggles getting a job in the UK for the first time. I first named the page “Live Careers in the UK” as a career consultation and advisory page, where I could dish out advice for first-time immigrants on careers in the country.
In the process, I also started helping people create CVs as well as LinkedIn optimisation. Last year, we also started to work on training for career professionals who wish to transition.
How did you register?
I first went to the Companies’ House where I paid a bill of 13 pounds. You can register as a limited liability company or a sole entity, but mine was a sole entity. You must also be eligible for it, as not everyone’s visa allows them to own companies in the UK.
What have been the achievements and setbacks so far?
So I’d say our team has done a good job so far regarding achievements. We had over 150 success stories of people who got jobs in the UK and even Nigeria and were called for speaking events, and they are generally doing very well. We have also empowered people to live their dreams in whichever career opportunity they choose.
The challenge, I’d say, is dealing with people, as you cannot satisfy everyone with a peculiar style. You have to offer bespoke services. It is also uncommon for Africans to patronise their own people, and even if they do, they make so many demands. I think we need to do better to respect black owned companies.
Where do you see RKY careers in the next 5 years?
We intend to make more impact and help more people be an inspiration to many others. We also need to increase inclusion and diversity in the workplace, not just for Nigerians but for all Africans.
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The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Today’s #AbroadLife features a Nigerian software engineer working with Volvo in Sweden. During a vacation in Poland, he experienced harassment and was unceremoniously ejected from his hotel for simply asking for basic services. He shares his story with us and discusses why he may never return to Poland again.
What were your motivations for “Japa-ing” in the first place?
I was not necessarily looking at moving abroad at the beginning. I had a good-paying, remote job working from Nigeria. However, I experienced limitations and frustrations that made me consider the Japa route. Money in your pocket can be very annoying when you cannot get basic things at affordable rates, like electricity, internet and safety, to say the least. I also had this situation where the police extorted me. I consider that one of my last straws.
WOW! What happened?
So here’s the thing. In 2021, I had just moved to Lagos and stayed with a friend until I could find a place for myself in 2022. I wasn’t particular about the distance from town, as I only needed a quiet, big area. I finally got a place like that around Kola, at Alimosho.
When setting up the place, I called on the services of a carpenter to do wardrobes for me. I paid him 60-70% of the total bill in advance for the work he was to do, and he disappeared for two months. When I finally contacted him, he gave me stories. This was for something he was supposed to deliver in three weeks. I gave him another month, but he still didn’t show. After weeks of pushing and shoving, he gave me wardrobes that were not satisfactory, and I then asked for a refund.
Can you imagine that this man reported me to the police and told them many lies about me? The police then came to my place and told me that the District Police Officer wanted to see me for what had been filed as a “civil disagreement”.
When I got to the police station, I was approached multiple times by policemen speaking Yoruba, and each time I mentioned that I didn’t speak or understand Yoruba, they left me. I waited from morning until 10 p.m. when some of the police officers drove me away to a different area that I knew nothing about. They then forced me at gunpoint to transfer money to them. I managed to do it, but getting over what happened took me a while.
Luckily, a new job offer came (which is the job I have with Volvo now). They arranged my visa and all the other details. The only thing I did was do data “capturing” at the Swedish embassy.
Why did you choose Poland for your vacation?
I went there because I have people there. I have a friend doing a Master’s degree and a friend based in Poland with his wife and kids. So my rationale was, “Since you have people there, why don’t you make this the first out-of-country visit?” I mean, I could have gone to Stockholm or anywhere in Sweden. But I needed the out-of-country experience and to see my long-time friends.
Nice! How did the vacation go?
My friend in Poland told me that if I pay the hotel bills physically, it’s usually cheaper than paying online. So, on a Saturday, I sent the money to her, and she helped me book a hotel in Gdynia. I then booked my round trip and went to the airport, but my flight was delayed for an hour. We then landed at around 12:15 a.m. or thereabouts on Sunday morning. I took a Bolt cab to the hotel. I met my friend, who showed me my room and key (no one was at the reception desk), and she later left with the Bolt driver since her place was quite a distance from the hotel.
Later that morning, I got my friend to call a taxi to church (since I didn’t speak Polish). I met more faces at the church, including my nursery school classmate, whom I hadn’t met for several years. I then returned to the hotel and took a walk in the evening.
I’d say everything remained calm until Tuesday morning. Being someone strict on hygiene, I couldn’t use the two towels that hadn’t been changed since my arrival. I also wondered why no cleaner had been in my room since my arrival. And most importantly, I now needed hot water. I couldn’t do without it.
With these questions in mind, I went downstairs to look for someone, and lo and behold, there was a man at the reception desk this time. Using Google Translate (as I couldn’t understand Polish), I politely asked for hot water, which they said would be ready in ten minutes. I also asked for the towels to be changed and cleaned, and the man scoffed at me. He said that I shouldn’t expect much, as the hotel wasn’t “5-star”, which was absurd to me…
Wait what?
Yes o. I would need to pay extra for those basic services to be rendered.
I was appalled, but even then, I returned to my room and told my friend, who had booked it for me, what had happened.
Not long after, two ladies flung the door of my room open and started to push me back towards the reception. Through Google Translate, I realised they thought the room I had paid for was for two people instead of one.
I tried to explain that she was only my friend who helped me book, but all to no avail. They thought I was lying. It even reached the point where I dared them to look through CCTV footage to show that I was the only person and call the police, but they weren’t convinced. I should also say that while looking at the CCTV footage, I peeked at the register, and I also happened to be the only black man in the hotel, or at least in that wing anyway. They “helped me” pack my luggage and bring it downstairs, insulting me and calling me words like “cheating black nigger”. I had to look then for another hotel in another town in Poland to spend the rest of my visit.
Only after I could settle in did I realise that my watch and some money were missing, and these items were in my box before the incident.
So sorry about this. I hope this didn’t ruin your entire stay.
No, it didn’t. I still visited some landmarks in Poland but didn’t stay long after that. I left a day after the incident.
Would you ever go back to Poland?
No, and I’ll never ask someone to book a hotel for me. Not because I don’t want them to, but because I don’t want them in the crossfire when I take legal action. The people of Poland need to fix up one thing—their hospitality.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
What does it mean to get a CGPA of 7.0 in your undergraduate degree in Nigeria only to struggle academically at one of the world’s top universities in post-grad? With two weeks to graduation, this week’s #AbroadLife subject, narrates how she eventually attained a “perfect” CGPA studying for her master’s in Computer Science at Stanford University, California, USA.
Disclaimer: This interview is being published based on anonymity (without name) to protect the confidentiality and privacy of the interviewee.
How and where did you get a 7.0?
So I schooled at the University of Ibadan (UI), and from the beginning until 2017, they’ve been using a 7.0-grade point average (GPA). They only changed it to 5.0 recently to meet up with international standards.
As to the “how”, my goal when I entered university was to get a first-class degree; I wasn’t targeting a 7.0 in the first place. In the first semester of the 100 level, I was so scared of falling behind that I was always eager to study. After the first semester, I finished with a 7.0. I was so excited, but it wasn’t groundbreaking for freshers to finish with a perfect GPA in the first semester. It was quite common. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it was attainable.
At the end of my first year, my CGPA was still 7.0, and I began considering the possibility of maintaining that grade to the very end. I wasn’t too optimistic because I knew the courses would get harder as I advanced, but it motivated me to do my best. In my class, two other people also had the same GPA as me, which made me subconsciously accountable to someone.
My parents were people who could provide what I needed, and I didn’t have to find money to care for my siblings or parents. I was just a regular college student. I wasn’t a social butterfly.
Interesting. What was your inspiration for travelling abroad?
I wouldn’t say that I was always dreaming of going to Stanford. Once I graduated from UI in 2019, my major goal was to make enough money. I wanted to make money so bad.
After making a 7.0 CGPA, news about my achievement quickly travelled. Someone contacted me from Canada and persuaded me to apply for graduate school or a doctorate. But I wasn’t feeling it. I wanted to work, and I wanted to make money.
If not for my Aunty, who made a compelling case on how my skills wouldn’t be fully appreciated without passing through graduate school, I may have never made a move.
By then, I had already had a full-time job in Nigeria as a product manager in a tech firm immediately after school. I started to research what it takes to get admitted.
Tell us more about the process.
I then discovered that I needed to write the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), reach out to professors, get recommendation letters etc.
The process seemed quite challenging at first, but I found people who were also on the same journey as me, and we just motivated each other by solving past questions etc. Sometimes I returned from work late at night and started studying. I was targeting 320 as my GRE score, as it would ensure my entry into an Ivy League school.
Sometime in October 2019, I got 318 as my GRE score, two marks shy of my original target, which wasn’t bad for me. I then got my letters of recommendation from my professors at school, wrote my statement of purpose, and submitted most of my applications by December 15.
I got admission and full funding at Stanford University by April 15, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, but I couldn’t resume school until the US Embassy reopened for my interview in November 2020. The choice of attending courses virtually wasn’t there because I got admission as a graduate teaching assistant. This required me to be physically present in the U.S. Hence the long wait.
Wow, sorry about that. How did the interview go?
Thank you, and it went well. That interview was seamless. I know how often people get rejected trying to get US visas, but thankfully that wasn’t the case for me. The interviewer didn’t stress me out at all. I just gave him my I-20 (a document you receive as proof of admission).
When he saw that I was going to Stanford, he just returned my documents and told me to go, that the F-1 visa (student visa) would be ready in about two weeks. The visa also had a two-year validity clause.
Why do you think the process was so easy?
I think it’s because I was going to an Ivy League school, and it was even Computer Science I studied and the full funding I received. I was shocked and happy because I had prepared so hard, and they never asked the questions I had prepared for. By December 2020, I travelled to the US.
What were your first experiences in America like?
As mentioned, I left Nigeria for California in December because I was so excited to leave and wanted to have at least 3 weeks to settle and prepare for school. I travelled with a friend because we would attend the same school and be placed in the same apartment.
The first thing that shocked me was the seriousness of foreigners regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. By June 2020, Nigerians were beginning to get much more lenient with precautionary measures such as face masks, and I began to get used to pulling down my face mask a lot.
However, on my Turkish Airline flight, I needed something from my friend, who was some seats away from me. I decided to stand up and walk towards him without my face mask. Suddenly, one of the passengers shouted at me to return to my seat because I was not wearing a face mask. It was so embarrassing, and I did not get the item from my friend again. I felt like a “bush” or uneducated girl. It then dawned on me that the pandemic was real here, and this wasn’t Nigeria, where precautionary measures weren’t taken seriously.
Also, people tended to cross to the other side of the road whenever I walked by, and I didn’t understand why. I wasn’t a monster, was I? I believed (and still believe) that I was a petite and pretty lady. Someone then explained that they were either trying not to contact the virus or get too close to people because of the COVID season. It was only then that I understood their actions.
Another thing that happened in my first week was falling sick –
Wow, how did this happen?
I didn’t like the vegan meal given on the plane, and even at the stop in Istanbul, I didn’t like much of the $15 pasta I bought because it was so bland. Coupled with the fact that it was a 14-hour flight, I got ill from the stress of travelling.
Some Nigerians had to take me to the hospital. I asked the nurse for water in the emergency room, and she didn’t understand. Only when I rolled the “t” in “water” did she finally understand what I requested and give me water. The doctor later discovered that I had malaria, but since it’s not a prevalent disease in the US, they didn’t have the test kits and equipment to treat me. They also had to take my blood sample from California to Atlanta before they could figure out if it was malaria.
I was also in the hospital for three days; it was the best time ever. I ate free food, received free Wi-Fi, paid my bills with insurance, and spent my days watching Bridgerton. It was an interesting time. The weather was cold but not too cold, which is one of the advantages of residing in California.
Nice! Could you please describe your experience as a master/teaching assistant?
Everything was virtual at first because of the pandemic. I did have to teach courses as a teaching assistant and then get paid a stipend. I remember the first class I taught on web application development.
There was an idea of the course but didn’t know what to expect because I had never taken the class before. I remember introducing myself and telling them to ask me questions, but after the class, I thought, “How can I tell them to ask me questions when I just started this?”
My teaching assistant experience started with me just “winging it,” more like a “fake it till you make it” sort of thing. I remember taking three artificial intelligence (AI) classes during my first office hours. After seeing these classes’ syllabi and weekly assignments and discussing them with a friend, he advised me to drop one class. As a graduate teaching assistant, you don’t just teach; you also have to attend the classes and do the assignment before handing it out to the students so that you can help them with whatever problems they encounter.
The magnitude of the content for my first class was enormous. I can remember us covering in two hours almost half of the entire semester syllabus of that same course in Nigeria.
Wow, how did you manage to juggle all those classes with your coursework?
At the end of the day, I dropped all those 3 big AI classes because I really couldn’t do them. I then stuck with the web application development class because I felt it would be a good refresher, and then I picked a lighter class regarding the coursework. This was so that I could cope with my coursework. Three of my new friends knew the courses, so I could rely on them for help and guidance. Not knowing these courses, I couldn’t afford to do office hours as a teaching assistant. It took more than 20 hours daily to focus and grade papers as a teaching assistant, talking less about being a master’s student.
Part of what helped me was belonging to a community of students to rely on if I needed any help with my own courses. My school also offers a quarterly or 10-week system to do assessments, teach, and wrap up with exams. This made the pace of work fast. You could always expect the course assignments to take 10-20 hours alone. Coupled with my workload as a teaching assistant, I was always stressed and tired, and I had nightmares in my first quarter.
I could wake up as early as 3 a.m. because I’d remember I had something to do that wasn’t even close to completion. I was sleeping for only 3-4 hours daily. My teaching was non-negotiable, and I couldn’t look like a fool. I was also to be reviewed at the end of the quarter, with students rating me, and I didn’t want a bad review because it could attract penalties.
Wow, THAT hard?
Yes. People say that if you survive in a Nigerian university, you will thrive in foreign universities. This is a lie because it is harder because of the weekly assignments; you’re either teaching or doing research, unlike in Nigeria, where you just need to show up.
I can remember a social computing assessment that I took for my coursework. I didn’t finish because I was a slow typist and wasn’t a fast thinker, and it was the same in many of my courses. Along the way, I asked for accommodation, which helped me gain three extra days for submitting assignments and 1.5x the time for assessments. If the standard time for an assessment was 3 hours, they could give 4 hours and 30 minutes due to the accommodation or special consideration I signed up for. I always felt below average regarding my set because this experience differed from the Nigerian educational experience.
I also learned to ask questions, but I noticed that they never gave straightforward answers. They gave hints and pointers, but never the answers. There was a lot of mental shift and tons of academic realisations in a year and a half. But I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything.
What was your social life like at Stanford?
So I had my course for two years. The first part of the year was still about the COVID scare, and no one had much social interaction. The campus was quiet, and there wasn’t much activity. People still met in groups, but they wore face masks. Every Nigerian I met seemed willing to accommodate a new Nigerian, so that was chill.
It was a bit tricky mingling with other nationalities, but one way I did this was through assignments. I was the only African in my cohort, with the rest being African-American, Asian, or Indian. Only in September 2021 did things start to open up with physical classes. My attempts at socialisation came in the 2nd quarter because I knew the coursework now and how to go around things. I was also able to take harder courses.
We had departmental hangouts from time to time, and it was always just a bowl of food on a table (usually pizza), with people talking about research and no music. It was always boring, but at the same time, I could appreciate Americans and their zeal for research and hard work. They are so passionate about what they do and very cooperative.
There’s a memory that stands out for me. It was this Black, African-American event, and there was no music, which was very weird. Then, whenever I introduced myself, they’d almost always ask, “Where are you from?”
I wondered if my Nigerian accent was so obvious and if it was that easy to spot that I wasn’t part of them. Because of this, I felt more at ease being at a departmental event than one organised by black students. The cultural difference creates subtle tension, making you feel out of place.
What were the costs and quality of living like at Stanford?
Firstly, I’d say that healthcare is very expensive. Paying your bills would be extremely difficult if you didn’t have medical insurance.
I can remember a time when I attempted to do long-distance running and had tummy aches. My roommate felt I was in bad shape and called 911 (the emergency hotline). The roommate also confirmed that I wouldn’t pay out of pocket before I went to the hospital. The ambulance that the insurance company paid for amounted to $1,200 (N553,500), and the medical bill was $2,000 (N922,500), making a total of $3,200 (N1,476,000) for an ailment that I knew wasn’t serious and would have gone away in a couple of hours. If you don’t have medical insurance here, you can go bankrupt. Thankfully, I only fell ill once.
The cost of living in California is extremely expensive. Therefore, the average salary of a worker here is much higher than in the rest of the country. This also affected my stipend, and I receive $1800 as disposable income (after taxes and other charges have been deducted). This helps me pay rent on my housing, which costs $1,000 monthly, the cheapest I could find. What I have as a balance is usually enough for me. I can afford to send money home to my parents or upgrade my iPhone. You’re not rich, but you’re not broke, either.
What are the best parts and challenges of living at Stanford?
The best part was being part of an environment that motivates you to do great work. If you enter the campus, you’d feel like its heaven, with the infrastructure, alumni network, state-of-the-art equipment, etc. They’re also some of the world’s brightest people from all over the world, which makes learning so diverse. I also like that I can support my family without being affected negatively. $100 is like N73k here, and it won’t shake me here. However, it’s a significant amount to the average family or person in Nigeria. Every family should have one person abroad.
As to the challenges, adapting to a new environment with no family and friends can get lonely. There is also the pressure of moving to a new environment and being burdened with the expectation of succeeding immediately.
People here also tend not to be hospitable and mind their business too much, unlike in Nigeria. Unlike Nigeria, where I can randomly call a friend and visit that day, you always have to schedule visits here. You also have to be very intentional about cultivating friendships here, unlike in Nigeria, where you don’t have to stress how to make friends.
How are your grades now that you’re graduating?
Well, it’s not a 4.0, lol, but at least it’s definitely above the 3-point mark. I wasn’t crazy about getting the perfect grade, but I needed a good enough grade to maintain my teacher assistantship. Also, no one cares about CGPA here. Your skills and your GitHub account are what matter. And schooling at an Ivy League college already shows that you are smart, and that’s an endorsement of you.
What’s your next plan after graduation?
I plan to start working right away. I have a job waiting for me in a few months, but until then, I’d like to gain some extra cash with part-time tech gigs. I’m not looking forward to getting a PhD, though. This master’s degree is enough.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Nigeria’s economy may be hard, but you don’t need to abandon your travel dreams. In this week’s Abroad Life, we gave you the cheat code for five cheap countries you can visit on a budget.
The life of a Nigerian ‘9-5er’ is not an easy one. From hustling in traffic to meeting up with crazy deliverables and KPIs, it could be a stressful life.
Hence the need to sometimes spoil yourself with some elements of a “soft life”. And how else can you do that but by travelling?
For today’s Abroad Life, we have curated a list of affordable countries to consider for vacations, so you don’t have to.
But first, you need to know the following:
Factors Considered in Choosing Travel Destinations
When analysing the cheapest countries to travel to from Nigeria, many analogies must be considered.
1. The country concerned’s standard of living.
2. Ease of transportation to and within the country.
3. Possibility or opportunity to get a job
4. Ease of setting up a business as a startup.
5. Easiest way of getting a visa to the country, better still, if it is a visa-free country
Now, let’s dive into the list:
Benin Republic
Grand Mosquee de Porto Novo, Benin Republic [Guardian Newspapers]
A cheat code to getting cheap travel destinations is to look out for any of Nigeria’s neighbours, especially the Benin Republic. If you use Lagos as your taking-off point, getting to most of the Benin Republic’s towns is easy and cheap. It has some downsides, however, and you can learn more about this through the lens of this Nigerian living in Benin here.
Because you’re living in an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member country, you can enter and stay for 90 days visa-free. Afterwards, you can apply for a residence permit if you continue your stay. However, if you’re smart enough, just move across the border and get an entry stamp, and you will have another 90 days visa-free.
Morocco
The Le Jardin Secret, a botanical garden in Marrakech, Morocco
By African standards, Morocco is not a poor country, and it’s on record that it enjoys a stable economy and government. Morocco is one of the few northern African countries you can travel to by road from Nigeria with little-known fears.
The beautiful aspect of travelling to Morocco is that getting an entry visa as a Nigerian is not difficult. When you enter and intend to stay, you have the freedom to extend your stay by applying for a residence permit.
Rwanda
King’s Palace Museum, Rwanda
If you love wildlife, you’d love Rwanda. It is popular for its volcanoes, waterfalls, and rainforests, home to wildlife animals such as mountain gorillas and hippos.
An all-expense paid trip from Nigeria to Rwanda costs nothing less than N600k online.
Turkey
Mount Nemrut, Turkeyo
Turkey is gradually becoming a preferred destination for many Nigerians, and if you’re looking for the cheapest country to travel from Nigeria, Turkey, a gateway country to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, is a place to go.
The country is immigration friendly, with many budget flight providers you can approach to do it for you, depending on your needs.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
The subject of today’s Abroad Life spent five years working at Microsoft as a software engineer before leaving for Texas in America. He tells us his motivations for leaving the country, his experiences, and how he built Vesti, a financial service app that has helped more than 120,000 immigrants.
What motivated you to move to the United States?
I considered moving to the US in 2016 but finally moved in 2019. This was because of my previous exposure at Microsoft, where I worked for about five years in Nigeria. This gave me an idea of what the American economy looked like and the kind of value that I could provide. And for me, it was a relatively easy decision because there were things I wanted to achieve.
Nigeria was making my opportunities limited. My earning potential was lower than I wanted it to be. I was working in an advisory role where my colleagues in the US were getting paid like 20 times more.
I also wanted to give my kids a head start by giving them passports to a country like America where they can get the best education and a bright future.
Overall, I wanted to multiply my earning power and achieve what I wanted globally, and America was the best place to do it.
Nice! But why did it take four years before you made the move?
This was because I was unaware as of 2016 that I was qualified for the work permit, which is part of why I do what I do today. I had been qualified for the permit. They told me I had been qualified eight years prior, but I just didn’t know how to do it.
How did that happen?
When I was qualified, I was still two or three years into my job at Microsoft Nigeria, so I wasn’t planning to move permanently. But the moment I learned about the qualification in 2018, it would take me only four months to complete the work permit.
The four months were even a result of personal delays. It took two weeks for the US government to approve my work permit.
That’s fast! Can you give us a step-by-step process of your migration?
One needs to look for a first-world country with your skill set. I was a software engineer at Microsoft, so I knew relocating to the US wouldn’t be difficult.
The first thing to do is to narrow down your search and find out their popular job vacancies so that you can use your skill set to fill it up. Also, find out what visa type you’re qualified for.
In my case, it was the O-1 visa, and all I needed to do was to find an attorney who could file the petition for me, gather the documents submitted, and the petition got approved.
I then appeared at the embassy, the visa was granted within a couple of days, and I could move in with their family.
To check your eligibility, visit websites like WeVesti and check under visa. You’ll then participate in an eligibility test ranking from 1-7. If you scored high or above three, they are qualified. You have a call with the attorney. Then you pay a deposit and start working on a petition. You can move to the United States with your family within two or three months. It’s that basic. But I didn’t know back then.
Why did you decide to live in Texas?
Previously, I had gone to the East Coast, New York. DC was part of the Cold States of the US that I moved to when I first visited in 2015. I knew that the cold weather was not for me. So I wanted to stay in a place that has better weather. Texas allows you to feel tropical, like you’re in Africa. Also, there is a good number of Nigerians here. It’s a diverse area. Diverse with Indians with, Nigerians, Pakistans, and Mexicans.
I also have a great network of business partners, friends and mentors who moved to Texas long before I did and have been a source of great support.
What were the culture shocks you had in America?
There were several culture shocks, but there’s the fact that you can’t just bring your money and pay for stuff. Everything has a process. For instance, you can’t just rent a house in the US if you have the money. You have to apply for the house and be selected; then, they run background checks on you before you pay.
I also learnt that “takeaways” in Nigerian or UK restaurants are known in America as “to-go” boxes.
Did the rest of your family have culture shocks?
My spouse experienced a lot of culture shocks. She had to go to school to be a cosmetologist to get a license. This was a job she was doing without a license in Nigeria. That’s the thing about America; you need a license for everything here.
Regarding acclimatisation, she was also very lonely at first because our friends are not based here. Getting domestic help here is also extremely expensive; only wealthy people can afford it. Hence, she had to take care of two little girls alone. It was hard at first.
Now she has older friends who have families here she can connect with. For her business, she started attending events, getting referrals and flyers to public places. Even though it’s been five years since we moved, it’s still a journey for us. We are still learning new things every day about America.
What are the advantages of you living in America?
Yeah, I’ll talk about the advantages. It helps me to clearly understand what it means to work in an enabling environment. So from an economics standpoint, my finances changed. I started earning what my global peers earned. The value of a software engineer in the US is twenty times more than that of a Nigerian software engineer.
The economy here changes your perspective. It is where you feel like you can become anything you want to be. Of course, there’s power, internet access, and the ability to finance things right and buy them outright. You don’t have to wait to be super rich to drive a brand-new car or to be able to live in a good house. You can build your credit; you have a lot of finance and low-interest financing. You get to send your kids to good schools at affordable prices. Also, getting a travel visa from here to other countries is so much easier than in Nigeria.
Any disadvantages?
So in terms of disadvantages, the taxes here are much more enforced than in a country like Nigeria.
However, it also serves as a good thing because paying taxes here means the money will be deployed towards public works and the public good. So, we’re happy to be paying those taxes. And US taxes isn’t as stifling as the UK of taxes.
Can you go more into how taxes are paid?
It depends on what kind of work you do. You would be obliged to pay between 20-25% of your income now, and your income taxes are important. We pay Social Security taxes, which you contribute to the Social Security pool, which is eventually used when you are unemployed or for subsidising healthcare for the common good.
Usually, if you are working and employed, you’d be paid W2, which is anything between 25-30% of your income as taxes. If I am also a business owner, there are ways for you to reduce your taxes based on your experiences and donate to non-profits.
Opening bank accounts here is not easy as well. Most banks here are not immigrant-friendly, and it took a while before we could acquire one. The mistakes I made with this were part of why I made Vesti, to make immigration processes smoother.
Nice. So what was your motivation for starting a bank for immigrants?
When I moved to the US, I moved as an entrepreneur. I wanted to come and build a talent marketplace for software engineers to be able to work. But remote work is one thing; being in person is another.
During the pandemic, we started helping many folks get advice on getting school admission, getting access to jobs abroad and moving here, moving with a special talent visa, etc. It started as a Telegram group for advising people on immigration and admissions. Soon, people started asking to pay for admission, visa, etc. From there, we saw it as a huge opportunity to build migration and financial services. We made the first version of our app in 2021.
Nice! What have the successes been since then?
We had 7,000 app downloads within the first couple of weeks, and we saw that is a huge opportunity here to help people transition. We then started building operating systems, both legal and financial, for the next one billion immigrants. You know, it’s been incredible. Last 12 months, we have processed nearly 15 million dollars on the platform. One hundred twenty thousand customers using the platform, and we could well get to like 500k immigrants.
They’re 53 million immigrants in the US. It’s a very, very immigrant-welcoming country. The UK is welcoming a lot of immigrants as well. So is Canada, mostly coming from Africa, Pakistan, India, and other countries. So this could be a huge opportunity for us to serve hundreds of millions of people with information, community and ultimately, a smooth transition to a new life in a new country.
How could you register a business like Vesti in America as an immigrant?
It’s easy to register a business. Register your incorporation online, complete documents, and open a bank account.
Funding the account took work, as we first had to use our money and borrow from family and friends. As time went on, we got some venture capital companies. With the help of referrals that spoke of us highly, we got our first funding of $500,000. We’ve raised a million dollars, which will help us grow more than ever.
Would you ever want to retire to Nigeria or America?
Nigeria. I believe seriously in the potential of Nigeria. I still have a lot of investment in Nigeria. My eventual work is to impact the education sector. So eventually, yes, I will move back home.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
For Islamic student Umar, April 15, 2023, was one of the worst days of his life. He was a student in Khartoum, Sudan, when the Sudan conflict started. He tells us of life before Sudan, the day of the conflict, being stuck 300km away in Arbatah with other Nigerians, and how he hates hearing nothing but bomb blasts everywhere.
Editorial Note: The interview was granted on May 1, 2023, and new events have overcome some of the information in the story.
What was life like before schooling in Sudan?
It was a very normal one. I’m from Katsina state, and my family is a close-knit one. I had schooled all my life in Katsina until it was time for my higher degree at the International University of Africa (IUA) in Khartoum, Sudan, to study Islamic Education. IUA was highly recommended as a good school for the course by a family friend, and Sudan was described as a country with a peaceful environment.
But has it been peaceful?
Up until now, yes. At the start of the Ramadan period in March, I won’t have believed anyone that would have said there would be war in Sudan. Classes were still ongoing. I was preparing for semester exams. Festivities were still being held around the streets of Khartoum. Nobody expected this. Schooling in Sudan has been great, and the teachers are excellent.
What was your experience like on the first day of the attack?
So the attacks started during the Ramadan period. I was in my dorm room and had taken my iftar to break my fast around 6:30 p.m. My eyes were drowsy and so, I took a nap. I then woke up at 8:30 p.m. to gunshots and bomb explosions. I then opened my window and noticed that a large crowd of people were gathered outside to see what was going on. Many people were scared and shocked (and still are) because they had never experienced conflict before.
Smoke is seen in Khartoum, April 22. The fighting between the Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces in the capital resumed after an internationally brokered cease-fire failed. [Marwan Ali/AP]
How have you been surviving the attacks?
Sadly, nothing has improved, despite the 16th day of conflict and many promises of a “ceasefire”. I have been unable to sleep properly for 16 days because of the constant sounds of gunshots and bombs. There is no peace of mind for me to even think of sleeping.
For daily amenities, I was managing. Back at IUA, food had started to run out, and there was hardly any water. Sometimes I had to go some days without bathing. There is hardly any electricity to charge one’s appliances. The only hope I had was with the Nigerian government to evacuate us.
Did you witness casualties?
No, I didn’t—just a shortage of essential amenities.
What happened on the day of evacuation?
On April 23, the Nigerian government came with only ten buses out of the 50 they promised. It was agreed that 13 buses would be used to transport the first batch of students, but they are still stuck at the Aswani border until now.
No other bus came here until April 30, when the evacuation team came in with 26 buses. They said we were to go to Egypt, but we’ve not been there because the first batch is still stuck. They changed plans and said we should go to Port Sudan. We entered the bus using our states of origin and left Khartoum at midnight. We’ve stopped at Artrabah, 300km from Khartoum and a 7-hour journey. It remains 7 hours until we reach Port Sudan.
However, we’ve been stuck at Arbatah for the past eight hours.
Nigerians in Sudan waiting to be evacuated [El-Tayeb Siddiq/Reuters]
Why?
This is because the driver complained that the Nigerian Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has refused to pay the driver the fares needed. There has yet to be a response from the Nigerian Embassy or government officials. I hope they will come through soon.
Do your family know where you are?
I’ve decided not to tell my parents. I told them on April 30 that we were coming to Egypt. Telling them now that I am stuck in Arbatah may probably break their heart. I just want the Federal Government to handle this properly.
Do you feel safe where you are?
Yes, I do. We are several kilometres away from the conflict zone, and the people in Arbatah have been warm and friendly so far. If not for social media, I’m not sure they’d even be aware of the conflict in Sudan.
Are you getting access to basic amenities?
Yes, I am. There is food and water, and we use the USB cords inside the buses to charge devices for electricity. The only downside to me on this is the high prices of things here. You can purchase 1 bottle of water for almost 500 Sudanese pounds (₦400). There is also the toilet, which is always very dirty and makes me afraid of getting severe toilet infections. But what can I do? No one cares about the state of a toilet in the middle of a war.
Asides that, we’re all good.
What has traumatised you the most about this experience?
The jet fighters keep flying about, and the gunshots and bomb blasts. I have started hearing them everywhere now without wanting to. They don’t allow me to sleep.
So sorry to hear this. What would your next plans be when you land in Nigeria?
I will go and see my family first and celebrate with them while thanking Allah for bringing me safely home. I’d then discuss schools I can attend in Nigeria with my parents. Sudan was a lovely place, but with recent happenings, I’ve come to accept that there is no place like home. And then, hopefully, I will hear the bomb blasts no more. I will lay on my bed and finally get some sleep.
Editorial note: The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), on May 3, announced the successful evacuation of the first batch of 376 evacuees. More people are expected to be evacuated over the next week.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
For this week’s Abroad Life, we’ve decided to give potential Canadian residents the do’s and don’ts on navigating their financial life in Canada, so you don’t have to.
Nigeria is not the easiest country to live in. Traffic jams, irregular power supply, unemployment, poverty etc are some of the many stumbling blocks in the average Nigerian’s way — which is why they are desperate to leave.
Canada, amongst other countries, is one of the promised lands for a japa aspirant. But it’s not enough to travel there. How do you navigate important aspects like finances?
We decided to explain a tweet that broke it down for you, so you don’t have to:
Setting up the BEST bank account
To set up a regular bank account, you’d need a visa or passport, immigration papers, Social Insurance Number (SIN) (if you have one) and address verification.
This consists of a temporary residency permit, your Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR), or your work or study permit.
However, you must know the rates involved to set up the best bank account.
Using newcomer rates from any bank is risky because there is a tendency to pay higher interest ratesonce the deal expires.
To avoid this, use the website ratehub.ca to find banks that can give the best rates after your first-timer deal expires.
Build up good credits
Unlike Nigeria, Western countries are very particular about credits and how one manages them.
Credit is a flexible form of finance that allows you to access a certain amount of money loaned (known as your credit limit) according to your needs, at any given time.
Credits are maintained when the user makes timely payments and doesn’t exceed the credit limit. Credits are necessary to buy a home, rent an apartment, or get a car loan.
Get a secured credit card from your bank, and understand credit before using it.
Always file your taxes
Unlike Nigeria, Canadians take accounts of government taxes very seriously. But as a newcomer, it could be difficult wrapping your head around the math.
Most new immigrants to Canada tend to take the first available job without research — which is not entirely the best.
Understand the Canadian job market, network with people, and get recognised certifications. Take a job that pays what you deserve. You can visit the website here for more steps to get a good-paying job in Canada.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s Abroad Life subject moved to Benin Republic in 2020 on the advice of her mother’s acquaintance. She shares with us the circumstances that led to her relocation, living in Cotonou, Benin’s largest city, and the xenophobia that exists towards Nigerians from the locals there.
How was life for you before moving to Benin?
It was horrible. I was depressed about how my life was going, with school and Nigerians.
Before 2020, I attended Covenant University (CU). I loved my circle of friends and coursemates, but I hated the rules and regulations of the school. It was something I just couldn’t cope with. Their hypocrisy with religion, inability to have your gadgets, all of it. It was a school that I knew I just didn’t fit in. It also didn’t help that I was studying Computer Engineering instead of Mass Communication because that was the only course I could get.
Then on the subject of Nigerians. I am more of an introvert, and I’m fine with staying indoors as long as I have food and water. But when I step out, some men catcall and make me uncomfortable. There’s the traffic that one can spend hours in. There is the ever-rising cost of essential commodities like food. It’s a nightmare. The only thing that seems to give one pleasure is the joy that comes from jaiye jaiye or enjoyment.
Was that why you moved to Benin?
It was an incident in CU. I planned to change courses from Computer Engineering to Mass Communication at CU — until the day my father had a heart attack.
That day, I was holding my school tablet and stood at the T-junction in my school, waiting for my best friend (a guy) to return from mid-week service. Once I saw him, I started to weep profusely over my dad’s ill health. He was comforting me, reassuring me that all would be fine.
Then, all of a sudden, there was this female lecturer that came out of the corners and seized my tablet. She then told us to follow her to her office. In CU, you don’t question such orders; you just obey. And so we followed her, with tears and mucus running down my nose.
When we got to the office, she accused me of pairing with my best friend. She then asked us to fill out an offence form (which always leads to suspension or expulsion) despite all our pleas. At first, I looked at myself through her window with my tears, and then I looked at my best friend with his shirt made wet from my tears.
Before I knew it, I exploded in anger. I insulted her, the school, the authorities and anyone else I could think of. I was already stressed due to my semester results, and her wanting me to fill out the offence form unjustly was the tip of the iceberg. After leaving her office, I knew I could no longer stay at CU. If I did, they’d have given me a severe penalty, like an indefinite suspension for my outburst at her office. I then discussed alternative schools with my family, and an acquaintance of my mum suggested a university in Benin that was not as expensive. I agreed, and I moved to Cotonou, Benin Republic, in 2020 and started university all over in a different program.
So sorry that this happened to you. What were the processes of your migration to Benin?
Migrating there was relatively easy. I travelled by road instead of air because the flight tickets are expensive. I experienced countless stops by immigration officials on Badagry/Seme road, and we also had to tip these officials and have them check my luggage. Asides from that, it was almost stress-free. All I needed were receipts, a passport and a means of identification (a national or work ID card), and I was good to go.
Badagry-Seme border
Did you experience any culture shocks?
So it was two things for me — their coins and their culture.
Let me start by explaining Benin’s currency. Their coins are from 1 to 500 francs and have 500, 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10,000 CFA banknotes. I can change 2000 CFA to coins and accumulate as many coins as I like.
Another thing that shocked me is how they love preserving their pre-colonial past. Unlike Nigeria, which has most of its artworks in Britain, many pre-historic artworks are still intact and displayed. They are also quiet and seem largely content with a quiet life, unlike Nigeria, which is full of ‘hustle and bustle.’
Artworks from Benin Republic
Are there any advantages to living in Benin?
They have good power supply, except recently they started interrupting it for short periods. Even then, it’s never longer than 30 minutes. They always, always have power. They have a prepaid meter to buy the power units you need for that month. So as long as you have money, you’d have electricity.
The roads are clean, with hardly any traffic. Transport is relatively cheaper. Their primary means of transportation are motorbikes. To go on a 13km journey, for instance, you can pay as low as the equivalent of N300 in Benin. Meanwhile, for that kind of distance in Nigeria, you could probably pay N2000.
Bike transportation in Cotonou
What about the disadvantages?
It’s the xenophobia towards Nigerians by the locals. Their hatred towards Nigerians is so palpable. Prices are automatically higher for you as a Nigerian if you don’t know how to speak French or the local language (Fon/Aja). If you’re a nightlife person who likes partying in clubs, having your passport with you is best. If not, the police can lock you in jail for whatever reason for the night. Nigerians don’t even make things better with Yahoo boys flocking to Benin and giving us a bad reputation.
Wow! Have you ever had a xenophobia experience before?
Yes, I was once accused of duping a hairstylist.
What?! How did that happen?
I was supposed to come to Nigeria to see my boyfriend. He had sent me money in Naira for the expenses and all. Since I hadn’t seen him in a while, I wanted to look good and decided to get a new hairdo. I exchanged the money for francs and decided first to buy hair extensions.
The hairdresser that owns the salon is one that I’ve patronised for years. When I got to the saloon, I noticed she had bought new hair extensions. Excited, I went inside the corner to look through her extensions and bought one for 5,000 CFA. She gave me 1,500 CFA change and went home.
I was eating when all of a sudden, there was a loud banging on my door. It was the hairdresser. I was shocked to see her because she had never been to my house. She demanded that I return her extensions and 1,500 CFA to her while bluntly refusing to explain why. The first thought in my head was that the Bureau de Change gave me fake money. I was scared, so I gave her the money and extensions without much fuss but decided to follow her to her shop a few minutes later and get an explanation.
When I arrived, she was gossiping about me with her neighbours in the Afo dialect (their native language, which sounds similar to Nigerian Yoruba). I caught the words “Nigerian ole” (meaning thief). To defend myself, I told her I didn’t steal anything, and she said I should bring proof.
To vindicate myself, I brought my Bureau de Change receipts, called my Head of Student Affairs and one other lecturer, and even a delegae (an interpreter) to explain things to the lady, but she didn’t listen. She never returned my money and embarrassed me in front of the street. It was humiliating.
Sorry, you had to go through this. Did you try reporting the case to the police?
LOL. The Benin police is one of the biggest enablers of xenophobia. They don’t even want to hear what you want to say as a Nigerian, even if you have strong evidence to back it up. You’d enter jail in the end. The Nigerian Embassy is useless; most just do parties there. I’m just grateful to God that it didn’t escalate to that level of the police being involved.
Sorry for that terrible experience. Would you ever leave Benin?
I only want to stay here for 5-6 years and make enough money to japa. But stay here for the rest of my life? No way.
Xenophobia excluded; it’s not a bad country. The air smells nice; enough Nigerians are here to make you feel at home. But it’s not a place you want to stay long term.
What country would you like to reside in next?
Due to my stay in Benin, I’d love to stay in a French-speaking country, maybe the French parts of Canada or France. French is a beautiful language, and I would love to speak it every second.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s Abroad Life subject is Muna, a fintech lawyer and author of the 8000+ subscriber travel newsletter, TravelLetters. She tells us about her motivation to start the newsletter, important travel hacks for first-time travellers and her best and worst travel experiences.
What is your motivation for travelling?
Travelling is a form of therapy for me and a nice escape from the real world. It can be an expensive hobby sometimes, but I love it. Travel opens your mind and helps you gain exposure. I love travelling to new places; it doesn’t have to be outside the country. Am I on a plane going somewhere? If yes, then please, let’s go there. I just love to travel for the thrill of it.
What was your first travel experience like?
This would be surprising, but my first travel experience happened as recently as 2018 in Dubai. I went with a friend. Even though it was my first time, I did the logistics (getting a visa, booking accommodation etc.), especially navigating immigration. Doing my due diligence and research made navigating the process by myself possible.
How did you navigate immigration? Please break down the process.
As a first-time traveller, immigration officials will ask you many questions at the airport, such as your payment for the hotel, how much money you are carrying etc. Regarding the money, I had researched and knew that most countries (aside from a few like Lebanon) needed me to have a certain amount of Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) as cash. I knew this and thus was able to avoid any sort of extortion. Though it was my first time, I wasn’t so naive about the process.
Okay, let’s continue with the Dubai experience.
I think Dubai is overrated because the city is highly artificial, with hardly any natural tourist destinations or landmarks. The city is also extremely hot as well. I had to run from mall to mall when shopping just because of the heat. I also went there as a ‘Fresh young lawyer’ and had to manage my finances half the time. So maybe, that is why I didn’t quite enjoy the city. If I travelled like Jowizazaaa, I wouldn’t complain.
Despite Dubai not being my favourite city, the boat cruise was one highlight of Dubai for me (that has now become a habit). They call it Dhow Cruise. It happens in the evening, with dinner and song performances. I think it is a thing in most Arab countries I have visited.
Then there was shopping. I liked shopping in Dubai because the naira-to-dirham exchange rate was favourable then. One United Arab Emirates (UAE) dirham was equivalent to ₦100, which made buying things cheaper. Some of my favourite clothes today were from the Dubai trip.
Nice! What would you say is your best travel experience?
It’s Lebanon for me. I love it because that’s where I spent my honeymoon. Whenever I remember it, it’s always with tender and passionate feelings. Lebanon is a beautiful country and should be on everyone’s travel list.
Despite the country’s war history, the people there are also hospitable and friendly. They are still hopeful. Funny enough, most people I talked to there always seemed to have “cousins” doing business in Nigeria.
Which would you say is your worst travel experience?
Dubai for the reasons I mentioned above. The experience feels very “artificial”, and nothing there seems to be unique to them.
When did you start the TravelLetters newsletter, and how?
I’d say the desire was birthed in me one Sunday morning in 2022 as I returned from church. I was browsing Twitter when I saw a popular travel vlogger post.
I clicked on the like button and saw this ‘not-so-cool’ comment from a user asking where she gets her money to travel. It made me uncomfortable because I realised many people were ignorant about travel.
When I went on my first trip to Dubai, I was earning ₦300K as an entry-level employee at my former company. To shock you even further, I went on two trips that same year in 2018. Some weeks before I saw the post, I had just travelled to Rwanda, and the cost of my return ticket was ₦188k. That’s the same price as going from Lagos-Abuja! But let’s get back to the story.
I then tweeted how much it cost me to go to Rwanda. Excluding feeding, the other costs for flight tickets, tour guide and accommodation were around ₦400k. The tweet blew up, and then I realised that people were uninformed and curious. When I saw that gap, I decided to fill that void and create articles guiding people on how to travel with certain amounts of money. This was how Travel Letters was born.
That’s amazing! Can you share some of these tips with us?
The first one I’d say is to do your research. There are many travel influencers out there now that are giving out information. You have Trip Advisor and other travel blogs. Even the immigration websites of these countries have useful information as well. You can also call the airlines going to these countries as well. Is this country safe for female travellers? What are the locals like? You should know these before travelling.
You also need to cross-check your documents for validity. For instance, many people carry fake Yellow Cards, which they’re unaware of. This tends to cause issues when being scanned by the Port of Health. One should always scan the QR code of their Yellow Card and see if their details are correct. Kenyan and Ghanaian immigration officials are very particular about this.
Don’t dress for attention at airports. If you dress flashy, there’s a high tendency for people to call you aside for donations and tips. By the time you finish, you could probably miss your flight. Dress simply.
As a regular Nigerian, booking your flight at least six weeks before you travel is also best. You tend to get flight tickets at a cheaper rate. For some airlines, ordering your tickets from the mobile app is cheaper than on the websites, e.g. Ethiopian Airlines. If you also want to upgrade from an economy to a business class air ticket, don’t buy the business ticket straight away. Buy the economy ticket, then upgrade to the website’s business class. These airlines will usually send an upgrade email.
From my experience, the cheapest days to travel are usually during the early part of the week (Mondays to Wednesdays). Weekend flights are usually more expensive because most people are travelling by then.
Always get to the airport hours before your flight to sort out all issues.
This was extremely insightful! Would you ever get tired of travelling?
Not at all. I always pray to God that I never run out of money to travel. If ₦300k was the last money in my pocket, I’d probably use ₦150k to go to Benin Republic and then ‘wash plates’ when I return. Travelling does something amazing to you; once you’ve caught the ‘travel bug’, it’s hard to let it go. It educates you, and it gives you hope to live again.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s Abroad Life subject is Adeoju Samuel Adesina, aka Sammy Desh, a Nigerian who relocated to Finland in his third year of university due to student union attacks on his life in 2010. Eleven years later, he returned to Nigeria in 2021 to vie for a legislative seat in the 2023 elections.
He shares with us the details of his exit from Nigeria, his experiences in Finland, and his political journey so far in Nigeria.
What sparked your motivation for politics?
I’d need to start from the beginning. I stumbled upon university politics at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). This was from 2007-2010. Someone running for the position of Chairman of my hall of residence had my name recommended to him as one who could galvanise people for campaigns. He then came to me and asked me to help mobilise people to vote for him as Chairman, which I accepted.
However, it was a surprise because I hadn’t been involved in elections before that time. Interestingly, I got people to vote for him galvanised people and won elections for four different candidates running for student union offices.
I was involved in several social justice causes around school, like fighting against tuition increments or releasing unjustly arrested students. I found fulfilment in this, especially when other students benefitted from it.
But this had downsides, such as attacks. One of these attacks made me leave the country for Finland.
Attacked?! How did that happen?
So it occurred during one of the student agitations in 2010 during my third year in university. A student burnt another student alleged to have stolen some money with a hot iron. While we tasked ourselves (i.e., me and some residence hall executives) to apprehend the student in question, he took refuge with a clique of guys called the DSM.
It was when we approached them to pick up the guy that everything turned violent. The Student Union Government (SUG) president, Paul Alaje, was hurt. I was stabbed in the arm with a knife.
My mum was so scared for my life, and to add insult to injury, there was an Academic Student Union of Universities (ASUU) strike for about four months. It was then my parents decided I had to move to Finland.
So sorry this happened to you. What was the process for migration?
With Finland (as with every other country), the easiest route for migration is through a study permit, which I used. To get information on all the schools in Finland, I first logged into a website called studyinfinland.fi. If you click on the English language option, it has all the info you would need on schools in Finland and the processes involved. You can apply to the website if you open it during the application cycle. With that, you don’t have to pay any application fees.
However, I had to follow the steps. I provided the documents needed, such as my international passport, transcript, WASSCE certificate etc.
Once you’re done with the application, you’ll get a confirmation email and a schedule for a general exam. I hear it’s now online. But in 2010, it was a physical exam, which I wrote in Ikeja, Lagos.
If you pass the exam, you have to go for an interview I had to travel from Nigeria to Accra, Ghana, for that exam. That interview serves as a way for them to judge and understand your English proficiency. They’d also ask for your preferred course of study while in Finland. If you ace the interview, you get your admission letter, and you pay your tuition, which is about €5k. After this, you can apply for resident permit at the embassies in Abuja. It’s that straightforward.
What was schooling in Finland like?
It was excellent. I had to start from scratch when I got to Finland, studying Business Management, but the teachers there were helpful. However, I needed to work and study at the same time, and it was there I got my first political gig in Finland as part of a campaign team.
Nice! What was that like?
In school, I wanted to see how the political atmosphere was; it was a job that was paying at the time. So I helped galvanise people in one or two political campaigns, sending SMS to people. Politics there is almost the same way in Nigeria, with many people trying to persuade people to receive certain ideologies for the betterment of the country.
Aside from politics, I also got to work with a media house, Poland Today, and did some business on the side with friends. It was a great experience.
What made you move back to Nigeria?
I’ve always been a ‘Nigeria-centric’ person. Even from the very first day I arrived in Finland, I didn’t have plans to spend my entire life outside the country. I’ve always had a passion for politics and service. I love helping people, and this makes me happy. But I wanted to help people on a large scale. And this is what made me decide to return to Nigeria and enter politics.
What was the process like?
Unfortunately, due to COVID, I lost hundreds of thousands of euros from my side businesses. I saved some money, but it wasn’t enough to call me rich.
When I returned to Nigeria in February 2021, a good friend connected me to Dipo Awojide’s company, where I became Chief of Staff. I began to receive connections from him, got exposed to various people, and started networking and finding political connections.
Was this how you started politics in Nigeria?
Yes. It began when representatives from two political parties (which I wouldn’t like to disclose) came and promised me tickets to governorship without contesting in the primaries, which I very much refused.
I then got another offer from a friend who knew the Chairman of Accord Party, who knew the man running for governorship in Osun State, Akin Ogunbiyi, who was a billionaire, PhD holder, and that role model Nigerian. He inspired me to register for the Accord Party and my interest in the Osun State House of Assembly.
I also decided to stay in my family house for a while to assimilate into the environment and get to know the people around me. Luckily, my father’s name, Adeoju, was familiar, so it wasn’t too hard.
I then introduced myself to Ogunbiyi, spoke with him, and told him about my qualifications and what I had to offer. He liked me right away.
Did you later run for the Osun State House of Assembly?
No, I didn’t. I only became an aspirant, not a candidate. Before I came to the party, the members already had someone they wanted to put on the ticket. The preferred candidate was also an Osun State-level executive for the party. So, I was a spoiler for them for coming into their system, plus I had the governorship candidate’s backing.
The back and forth was long, but we had to conduct a primary election, which I won. Now, after a primary, the party has to send your name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but my name was never sent. Instead, it was that of my opponent. Because of this incident, I decided that I’d no longer be a party member.
Wow, so sorry. I hope this hasn’t changed your mind about politics?
Yes, I will likely join another political party. I’ve had offers from the two leading parties in Nigeria (PDP and APC) to join them. I consider this recognition as one of the good things that came out of this past election. In my constituency, many people know me; I’m no longer a stranger. I was also able to sell myself to a lot of people. So now, I have my supporter base and people that would like me to contest again.
Those are the few positives from everything that happened. I’m hoping we can get to a point in Nigeria where we can comfortably and confidently say elections are free, fair, and credible. But at the moment, we don’t have one. I believe, however, that we’re moving in the right direction. Especially because you can now check for over-voting, thanks to the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
Things are getting better. And I hope they can keep getting better. We can’t give up. Not yet, anyway.
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The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Today’s subject on Abroad Life is a tech bro who wanted to move to Estonia for one reason: to get peace of mind from Nigeria’s problems. He talks about how he decided to move on a whim, the migration process and the craziness of Estonia’s culture shocks.
When did you decide you wanted to leave Nigeria?
So the crazy thing is, I only wanted to leave Nigeria for a holiday, not for Japa purposes.
Wait, for real? How did you then start the process of living in Estonia?
Omo, the story started two years ago, in 2021, when I wanted to visit Greece and needed to get my visa. That visa was the hardest one I’d ever gotten in my life. They denied my visa and even made me fly to Abujafor affidavits. From then on, I started trying to find a way to get a visa and leave the country. I hated being in a country that didn’t have working systems, even though I was paid a very competitive salary in Nigeria.
Fast forward to two years later (2022). I still couldn’t get the European visa, but I was undeterred. I applied for tech jobs relating to my field in Europe that could offer competitive pay and benefits, including a work permit, visa, housing and any advantage you can think of as an employee. Of the many applications I sent, three companies sent me an offer letter, and I picked the one that paid the highest in Estonia.
All I needed to do was pack my bags, carry my proof of funds and certificates, and enter Estonia. Everything, from the housing down to the travel ticket, was even free of charge. The only thing I needed to present to Estonian immigration was my passport and proof of funds document. The company handled every other thing.
God when. So what culture shocks have you faced in Estonia so far?
It’s honestly a lot.
For starters, Estonia has what you’d call a pretty weird time system. Towards winter, it’s sunny at midnight, and towards spring, it can be dark as night at 3 p.m. People are partying in clubs at 3 p.m. because of the darkness.
For real? That’s wild!
Yes oh. It even made me understand the whole “daylight savings” thing and its purpose for phones.
What other culture shocks did you experience?
The biggest culture shock is how things here are cheaper than in Ajah, Lagos, where I used to stay.
For instance, the most prominent hotels here cost about €40, which is like N40,000 to N60,000, whereas to get a room in Oriental Hotel or Eko Hotel and Suites starts from N300,000, which could very well be someone’s salary. You can also pay meagre amounts for far distances on their Bolt app here, and you never seem to pay more than €2 (equivalent to N7,000). In Lagos, fares are as expensive as N20k for some rides.
That’s so shocking
Yes oh. Even power bills in Estonia are cheaper. You can also pay in instalments for extended periods for luxury items like cars or iPhones, which is impossible in Nigeria. This makes a ‘rich vs poor class system’ almost nonexistent in Estonia.
There are some weird culture shocks as well. For instance, I don’t think anyone cleans their feet in Estonia. Their footwear almost always looks extremely dirty for reasons I don’t understand. Their women also like to ‘knack’ black men too. Well, I knew this from my friend who’s also here.
Hmm, have you ever interacted with Estonian women before?
I don’t need to because I have a Nigerian girlfriend back home. We text and video call almost every second, so I don’t feel lonely without her. I can also afford to come back to Nigeria, visit her, and take her on vacations to any country she wishes to see.
You do have it all. Would you ever come back to Nigeria?
Of course, yes. I only left because the country needed a working system, not because I needed to improve or was looking for money. I only needed my peace of mind. I will return home if we get better leaders and better systems within Nigeria’s governance. There is never anywhere better than home.
Be sure to get the latest coverage on the 2023 gubernatorial elections right here on Citizen! If you want to be part of the conversation, you can join our community here.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s Abroad Life subject is half Nigerian from his mother’s side and half Ghanaian from his late father’s side. However, he has spent the majority of his life in Nigeria. He recounts his motive for going on holiday in Kumasi, Ghana in 2019, his experiences while there and his plans to revisit the town again.
Was 2019 the first time you made a trip to Ghana? If so, how did you prepare for the journey?
Yes, 2019 was the first time I had ever been in Ghana before. I was going there to apply for my international passport in Ghana as well as see my grandmother and family members.
The preparation for me was pretty straightforward. All I needed to do was pack a bag and have my documents of origin ready. However, the main problem I encountered while preparing was exchanging the naira to cedis (but over there, they call their cedis “Ghana”). Back then, GH₵15 was equivalent to ₦1k. When I went to Ghana, I had to make a budget before travelling because I didn’t know what to expect.
Nice. So can you describe how the journey went from Nigeria to Ghana?
So I saw the trip from Nigeria to Ghana as fun, even though a lot of people may probably have seen it as dangerous. I travelled to Ghana by road and left the shores of Nigeria at around 1 a.m. I used a cab at the Ghana park in Agege, Lagos. However, due to low patronage that day, the driver opted to leave with only me in it. In turn, the man would use the opportunity to make stops and deliver messages.
So I’d say the trip really started when we got to the Idiroko border town in Ogun State. The town is situated across the Nigeria-Benin Republic border. When you get to Idiroko, you’d have to get down and the driver would require you to bring money for customs duties. I think I paid ₦27k then for the journey. ₦17k is for the driver while ₦10k is for “settling” the customs officials placed at the border. They’d also check your passport to see if it’s stamped or not. After my passport was checked and the customs dues were paid, we continued on the journey.
The Idiroko border in Ogun State, Nigeria [Vanguard Newspapers]
I’d say my first culture shock outside Nigeria happened right from the trip. When we were on the road, we had to pass through plantations. Like the bus was literally being driven in the middle of bushes —
Wait, bushes?
Yes o. At one point, I almost got worried about the driver’s intentions and whether he was trying to kidnap me, but due to my personaIity, I didn’t really get scared. I later realised that it was a tactic to hide from police and security officials. We always had to switch on the inner lights of the bus whenever we sighted the police.
There was oil bunkering going on too, as we could see lots of kegs filled with petrol and diesel. We saw some security men in the bushes, and we had to “settle” with money as well.
When we got to Cotonou, a town in the Benin Republic, I noticed that I didn’t see any fuel station on that long stretch of road, which I found to be quite odd. At every bus stop, you’d see people buying fuel in kegs on the road. We then passed Togo and then we got to Aflao Border in Ghana. There you have to change your money to cedis.
The Aflao border in Ghana
From the Aflao border, I alighted the vehicle and took a tro-tro (which is the equivalent of a Nigerian danfo) to Circle Market in Accra, and from there I entered a cab to the bus park. At the park, I took a luxurious bus to my stop at Kumasi, which was my final destination.
Sights of Kumasi Market, Ghana
That was quite the journey. How would you describe your experiences in Ghana?
I’d say that I got a lot of culture shocks.
The first thing that definitely stood out for me was the uninterrupted power supply. The lights only went off when it was extremely windy. Once the wind subsided, the power would come back on. Even when it rained, there would still be power.
Another thing that shocked me was the drinks. They also have hawkers as we do in Nigeria, but the hawkers always have cold drinks, some of them even fully blocked by ice. But the hawkers in Ghana hardly have any cold drinks, just maybe mildly chilled at best. The drinks and beverages in Ghana taste a lot better and richer than their counterparts in Nigeria. For instance, Coke in Ghana tastes way better than Coke in Nigeria, the Peak milk in Ghana tastes more creamy etc.
Then I also realised that Ghanaians are extremely friendly and accommodating. When I entered tro-tros to various places and they noticed that I couldn’t speak Twi (a Ghanaian variation of Pidgin English), the bus conductors would always want to make sure that I didn’t miss my way at any point in time.
However, there were a lot of deaths in Kumasi, Ghana. In Lagos, you can celebrate the weekend with parties but in Ghana, it seems as though it’s being celebrated with funerals. Every weekend, a young man must die in Ghana, but it’s not like the crime rate is so bad. I never found out why that was a thing.
However, their women seem to live very long. My grandma lived to be 100 years plus before she died.
I can’t really say I had a unique experience with Ghanaian food, however. I resigned myself to eating only bread and soaking garri because I have a sensitive stomach.
What was your experience with getting your international passport?
Funny enough, I was unsuccessful in getting the passport. Ghana has this stereotype about Nigerians being bad because the Nigerians there have gone to constitute a lot of nuisance. They bribe their way through to get a Ghana birth certificate, learn Twi and successfully get a passport.
Because of this stereotype, applying for my international passport was hell. I went to the passport office and tried to show them proof of my Ghanaian roots, but they didn’t want to give the passport to me. The immigration man told me that I can’t hold two passports, but I see people doing this all the time. Basically, they were not sure if I was a Ghanaian and they thought my documents were forged. They requested my dad’s birth certificate but I couldn’t because my dad died in Nigeria a long time ago.
They then requested that I bring my Ghanaian relatives. I brought my father’s mother and my uncle. They then asked me to swear an affidavit at the Ghana High Court, which I did. But they were not satisfied. Whenever I brought proof, they always turned me down. I even got threatened by the police at one point.
I had to leave off doing it because I had to go back to school in Nigeria and finish my HND, but this is something that I’d go back for in the nearest future.
How would you compare the standard of living in Ghana to Nigeria?
Living in Kumasi, Ghana is more slow-paced than in Lagos. In Lagos, everything is fast-paced and you have to be extra smart. Kumasi feels like a semblance of sanity, with everyone minding their own business.
But besides that, they have the same things we do. The same hawkers, the same type of businesses, open markets etc.
In terms of prices, things are not cheaper in Ghana. In fact, if you are not careful, you can almost overspend your budget in Ghana. What I did in the first days was to calculate prices in Naira and then recalculate in cedis so as to price effectively. Let’s say I want to buy a dress for GH₵ 70. I’d think firstly that GH₵ 70 is like ₦70. Then I then check the cedi to naira exchange rate and then realize that if I were in Nigeria, that would probably amount to ₦5,500, which is quite high. Then once I notice that, I can then bargain with the vendor to sell it to me at a lower price. It’s easier for me that way.
Interesting. How do you feel about the governance of the two countries?
Well, I won’t say that there is nowhere without bad governance. When I was there, my cousins complained about the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, and how he wasn’t doing enough for the country.
However, from the little I saw, things were better in a sense. I once passed an army barracks in Ghana wearing camouflage cap and they didn’t say anything, but I dare not wear that in Nigeria. When you see the police in Ghana, you feel protected unlike in Nigeria, where they can harass and extort money from you at any point in time. I have been a victim of police harassment in Nigeria one too many times.
Would you ever relocate to Ghana?
Well, I’d definitely love to relocate to Ghana. I’d love to get a house in Ghana too. The culture is rich and the women are beautiful. It’s definitely a place I’d love to make my holiday spot time and time again.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s Abroad Life subject is a healthcare worker, freelancer and data analyst in his early thirties. He lives in London but works in Bournemouth at the moment. He speaks to us about his life before moving to London, how life in London has been so far, and his newfound love for politics since the buildup for the 2023 general elections started.
What motivated you to move to the UK?
I was born and raised in Nigeria. After I graduated from university, I started working at a publishing company in Lagos. But life was hard for me there. This was for several reasons. Firstly, my residence was at Ikotun, and my workplace was at Ilupeju. The distance was insane but still manageable. After some months, the company relocated to Lekki. Now imagine me having to go all the way to Lekki from Ikotun every single day. That is a distance of almost 60 km. At some point, I got sick of it.
Also, I’ve always wanted to return to school and do my Master’s. The initial
Plan was to do it somewhere in Nigeria, as I felt it was too expensive to do it abroad. But I guess at some point, I thought that the dysfunctional nature of Nigeria would always catch up with me. My best bet was to leave, so I saved up money and, with the help of my family, left Nigeria.
How was the migration process?
So initially, my first plan was to move to Canada. I started the process in 2019 with the use of an agent. I even got admission into Thompson Rivers University, but my visa was rejected. This was because they felt I would not return after school. I spent the next year in Nigeria and got more motivated to leave due to the pandemic and the overall frustration of the country’s lack of working systems.
I then asked a friend sometime around mid-2020 if it was too late for me to start my master’s application to schools in the UK, and his answer was no. He told me to start the process immediately. I went through the process myself, got the visa and then travelled in 2021.
Nice. So how would you describe London so far?
London is like Lagos, but a bit more organised. There are better transport systems. You can always use the tube or train. You get to see a lot of people like you in London. Near my house is an African Market where you can get egusi and other African foodstuffs. There are even African restaurants.
However, when you move away from cities like London or Manchester and you move to places like Bournemouth (where I am currently), it’s way calmer. There’s less traffic and the scenery is nicer. But you hardly see people like you; less African stores and the like. You can also hardly see African food here and you just have to stick to European dishes.
Even though it’s cheaper to live in Bournemouth, I still have friends in London; hence, I can never really leave London. It also reminds me of Lagos too. You can be walking and see two people speaking Yoruba.
I can remember my first week in London. I needed someone to exchange currency with and the person was in Arsenal, so I had to travel there. I can remember seeing local brooms and people selling puff puff in London. It was crazy. It gave me PTSD of my Lagos experiences.
What are the challenges and advantages of living in London?
It can sometimes get lonely, especially if you don’t make friends easily. There was a time I stayed somewhere for a year and I didn’t even know who my next-door neighbour was. In Nigeria, when you move to a new place, before the next two days you know everyone on the block. I’m lucky I have my cousin here with me, as we both came at the same time. I don’t know how I’d have survived without my family. There is no way I can forget Nigeria in a hurry. I always keep up with current affairs from time to time.
However, you’re sure that nothing will halt your progress because they have systems that work. If you’re working a 12-hour shift, for instance, you can be sure that you will get paid your dues no matter what. No one is telling you that they can’t afford to pay your salary or you get half your salary like in Nigeria.
Also, if you work hard here, you’ll succeed. You can be sure of seeing the fruit of your labour. But in Nigeria, it’s not the case. It’s very risky to do business because you’re not sure of the next government policy that can strike it down. Like this naira redesign for instance, you see the way people are panicking. Things like that don’t happen here.
I’ve noticed that Nigerians here also tend to do very well. This is because we are used to battling systems and external forces that are out to destroy our efforts. When one arrives with that anger and zeal, there is always the possibility of one doing better because those bad systems are almost non-existent. This is the biggest advantage here really.
[newsletter type=”gov”]
Nigeria’s elections are less than two weeks away. Would you vote if you were in Nigeria?
I’d definitely vote if I were in Nigeria.
Did you know you’d not be able to vote from the UK? If you did, then why did you still leave?
I knew I’d not be able to vote. This wasn’t because of a lack of patriotism. I know that when I was doing my undergraduate studies back in Nigeria, I was in groups that advocated for better governance and sensitisation for citizens.
But it got to a point where I was almost going insane with everything going in Nigeria and I needed an escape. I still really love Nigeria and I still wish to come back. However, with Nigeria’s current state, I don’t see how it can benefit me at the moment. Also, I’m the only boy in my family. At some point, my parents will start expecting me to pay bills and do things that a ‘son of the house’ should do. When you’re in Nigeria, paying bills, and your financial capacity isn’t growing anywhere, things will become difficult for you.
Who are you supporting in the 2023 elections, and how do you wish to show your support from abroad?
Funny enough, I supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 over the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) because I felt PDP was enjoying a huge monopoly and needed some real competition, having been in power for the last 16 years. However, the APC came and made things even worse.
However, with the rise of a third-force party, I’ve now become a supporter of Peter Obi, who’s under the Labour Party (LP). I believe he’s not part of the ‘inner cabal’ of Nigerian politicians and, therefore, can bring in fresh ideas for Nigeria to become a better place. I’d love for him to be elected as president so that he can change the country and I can come back home. Nigeria is a sweet country to live.
As to how I’m showing my support, I’m making sure that my friends and family are ‘Obidient’. My dad, for one, was so surprised at my newfound political awareness. This is because my dad’s image of me whenever it comes to politics is forcing me to watch the 9 o’clock news back in Nigeria. But when I pitched Obi as the right candidate in one of my calls he was shocked, and so were my family members. So I can say that yes, I show my support by heavily endorsing Obi to everyone I know back home. I also make sure to always make my support loud for Obi on social media, especially on Twitter.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s Abroad Life subject is a Nigerian Twitter influencer who’s known as Oluomo of Derby. He lives in Derby, United Kingdom, where he doubles as a business entrepreneur and founder of the Nigerians in UK Community. He speaks with us on migrating to the UK, starting his community of 9,500 members and his views on the 2023 elections back home.
What motivated you to move to the UK?
Mostly my desire to have a better life than the one I was living in Nigeria. I grew up with a single parent, my mother. Paying bills for a family of five wasn’t easy for her. Many years ago, my uncle advised me to continue my education in the United Kingdom, so I could have more chances of providing a better life for myself and my family back home.
What was the migration process like?
I did my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering on a student visa. After my graduation, I was able to get a work permit and the rest is history.
What was school like?
It was a unique learning experience for me. The teaching process was more practical than Nigeria’s theory-based style. I could therefore assimilate everything much faster and easier. UK nationals usually see Nigerians as smart, so I was tagged “a bright lad”.
Focusing on school while working odd jobs, which I needed to pay my bills, wasn’t the easiest thing to. Sometimes, you want to go out with your friends, and you need money to finance the outings. I had to consistently remind myself of my goals to keep from giving up. The good part was that my uncle gave me shelter during my stay at the university. I didn’t have to worry about rent, at least.
How did you transition from mechanical engineer to business entrepreneur?
I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. After university, I got a job in London where I made less than £2k a month. It sounds like a huge amount of money, but there are so many bills to pay: rent, car insurance, the British council tax, regular tax and black tax. By the time I paid those bills every month for three years, I realised I couldn’t continue working under someone. This strengthened my resolve to be an entrepreneur.
My friend who runs a business in Derby offered to train me as a business entrepreneur. I was under her for a few months before I started my own business. At the end of the day, finances will always be a key factor in choosing a career.
How are the living expenses in Derby compared to London?
Living in London is very expensive. I wrote a thread on Twitter a couple of months ago, about how London is like Lagos in the areas of cost of living and the general “hustle and bustle”. On the flip side, Derby is this peaceful town with affordable living conditions. I’d like to call it the “Ogun State” of the UK.
For instance, in London, you can rent a room for about £700 a month, but the same room in Derby will be £350 a month, with bills all-inclusive. If it’s a house, you can rent that for £700 in Derby while you’d pay £1,400 for the same house in London.
WOW
Yup. And the one in Derby would be a well-furnished house with a driveaway, garden, everything. That’s why it’s always advisable to live in cheap cities around London like Northampton, especially if you’re new to the UK. And it’s always better to seek a Nigerian community in whatever new country you live in, so you don’t get stranded.
How did you build a Nigerian community with over 9,000 members in the UK?
The idea came to my head in March 2022. I noticed other diaspora communities, like the Indian, Filipinos, Polish and so many others, have made a lot of progress in terms of the standard of living for their community in the UK, but Nigerians? Not so much. We always say we’re intelligent, but as a community, we’re not doing so well with issues like tuition fees, job hunting, accommodation and what have you.
I decided to take it upon myself to build a community to make sure these issues become a thing of the past. I achieved membership growth by partnering with other Twitter influencers in the UK plus calls for membership on my own platform.
What are the benefits of being in this community?
Personal development trainings, career networking, job opportunities, real estate ads and even speed dating. Essentially, the Nigerians in UK Community is a home away from home. Recently, we started political awareness meetings to remind ourselves of the elections that’s about to take place at home. And we started a movement for members to contact their family back home to collect their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC).
We didn’t tell our members to vote for any particular candidate because everyone has the right to vote for whoever they choose. We don’t organise rallies, but our members attend the candidates’ rallies to show their support. For instance, I went with some to Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi’s London rally in 2022, where we had the opportunity to speak with him and Aisha Yesufu on his plans for implementing diaspora voting here in the UK.
Why Obi?
We’ve tried the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for 16 years, and they didn’t change Nigeria. We’ve tried the All Progressives Congress (APC) for eight years, and that didn’t work out either. We’ve heard about national gridlocks, fuel scarcity, nepotism, inflation, high level of unemployment, Buhari’s “medical tourism”, insecurity, kidnapping, etc. I cannot in my right mind vote for another APC candidate after everything that could go wrong HAS gone wrong with Buhari. Nigerians are tired of suffering. We can’t keep going in the same direction.
I’m not saying Obi is a Messiah, but compared to two bad eggs, he looks like a saint.
So you make sure your members remember their Nigerian roots?
Yes, I do. I use my Twitter platform to educate Nigerians on politics and policies like minimum wage, unequal distribution of wealth, etc. Lately, I’ve also hosted a lot of Twitter Spaces with political analysts to keep Nigerians abreast of the 2023 elections.
It’s important that even as we work towards making a living for ourselves here, we never forget who we are — Nigerians.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on #TheAbroadLife received a trip to London as a birthday gift when she turned ten. Since then, she’s been to 34 countries, from Namibia to Eswatini. At the moment, the US is her home. But will it be her last stop?
Where are you now?
I’m currently living in Washington D.C. in the US.
What’s your travelling history?
Interesting question. The first time I travelled was when I was ten years old. It was the first birthday I was celebrating without my brother having a party too. Our birthdays are really close, so we usually had our birthday parties together. When I learned we’d be having separate birthdays, I was really excited about it. I was expecting a party, but my mum came up to me one day and asked if I’d like to go to London for my birthday. I was like, “Of course”.
It was my first time out of Nigeria, but only one of many.
What was the experience like?
The memory is somewhat faint right now, but I remember going to a toy store with an entire floor dedicated to Harry Potter. My mum wouldn’t let me touch anything because, in her words, Harry Potter was witchcraft. I hated not being allowed to even look, not to talk of buying a book. It sucked more because I really loved books. But the fun part came when I found out that my cousin with whom we were staying had a library card. I could use it to visit the public library and read as many books as I wanted. I also remember being fascinated by the buses and trains, how chill they seemed. Growing up in Lawanson, Lagos, I wasn’t used to that.
We stayed the whole summer and I came back to Nigeria with enough clothes and “stuff” for me to be hip in school the following week, and it wasn’t until five years later that I was able to leave Nigeria again. This time, to the US.
Your family must really love travelling
Yes. Everyone is very well-travelled and it’s actually encouraged to travel as much as we could. The London trip wasn’t something we could afford on a whim, but my mum squeezed out resources, and it was worthwhile.
Tell me about the trip to the US
My mum wanted us to have the Disneyland experience, so she planned it out. The park experience was golden. I think I threw up at a point because I had motion sickness sha. But it was a lot more “outside” than the trip to London.
Where did you go next?
My mum got a job in Namibia, and because my siblings and I were in boarding school in Nigeria, we had to travel every holiday to see her. We did that for about a year and a half, till I graduated from secondary school.
After that, I went for an international baccalaureate at a boarding school in Swaziland — now Eswatini — and I was there for about two years.
Eswatini? What’s it like?
It’s one of the last two Kingdoms left in Africa, and it opened my eyes to just how diverse Africa really is. The school is quite international, so I was able to meet people from different countries in the same place. I became popular very quickly for being a “loud” Nigerian, as I was tagged. It’s because everyone else was so chill. The only people who had my energy were the Mozambicans. I’d say they’re the Nigerians of Southern Africa. My stay at the school helped me learn how to identify different African countries based on their accents.
There was also a sharp contrast between the food in Namibia and Eswatini. Namibia has a lot of wildlife, so they tend to eat a lot of meat, while Eswatini is more lush and green, so their food is heavy on vegetables. After graduating, I went to America for college.
What did you expect from America, and what did you find?
I wasn’t expecting anything I hadn’t already seen in some form. But this time was still different. My school was in a small town in Indiana, so it was very Midwestern. I’d been to New York before then, and the contrast is huge. The town was a lot more country-like, and the population was older and much more white.
Because it was a small town, there was really no public transportation. Unless you had a car, it was hard to go anywhere far for the things you wanted to enjoy. It wasn’t until much later that this student couple started a delivery service that really saved our lives. A while after, someone opened an Indian restaurant, so things got a bit better.
I got pretty cooped up very fast, so I started taking any chance I could get to catch a break. I did everything from exchange programmes to internships and volunteering. Eventually, my degree programme ended, and I moved to Washington.
Why Washington?
Because of my travel history, I’ve always wanted to work in international policy affairs. So, I got a job in that area, and it required me to move to Washington. Also, my mum had moved to the US by this time. She was staying in Maryland, less than an hour from D.C. by train.
Tell me about D.C.
Coming here was a breath of fresh air, to say the least. First, it was a lot more culturally diverse for my travelling spirit. There were a lot more black people. In fact, Washington D.C. used to be called “Chocolate City” back in the 70s by many black people because it had a predominantly African-American population. But the black population is not as high as it used to be because of the high price of houses.
I have a lot more food options here than I did in Indiana. There’s Thai, Mexican and Indian food, so I no longer need to carry pepper around. I also love that even though it’s metropolitan, it’s not as bustling and crazy as New York. The roads are bigger and cleaner, there’s a lot more greenery, and the people are a bit laid back.
Tell me more about the people of D.C.
Washington is a transit city for most people because of its political nature. There are many diplomats or people who work in important government positions here. In fact, you could meet someone who works for the president in a park and have a chat with them without realising who they are. Their stay often changes with the political seasons, though. But for me, D.C. is home now.
What’s your favourite thing about the place?
I’d say the greenery. Maybe it’s just the part of D.C. I live in, but it’s just so beautiful. You need to see it for yourself to appreciate it.
Will this be your last stop?
Even though D.C. really feels like home, I can’t say for sure because that travelling spirit hasn’t left me yet. I’ve been to 34 countries, and I still want to visit many more. I actually have a list to track my travel. I haven’t been anywhere in South America and some parts of Southeast Asia, so they’re definitely in my travel plans.
Hey there! My name is Sheriff and I’m the writer of Abroad Life. If you’re a Nigerian and you live or have lived abroad, I would love to talk to you about what that experience feels like and feature you on Abroad Life. All you need to do is fill out this short form, and I’ll be in contact.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s Abroad Life subject is a Nigerian couple who’ve lived in America for over 20 years. The husband was born and bred there while the wife relocated from Nigeria in 2001. They share the ups and downs of living in America and being catalysts for change in Nigeria, despite not being able to vote.
How did you migrate to America?
H: I was born in the state of Delaware and automatically became a citizen. My dad moved to America in 1976, but he travelled back to Nigeria often for visits. During one of his travels, he met my mum, and they entered a long-distance relationship until they got married. My mum moved here ten years later, in 1986, because they had to wait five years for a visa, and another five years to get her permanent residency. I was born three years later, in 1989.
W: I moved to America with my family in 2001, when I was in my early teens. We were in Florida for a year before we moved to Atlanta in 2002. My family moved here because my father got a H1-B visa, which allows skilled workers to migrate to the U.S. It took five years to get it, but we eventually moved with him in 2001.
What would you say are the ups and downs of living in America?
H: I’d start with the ups. It’s the land of opportunity. I believe America gives opportunities to all immigrants as long as they work hard. One has access to basic amenities like power, good roads, and so on. However, I’d admit it’s become more difficult to get jobs due to the rise of polarised politics and —
Wait, what do you mean by “polarised politics”?
H: This is when the two major political parties no longer have the same fundamental ideas, which is not supposed to be the case in a democracy. The polarised politics was caused by the rise of social media — people sharing their own news through their pages — and independent media — the rich spend billions of dollars to establish media agencies that report their own version of the news. I believe that’s what has caused the U.S. legislation to change, especially towards immigrants and visas. The immigrant votes have been known to be discounted during elections in the U.S. That’s the only thing I don’t like about America.
How does this affect immigrant jobs? Well, the quality of jobs largely depend on the ruling party. If a Republican was President, then you would be less likely to find good immigrant jobs (as they are biased towards non-Americans).
W: I’d say the same thing. Yes, America is where most of your dreams come true. For instance, I’d never earn up to $1k per week as a medical doctor if I lived in Nigeria. However, in terms of election and governance, immigrants are treated as second-class citizens. We could stay in polling booths for hours and not have officials attend to us. Even if they do, it’s with disdain, like only Americans by blood should be allowed to vote. I don’t mind taking part in the upcoming 2023 elections for Nigeria. But too bad I’m in America, and I can’t.
Why not?
H: Because by law, Nigerians that reside outside the country are not eligible to vote. Also, it’s hard for me to relate to Nigerian politics because I have very few memories of the place from my childhood visits. However, I can say diaspora voting should become a thing for people who want to vote. I see Kenyans, Mexicans and so many other immigrants vote with their passports in their various embassies. It should become a rule of law for Nigeria too.
W: I’m definitely not like my husband in this regard, LOL. I have so many childhood memories of Nigeria, and it sucks that I can’t vote here due to “some law.” I attended Peter Obi’s diaspora rally at Howard University, Washington D.C., and he had clear visions of how to govern the country. If I could vote for whoever I wanted here, best believe Obi would get my ticket come February 25. I hate that Nigeria is in turmoil and there’s absolutely nothing Nigerians here can do about it. We’re more than cash cows for diaspora remittance; we’re Nigerian citizens. Our location shouldn’t dictate our right to vote as Nigerians.
But what about the other candidates?
H: Both Atiku and Tinubu have past records of corruption. Tinubu is even worse, with his allegations of drug trafficking. And I don’t see why I should vote for a candidate who lies about the smallest things, like his age. They’ll just maintain the usual style of governance.
W: About Tinubu, he was the governor of Lagos when me and my immediate family at the time were living there. I can remember passing through Ojuelegba to and from school every day, and seeing agberos, many of whom I later learnt were under his command. For his dirty past record and much more, I don’t think Tinubu is up to the job at all. Neither is Atiku. They’re not forward thinkers. They’re only thinking about enriching their coffers while in office, just like this current president and the president before him.
Did you attend their rallies?
H: I wasn’t aware of any rallies for Obi’s rivals close to the Washington DC-Maryland-Virginia axis, so, no.
W: Same here. Tinubu and Atiku, to the best of my knowledge, did not campaign in our area. Peter Obi took his time, visited and campaigned for the presidency in about ten or so different cities in North America. He cares deeply about getting Nigerians in diaspora involved in the next election, especially through donations.
How do you plan to show support ahead of February 2023?
H: Well, largely because of my wife, I’ve been researching the political candidates for the National Assembly (NASS) and governorship elections. I’ve also donated money to Obi campaign groups here in Washington.
W: My friends and family know me as the loudest voice for Peter Obi. I’ve been encouraging my relatives back home (Nigeria) to vote for him. He’s never taken a dime from government funds and has an economist background that could fix up the nation’s economy. All the good roads in Anambra were made so because of Obi. I can go on and on.
I may not be able to vote here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a catalyst for change.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on #TheAbroadLife was a Unilag student who got a fully-sponsored internship in 2022 with an investment bank in the UK. He talks about living in a minor city where he’s often the only black person around, how he’s adjusted to it and why he’s considering a permanent stay in the UK.
Where are you right now?
I’m in Nigeria right now, but that’s only because I came back to enjoy my December. But I live in Chester in the UK.
When did you decide to leave Nigeria?
I didn’t really decide to leave, but everything was set in motion in my penultimate year in Unilag, when I got a summer internship at an investment bank in the UK. It was a fully-sponsored internship and it prompted my move.
Goals. How did you get the internship?
Some global investment banks recruit interns from African countries, as well as other parts of the world. So, it was a typical job application experience. I saw the opening, applied, got invited for a test, a recorded interview followed by a live interview.
With these internships, you’re usually applying to a range of divisions within the bank. Divisions like investment banking, capital markets, human resources, technology, etc.
I started the application late in 2021, and a few months later, I was offered an internship position. It was only meant to be ten weeks long, but my visa allowed me to stay a while longer than that. They initiated the process for me to move and work in their office in Chester, UK.
That’s sweet. What was the visa application process like?
The bank uses a travel company called Fragomen to help with the immigration of their employees. They assisted me from the point of getting an offer letter and applying for a work visa to getting my biometric done and my visa approved. I just had to take my documents to TLS, a UK visa application centre in Ikeja, and they mediated everything else from there on out. The process normally takes about six to eight weeks. But due to the war heating up in Ukraine at the time, it took about ten weeks for me to get a decision.
My visa got approved and the next thing was for me to move. I left Nigeria for the UK in June 2022. The company handled all expenses including my accommodation in the UK.
What were you expecting when you left for the UK?
I had an open mind. This was my first time leaving Nigeria at all, so I only knew as much as I’d heard. One thing that struck me about the place is how different Chester is from the more cosmopolitan cities like London.
99% of the people are white. I can be sure that when I enter any gathering or location here, I’ll be the only black person. I’m often the only black person on the trains. It makes the experience lonely, but at the same time, eye-opening. The loneliness can be very face-slapping sometimes sha. One time, it got really bad that I decided to try a local dating app, and I couldn’t even find any black person on it.
Was it the same at your internship?
Not really. We had way more diversity where I worked. The company hired about 30 Africans, and around 12 of us were in Chester. So, at least I had people I could relate with much better. Of the 12 Africans, one was Nigerian and fluent in French.
The company itself has a culture of inclusion, and it showed. I met interns who were military veterans. I met someone who could speak up to seven languages. Another has a YouTube channel with over 100k subscribers. Another was a trans person. It just made me realise how much more people could be outside of the straight line of going to school and “reading book”.
Also, it made me see how narrow my worldview had been up until then. The experience really widened my psyche, and I’m grateful for it.
What’s Chester like?
It’s an old city built during the Roman empire, so it still has buildings with that ancient feel, places like the Chester Cathedral. It’s a naturally beautiful place, where you can just take a short walk outside and randomly find a spot to take Instagram-worthy pictures. Also, they have the second biggest zoo in all of UK.
The city is very community-centered. You’ll see families walk their dogs and old people holding hands. They also have a lot of space. Because of that, horse racing is very big in Chester. In fact, it’s almost a weekly festival. You know how families dress their kids up to go to church on Sundays? That’s exactly how entire families dress up to go watch the races on weekends here. It’s so nice to see. Never seen a more laid back group of people before.
Tell me more about the people
They’re extremely polite and always want to make small talk, even about things that aren’t exactly their business. They’re also very accommodating. Even though it was a predominantly-white environment, I never felt like I was treated differently. In fact, they always seemed so excited to meet someone who’s new to the place.
One time, I and a friend — also an intern — were going to a place we’d never been before, and we were talking on the bus, trying to figure out where the right stop was. This woman sitting behind us overheard and politely interfered to tell us where the right stop was. After, she started making small talk about where we were going, and just like that, she became our friend for the rest of the ride.
Have you had any culture shocks since getting to the UK?
Ah, yes. Where do I start from? The food! Oh my god. I have to carry pepper with me every time because the food is always bland. And it’s impossible to find African restaurants here. It’s impossible to find Nigerian food unless I cook, which I absolutely don’t like doing. I’ve been to London a few times since I’ve been in Chester, and I always have more food options there.
Another thing is the cold. I arrived during the summer, and the weather was 14oC. How in the world is it 14oC during summer? I carried a lot of regular shirts thinking I could make do with them since it was summer. LMAO.
The accent here is another interesting thing. It sounds like English, and it’s actually English, but you can’t tell for sure when they’re talking to you. Their accent is very similar to Scottish, so it’s different from what you’d hear in places like London. It used to be a struggle when I’m in conversations, but I’m better at understanding it now.
Another thing is how much people smoke here. Everyone has a vape pen. I love the people here, but the smoking makes me scared for them sometimes.
How long was the whole internship experience?
It was ten weeks long.
How have you been able to stay so long then?
After the internship, I applied to extend my stay to get a better feel of the city. On top of that, the company I worked with reviewed my performance and offered me a full-time position. But I had to come back to Nigeria to complete my education first.
Now that I’m done, I’m going back to Chester because what am I looking for in Nigeria?
So you’ll stay in Chester for as long as possible?
I’d prefer to move to a place with more variety, especially with the food. London would make sense. But I also like Chester, so I can definitely settle here.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on Abroad Life is a medical doctor who has lived in America for eight years. She says she’s fallen in love with everything about the country, except for one thing — the lack of gun control.
When did you decide to move abroad?
Years before I finally made a move in 2001. Life was beginning to get unbearable. Imagine a medical doctor trained in Nigeria and a pharmacist trained in America not being able to make a good standard of living combined. Either I couldn’t get a good job or I did a job and wasn’t paid. I also had four kids and thus, had to look out for the future. I’m glad I finally got some help by leaving the country.
How did you manage to migrate with four kids?
The way it happened, it was almost like we won the lottery. There’s a category of visa called H1-B. Sometimes in America when labour is low, they grant H1-B visas to immigrants to come in and work. After five years, you can regularise your visa and become an American citizen.
My husband was able to get this H1-B visa because a pharmaceutical company in the United States wanted to hire him. The company provided lawyers that helped us with the entire process. With that H1-B visa, the rest of the family could accompany him on an H4 visa. I couldn’t work on the H4 visa, but my kids could go to school.
In 2005, the company regularised his visa to permanent residency with a green card. Five years later, he became a full citizen of the United States. The kids and I were also able to regularise our visa into America after some years with a green card and got our full citizenship.
What was the US like?
I will talk about one culture shock which embraces everything. What I noticed right from the plane going to America is that the white man likes to be his brother’s keeper. Everyone was so concerned for my well being because of the shock of seeing me with four kids—
Wait, can you tell us about your flight experience?
First, we missed a connecting flight. LMAO.
We were supposed to be in the plane from France to Fort Myers, Florida. However the flight was cancelled due to severe weather conditions. We had to wait a couple of hours to catch the next one and boarded in a hotel for the night. They accommodated us so well. They gave us food and everything else that we needed while waiting. When we finally got on the plane, the kids were so exhausted that some of them sat on the floor. Every time an air hostess or even a passenger passed by, they always checked on us.
And when you got to Florida?
On our first night in Fort Myers, we boarded in a hotel, and I immediately met this lady that was so in love with my accent. She asked where we were from, how we got there and also introduced us to her church. It was that church family that helped us from time to time with meal coupons and made us comfortable when we moved into our new home. One lady even used her truck to help us move.
Then during Christmas, they gave us free furniture and gifts for the children. That was heartwarming. I, thankfully, didn’t experience any form of racism.
Nice! Have you had any encounters with a racist since you settled in?
Let me say what I’ve observed. I will not say I’ve encountered racism. My kids came to this country and two of them are now medical doctors. Where is the racism in that? If you work hard in the United States of America, whatever you deserve would be given to you. Unlike Nigeria, where the more you work, the less profit or gain you’d see. The minorities here are the intellectuals. I live in my own fully paid house now in the U.S., something I was never able to do in Nigeria.
I won’t say there is or isn’t racism. But I can say that I’ve benefited from America, and thus, can’t really say that there is racism.
What else do you enjoy in the US apart from constant electricity?
Well, a whole lot. Prices don’t skyrocket uncontrollably. Even if it goes up, the government is trying their best to bring it down. We breathe fresher air here. The quality of the healthcare system here is one million times better. This is because the government spends millions of dollars on research, medical equipment and training of medical staff. Hence, you can be at least 90% sure that you will be treated by capable doctors and not quacks. You can always do checkups here with the insurance you paid for.
The only thing I’d say they’re yet to hack with their healthcare system is the high costs, and that’s because of the lack of regulation when it comes to medical insurance. Most of the medical insurance companies are owned by private shareholders, and they add so much profit to the prices of medical services, that it’s crazy to think about. Even with Medicare (the US national healthcare insurance scheme) you’re not assured of getting all your medical needs covered.
But if we’re talking about the quality of education and food, it’s definitely up to par and highly regulated. For instance, health and safety officials always check on the quality of food one eats at restaurants. Every skill here is certified, even down to hairdressing. And those certificates need to be on display. Here, you are held accountable for your actions.
I can go on and on. As long as you stay in your lane, you can live a qualitative life.
How do you navigate tax?
If you cut your coat according to your size here, you should be okay. Even though I am getting taxed, I know how much I earn and how much I’d be left with at the end of the day, and I live within that bracket.
Is there anything that’d make you leave?
I’d say it’s the issue of gun control. In America here, so far as you’re of legal age you can purchase a gun. This, for me, is bad. Guns can now get into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. If they can come up with some legislation on who can own a gun, then everything about America is okay.
Have you ever experienced gun violence?
I haven’t, but everyone is allowed to own guns here. There are pros to this, though. Thieves won’t be so eager to break into your house as the resident may most likely own a gun. However, it has caused so many store robberies that I’d like for it to stop.
Do you have plans to return to Nigeria?
Yes, I’m looking to settle down in Nigeria after retirement. I’m just praying that the country would be better so that I can retire in peace.
Do you miss anything about Nigeria?
Oh, I miss Nigerian food. Food like ukwa, ube, and even snails are sorely missed here. I also miss my hometown in Anambra too, but there’s no safety there. I wish that the country can be secure so that I can come back home.
From the story of a Nigerian woman who almost committed suicide because of the UK’s slow healthcare system to that of another man who got served breakfast in the freezing cold of winter, Abroad Life has always given you the best stories from Nigerians living abroad.
Just in case you missed them, here are some of the most interesting Abroad Life Stories for the year.
A career opportunity helped him move to Germany, but he’d made the decision much earlier when his friend got stabbed in the neck and died because the hospital wouldn’t treat her without a police report. He decided he’d had enough and started looking to leave Nigeria.
What you’d find most interesting in this story is the tax. . I can’t imagine the Nigerian government asking me to surrender that much of my income every month. I will fight.
The UK’s healthcare system might be free, but it apparently can be ridiculously slow, according to this woman’s story. The subject of this story felt this the hardest when she couldn’t get urgent medical care for a condition that made her suicidal.
The wildest part of the story for me is the fact that medical appointments often have to be made months in advance.
This story flies in the face of many stereotypes that exist about Jamaica, but the highlight of the story for me was the fact that Jamaicans actually love Nollywood. This is definitely a must-read for anyone who wants to know what it’s like to live in Jamaica.
Many parts of this story felt like a movie. From moving to Italy all alone as a teenager to being deported from another African country as an African, this country had me saying “Omo” so many times.
Most of us agree that French is a sexier language than English, but who would have thought that the French people would be snobbish about it? The key takeaway from this story is — Speak English to a French person and you’ll get aired.
He moved to Johannesburg when he was five years old and has spent over seventeen years there. By many measures, he’s South African. But in real life, he’s still denied a lot of opportunities because his parents are Nigerian.
We once said that you should remove North Cyprus from your Japa plans, and this story tells us exactly why. From unwarranted arrests of new entrants to discriminatory work conditions for immigrants, Cyprus doesn’t really like Nigerians like that.
As a Nigerian who’s frequently affected by Nigeria’s electricity issues, I felt this one in my chest. But it’s nice to see how the subject adapts to having access to things that’ll normally stress you here in Nigeria.
The subject of this story didn’t like that he couldn’t move around freely in Nigeria. He decided to take matters into his own hands and move to Poland. Since then, he’s been touring all of Europe.
The subject of this story may avoid dating in the UK because of his experience. He fell into a talking stage with a Nigerian woman and travelled for two hours in the freezing cold to go see her. He got there for the dinner they’d planned, and she said she wasn’t feeling like going anymore. More than the weather, he’s still shaken by her coldness and will be sticking to the streets.
There’s often a lot of talk about why you should move abroad, but not much is said about the not-so-colourful sides of it like loneliness, finances, and the often terrible weather.
The subject of this story relied on Youtubers for her idea of what it’s like to live in Canada, and she found out the hard way that they left out a lot of things.
If you thought that being in a place without drinking water and access to the internet for a 10-hour drive could only happen in Nigeria, think again. The subject of this story faced a reality of Canada that was completely different from everything she thought she knew. From job-hunting to the cold and then the racism that still exist, Canada’s PR is in the trenches this year.
The next time Nigerians in the UK tell you the dating scene is wild over there, believe them. The subject of this story was left hanging by a UK babe after travelling across the country to see her. His takeaway from the experience: UK babes don’t really care about you.
This story is relatable for most people. Moving out of the home for university, then changing so much and so drastically that it’s better to just maintain an image at home.
The subject of this story lives a double life every day in Russia. The one he lives in reality, and the one his parents think he lives.
Seychelles is often a favourite holiday destination for Nigerians, but the experience of this story’s subject paints a different picture. He eventually had a fun vacation, but not after being treated like a criminal at the airport.
If you’ve ever wondered why someone would leave the abroad to come back to live in Nigeria, you’ll get your answer in this story. BlWas it a good decision? You’ll find out too.
The highlight of this story is the fact that he doesn’t receive money from home anymore because Nigerian banking system makes his allowance arrive four months late at least.
My highlight of the story is the fact that she got all she ever wanted in the end, japa included.
The subject of this story got a visa to the UK within three months after she got tired of waiting for Canada to give her a visa. But on getting there, she found a couple of things she didn’t like, such as having too much electricity and over-politeness.
This Nigerian doctor moved to the UK because he didn’t want to practice medicine in Nigeria. It turned out to be one of the best decisions he’s made, has he’s having the time of his life after reuniting with friends in the UK.
This week’s subject on #TheAbroadLife left Nigeria to start over in school after being forced to stay at home for a whole year due to ASUU strikes. He lost three years in total, but today, he’s worked with the company that built the popular game, Call of Duty.
When did you decide to leave Nigeria?
I didn’t make the decision myself, TBH. It was something my parents decided and kinda worked towards. I’d noticed them talking to my cousins about schools in the US, and I was just in the background cheering them on because I was excited at the thought of leaving OAU to study abroad.
LMAO. What’s wrong with OAU?
Everything. First, it’s a mentally draining place, like everything conspires to suck the mental curiosity out of you. I once had a lecturer tell the whole class that we were all going to fail because he didn’t like us. Just like that. We had someone give a test ten minutes into the start of his class because he noticed many people weren’t in class yet. The place is just full of wickedness. So, I was really excited about leaving.
Was this what made your parents decide, or was it something else?
My parents are kinda used to the fact that Nigerian schools are messed up in many ways, so the things I was experiencing probably seemed like child’s play to them because they experienced worse. But the last straw for them was 2020.
We’d gone on strike before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the lockdown didn’t make it feel like the strike was serious. We came out of the lockdown a few months later, and I still couldn’t go anywhere because ASUU strike was on. The last strike that had happened was in 2018 but this was enough to freak my parents out, so they started looking for options.
Why did they choose the US?
I had cousins who live here and understand how things work, so it was only natural for them to be the starting point for my parents. We realised I could move abroad with an undergraduate assistantship which would afford me a tuition-free undergraduate education. That became the thing to pursue for the next six months.
I wrote the SATs and passed really well, and I applied to about five schools to study electrical engineering, which was what I was studying in OAU. I applied to schools with the highest acceptance rates, low tuition and good post-university placement rate. This helped with my admission and career chances.
Did you get admitted to any of these schools?
Yes. I got admitted to a university in Minnesota in March 2021, but the session was to start in August. We applied for the student visa with my admission, paid the fees, after which I started planning to “travel out”.
I didn’t tell a lot of my friends about the whole thing, mainly at the behest of my parents. They were scared of “village people” when it came to my matter, so we were all very discreet.
What happened next?
My visa was approved, and I left Nigeria in June 2021.
Paint me a picture. You’ve just landed in Minnesota, USA. What’s it like?
I saw the tallest buildings I’d ever seen in my life, and it blew my mind. That was my first time out of Nigeria, so I’d only ever seen them in movies. But movies don’t do justice to how tall some of these buildings are. Then the roads. My God, the roads are big, and the cars on them too. I think Americans simply love big things. The food portions are big too. Same thing with the billboards.
When winter was done, I could finally appreciate just how beautiful the state is. It was naturally beautiful with the nicest treescapes and landscapes. I hate that I still haven’t been able to explore the natural side of the state because I’ve been busy with school.
Speaking of, how did it go at school?
I did all the registrations, met and signed up with the lecturer to whom I was supposed to be a research assistant. He was warm and welcoming. The work I had to do for him was only on a part-time basis so I could focus on school.
When school started, I realised I’d been suffering all my life. There’s an unspoken sentiment in Nigeria that school needs to be hard for it to make sense, or that it’s normal for students to suffer just because they’re students. That thing is complete rubbish. The first thing that shocked me here was that the lecturers want your opinion, and they actually care about it. This was new to me because asking the wrong questions in my class back in OAU could mean you’d get washed by the lecturer.
The style of learning w also perfect for me. It wasn’t just knowing and regurgitating facts. You got to see how to apply them in practical situations. A lot of things I used to need to memorise were just unnecessary. Because of this, I’ve been on a perfect GPA since my first year in school, and I don’t even work as hard at school as I did in OAU.
Omo. I love it for you
Because I have the grades and time, I’ve been able to do a lot extracurricular activities like building student developer clubs, and take on internships and side jobs to make more money. It’s a better deal coming here TBH.
Last summer, I did a 3-month software engineering internship at the company that makes the Call of Duty game that everyone loves so much. I had a fun time and made awesome friends.
That’s awesome! Tell me about the people of Minnesota
The people here are super-polite, almost to a fault. It was off-putting at first, especially coming from Nigeria where people are often careful when talking to strangers. They say “please” so much it kills me. They smile whenever they’re talking to you, and it didn’t sit well with the Yoruba boy in me. Like, why are you smiling? Are you planning to do me bad or what?
I eventually got used to it, and I now get along well with people. In school, I made a lot of American friends, but I was also able to connect with Africans because we have societies and associations that make that easy.
When you’re here, you don’t really see people from other African countries as different from you because you’re mostly coming from the same situation back home, and people simply make no distinction between what country people are actually from.
What do you plan to do after school?
I don’t know. I haven’t actually thought about that. But I know for a fact I want to stay back here. There are lots of opportunities for me to choose from. The most obvious thing for me to do is to get a job here so I can get a work visa and probably stay here long enough to become naturalized.
My main goal is to work in big tech, but we’ll see.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on Abroad Life is a recent graduate who has lived in Johannesburg since he was five years old. Over the years, he’s missed out on big opportunities because he’s not a native South African. He shares his South African xenophobia experience with me.
When did you decide to move abroad?
Well, I can’t say I decided. In 2003, I migrated to South Africa with my family at the young age of five. So I’ve spent almost my whole life here.
Do you have any memories of life in Nigeria?
I can vaguely remember growing up in Anambra. Life wasn’t great when it came to finances. The ground in our compound was red earth, and there was hardly any power. I also remember being constantly hungry. These memories tally with my parents’ reasons for leaving Nigeria — to secure a better life and be financially prosperous.
What was the relocation process like?
My dad had been in South Africa for ten years. He became a citizen through naturalisation, though he kept coming to Nigeria often to see his family in Nigeria. After the tenth year, he processed the necessary immigration papers for myself and my mum to move here as well. I got in through my dad’s citizenship, and I’ve gained mine through naturalisation too, as I’ve been here for more than ten years. I have two passports now.
Did you experience any culture shock?
In South Africa, there are so many cultures because people come in here from all over the world. That’s where South Africa gained the nickname “Rainbow Nation” from. I’ve visited Nigeria a couple of times since I left, and the difference in terms of respect is clear. You always have to attach “Ma” and “Sir” to everything, but not here in South Africa. No one cares about that.
Are there advantages to living in South Africa?
The quality of life is great here. You can still get the basics even if you’re struggling in South Africa, unlike Nigeria where even good roads are hard to find. It’s only recently we started having power outages, mostly because of the increased cost of power generation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Growing up here, I’ve assimilated well into society. I may not have been able to say this if I came here at a more mature age. And because of my citizenship, I have access to bursaries, scholarships, etc.
What would life have been like otherwise?
The cost of living is expensive. The school fees for public universities here is equivalent to what the best private universities in Nigeria charge. Most Nigerians need scholarships and two jobs to afford higher education in South Africa.
It’s also harder to make friends when you don’t have the typical South African accent, which I’ve developed.
Have you experienced any challenges?
I still experience a bit of xenophobia. I’ve lost opportunities because I’m not a native South African. Employers prioritise native South Africans over foreigners, especially blacks.
Can you give more context into your experience with xenophobia?
It has to be one of the worst things about South Africa. They want to reserve all the good opportunities for the native South Africans. South Africans by blood are the only ones truly considered citizens.
For example, Nigerians and Zimbabweans are targeted a lot. When they talk about foreigners here, they usually mean us. Most Nigerians here are self-employed and their businesses are doing well, and a lot of South Africans don’t like it. They try to hinder the growth of those businesses, either by looting the stores, protesting or claiming rights. A few years ago, South Africans burnt down many shops owned by Nigerians in the business district of Johannesburg. I know people in Nigeria retaliated by burning down Shoprite and all.
How has xenophobia affected you personally?
I’ve lost scholarships that would’ve advanced my professional football career, even though I had excellent grades when I graduated from university. I also didn’t scale an interview for an entry-level government job opportunity, even though I had all the qualifications. And everyone here knows that government jobs pay some good money.
Tell me about the interview you failed
I can’t really mention the name of the government sector, but it’s a huge sector in the country. They seemed highly impressed with my skills and qualifications, so I was asked where I’m from because of my surname. I said I grew up in South Africa, and my parents are Nigerian. After that question, the interview panel proceeded to end the interview.
I just knew that my parents being Nigerian was what formed their decision not to take me.
Would you ever come back to Nigeria?
I’m not sure I can ever come back to Nigeria. The amount of insecurity and inflation there is too much. There are better chances of a better life here in South Africa than Nigeria. Besides, I’m more South African than Nigerian in my attitude, culture and everything I do. The country is in my veins, and thus, I can never go back.
This week’s #TheAbroadLife subject was supposed to move to Canada after marrying a citizen in 2014, but things went south until five years later, when she got married a second time — her husband couldn’t attend the wedding. She talks about the insane cold and having to restart her career in Canada.
Where are you right now?
I’m abroad, my dear.
LMAO. Oya, where exactly?
I’m in Ontario, Canada.I’ve been here for three years now. I came in 2019, just before COVID struck.
Was this your first time leaving Nigeria?
No. I’d gone on a trip with my sister and her family to the UAE sometime in 2013.
So, why did you decide to leave Nigeria permanently?
The thought started growing in my mind back in 2013. I’d met a guy through a friend, and we’d been dating for over a year. He is Nigerian but was born in Canada. It simply occurred to me that I’d also become a Canadian citizen, when we were planning to get married the following year. That was the first time japa matter entered my mind.
We got married in November 2014. This month would’ve been our eighth-year anniversary.
“Would have”?
We divorced less than a year after. I really don’t understand why or what prompted him to seek a divorce, but he wanted one. After the wedding, he stayed for a month before traveling back to Canada for work. That’s where things suddenly started going bad.
We’d have very ridiculous arguments over trivial things that get overblown. One time, we argued over whether or not to commute to work or drive myself. It was always just something silly. I didn’t think these things were that big of a deal, until he said he wanted a divorce. This was less than six months into the relationship. I was livid, but he was hellbent on it and we got the drivorce.
Some people thought it was a spiritual thing, but I really don’t know. I went back to being single again in 2015. I moved into my elder sister’s house and stopped caring about men because love is a scam.
Also, I should mention that marrying a Canadian doesn’t grant you automatic citizenship. You still have to apply for it through the same process as everyone else. Yours might just be faster at best. But that was all out of question since my marriage had already gone south.
How did you heal from that?
I’m making jokes about it now, but to be honest, it was soul-crushing. I had a relatively loud wedding, so I felt somewhat embarrassed to have had to move back into my sister’s house. But she didn’t mind, and neither did her husband. They were super supportive, which made life easier to deal with. I probably became depressed about my life situation at some point, but they helped pull me out of it by making me feel less alone.
They had two kids. I became a proper big aunty and tended to them like they were my own. During that time, I realised all I actually wanted was a small, happy family, free from stress and harsh realities of any kind. After some time, I started flirting with the idea of falling for someone again.
Ah. You weren’t scared?
I was, but I knew the kind of life I wanted, and I’d just be miserable if I let it stay a dream. So I became intentional about meeting someone new. I became even more intentional about the kind of person I wanted to meet. I asked my aunt to connect me with someone she knew who fit the qualities I wanted. It was basically matchmaking, but I sought it out. This was sometime in 2018.
Did you like what you saw?
Omo, yes, I did, and he’s currently my husband. We’d been talking for months before we finally met. During that time, he told me he was living and working in Canada.
He finally came to Nigeria after a while and we met up. When we did, we hit it off immediately. It was like we’d known each other for a very long time. It was the easiest relationship I’d ever had. I didn’t have to force anything at all.
When did you start planning to escape to Canada with your lover?
He was already there, so it was more of me escaping to go meet him. We started thinking about the fastest way to go about it. He wasn’t a citizen yet; he hadn’t obtained his primary residence card. So getting married wouldn’t have solved the japa problem. I had to look for a way to get there somehow.
After much thought, I decided to apply for a work permit in Canada, which was easier than having to wait months for my PR to come. Also, if I could prove I was a professional in my home country, it’d really help my chances of getting in. I applied in September 2018, downloaded the application form, filled it out myself and attached all the necessary documents. Then I submitted it and went for the interview. The asked why I wanted to work in Canada. The questions weren’t that serious. I think more professionals should consider this route because it’d be faster for them.
In early 2019, my work permit was approved and half of the work was done. The other half involved getting certified to work as a pharmacist in Canada. Around this time, we got married.
Was it a destination wedding?
LMAO. No, it wasn’t. It even happened in absentia because he couldn’t come down to Nigeria because of work. So, he was in Canada at the time of the wedding while I was in Nigeria. But it was a very happy one because I had family around. It happened in April, and I left Nigeria three months after.
My last months in Nigeria were basically me spending more time with my sister and her family because I was leaving them after … years. Even though, they also had US Japa plans in motion already. I left Nigeria in the second half of 2019, just before COVID struck.
What is Canada like?
First of all, the cold is terrible. People talk about it a lot but they don’t really do justice to it. You get four months of good weather at most. After that, it’s like Winterfell from Game of Thrones. I expected the weather would be harsh, but this is far beyond my expectations. I miss not having to pay for heat, to be honest.
Also, this country is ridiculously big. You’ll be in the same state with someone, but you’ll drive six hours just to get to them. And I think the sparse population makes you feel the sheer size of the place more strongly. There’s just so much space with not enough people in it.
I’ve met a lot of Nigerians here, but I also have family here, so I mostly meet people related to the people I already know.
Canadians are generally more laid back than Americans. It’s a very ajebutter country. I’m not sure they have that many problems.
Tell me about working in Canada
When I got here, I had to sign up for the Canadian Board examination to get certified and licensed to practice pharmacy. It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a while.
In Nigeria, I’d been practising for more than ten years. Here, I had to start reading as if I was in school. Even worse, the materials were different from what I learnt in school. The process involved an exam, a few months of monitored internship/apprenticeship and a final assessment.
I bought all the books I needed and started studying for the exam. The whole licensure process cost me about CAD$3,000 and I needed to pass my exams on first attempt. If not, I’d have to do a bridging program that cost about CAD$13,000 at a university in Canada. That was obviously not an option.
So, I stuck to the grind of studying like hell to make sure I cleared everything at onve. The whole process usually takes 12 to 18 months, but in my case, it took two years and I didn’t fail any exam.
How come?
It was in the middle of COVID, so I couldn’t do my internship until the lockdown eased in 2021. I got fully licensed in January (2022), and I’ve been practising since.
How are you doing right now?
I can finally say I’m where I want to be. I have my own family and a blossoming life here. I’m finally earning money, but I’m eyeing the government for taking so much in taxes. I don’t really mind anyway, though, because things really work here.
I don’t have to worry about healthcare costs or school fees for my daughter. All in all, I got the life I wanted when I came here.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on Abroad Life is a tech bro who was tired of life in Nigeria without income and power supply, so he decided to continue his education and find work in Canada. He shares his difficulties with managing expenses and making friends as an international student.
When did you decide to move abroad?
In 2019, a family member kept telling me about Canada and the opportunities I could get there, including a post-graduate work permit after school and higher chances of permanent residency than in most other countries. I wasn’t obsessed with it in the beginning, but a year later, I started to compare the pros and cons of living in Nigeria versus abroad. I realised I could build my tech skills, work, and get my master’s degree at the same time. Being in a country that works will also help, considering the power issues in Nigeria and all.
I should’ve applied in 2020, but after much procrastination, I applied in June 2021 and got admission two months after, in August.
What challenges did you face in Nigeria?
It started when I applied to study electrical engineering at a university and was given physics instead. I didn’t like it, but I had to study it for five years. It made me resent the whole system. Fast forward to a year after school in 2019, I got interested in tech and started learning software engineering full-time through paid online courses. But it wasn’t easy because of the power issues. There was hardly ever light where I lived in Lagos, so I always had to pay for a workspace. At that time, I wasn’t even working. My parents always wondered when I would get a job, but with my degree, I couldn’t get jobs that were good enough for me.
So, Canada. What was the relocation process like?
I had to get the necessary documents and secure my medicals. The visa application wasn’t so difficult because we had an agent “running” it for me, but you see the medicals? I was traveling to Abuja literally every week to get it sorted. I also had to bring proof of funds. The entire process took like four months to complete. You have to be highly meticulous when filling out your papers, otherwise, you could be made to restart the whole process. Plus, I’m a big procrastinator, so the process took so long.
When did you arrive in Canada?
Late in January 2022.
Did you experience any culture shocks?
Yes. Especially with respect to titles. No adult here cares about your “ma” and “sir”.
Also, I’d say making friends is hard here. In Nigeria, it’s easy to get people to help you with one or two things, but not here. You’re just on your own most of the time, and it’s dangerous because what if there’s an emergency? It can be a very solitary life here.
Don’t Nigerian communities offer assistance?
You’d be shocked that some Nigerians don’t want you to succeed. They’d rather not tell you about the system so you can suffer the way they did when they first arrived. It’s hard to find someone who’s loyal or trustworthy enough to call your friend, even among fellow Nigerians.
Can you share some of your experiences on this?
I was part of an Afro-Caribbean society when I first arrived, and I made friends with a Nigerian called Dapo. I remember wanting to learn tips on how to survive in Canada and always asking him questions, but he never made time to explain things to me. He was always busy and never picked his calls. Imagine how that felt for a new immigrant with no family here. I had to find my feet on my own.
What would you say are the benefits of living in Canada?
There’s a system that works for everyone. Even if you didn’t go to school, you can find a job that would pay the same thing as someone who went to school. School is almost a luxury or second thought here because it doesn’t affect your income level. I can also get drugs at a subsidised rate here. They allow students to ride public buses for free, using a card that’s valid until September 2023.
What are the disadvantages?
Managing finances and running costs is hard for a student. My rent is $900 a month. I earn $300 a week as an admin assistant in a call service company ($15 for 20 hours per day), and it’s not always assured. Some days, there may be no work, so I won’t get any money. I also pay taxes of $100 every month. The only thing helping me is that my parents send me money that covers some part of the rent. It’s hard to save because as I receive my income, it goes out almost immediately.
Getting a job was also very hard. It took nearly two months before I got one in Canada. This is because many international students are applying for the same jobs. I even had a friend who waited six months before getting a job.
How are you juggling work with school?
It’s not an easy task. I’ve had some sleepless nights. Most times, I have to discuss my class schedule with my manager so they can create a work schedule based on the days I’m free. Sometimes, I’d go to work in the morning and then have an afternoon lecture. I know some people who work overnight. You also need to be careful and set out time to cover up for the days you didn’t read, so as not to slack on your academics.
Would you ever return to Nigeria?
Yes, I definitely will. I miss the air and warmth of Nigerian people in Nigeria. Here, friendship seems forced. But I’ll return only after I’ve got my master’s degree, perfected my software engineering skills, and made some money. Nigeria is not the place you want to return to without a good job.
How much money do you think you need?
The way Nigeria is going, any amount of money I call right now may not be sufficient in the next two months or so. I don’t want to be too specific, but hopefully, I’ll return in the next four to five years or so, when I’ve made some millions.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on Abroad Life was applying to universities on a whim, during her NYSC, when one suddenly offered her a scholarship. She shares the quirks of living in England, including the bitter cold of winter, overt classism and the slow healthcare system.
When did you decide to move abroad?
I never decided; I would say it happened on a whim. During my NYSC in 2021, I decided to apply to a couple of universities for a Chevening scholarship because someone said I could write. And I got admission, with a partly-funded scholarship worth 50 per cent of the tuition, to study cyberpsychology at Nottingham Trent.
What did you study before this?
I got into the University of Lagos to study law in 2011, but I switched to psychology in 2014 after I was diagnosed with a mental illness. Fast forward to 2019, I graduated and deferred my NYSC service year until 2021 due to health reasons. Then I worked in an advertising agency until I got laid off in March 2021. I was out of a job until May when I started working with a fintech startup. NYSC posted me to Abuja, where I started working at a psychiatric center.
Then you got the scholarship admission?
Yes, didn’t finish my NYSC. I also applied for a visa. It wasn’t exactly planned because I left in a bit of a rush, but it wasn’t difficult. An agent did everything for me for almost nothing.
Really?
Yup. There are agents who help you process your application, visa, and everything else for free. They get paid by the school when you pay your fees. The only things I had to spend money on were printing, photocopying and the visa application fee.
When did you arrive in England?
In October 2021 at around 5 p.m. I must say, there were a lot of checks at Heathrow, but once you get past them, you’re good to go.
Did you experience any culture shocks?
Oh my God, a lot. Especially because of my health. My first winter here was hell. Do you know how they say the seventh circle of hell is freezing cold? That’s how it was for me. It was lonely, but adjusting to the cold was one thing. In Nigeria, you don’t need to do so many registrations to access basic services, but that’s not the case here. You have to register your address with a general practitioner (GP) to get access to healthcare. You need to get a phone number to work legally. Also, it’s an English-speaking country, but I don’t understand what the hell they’re saying half of the time.
Wait, what?
It’s like they’re talking through their noses half the time. I’m sure most people thought I was illiterate my first few months here because I was trying to understand even the tiniest of sentences. The education system is also very different from Nigeria’s which is more knowledge-based. In England, it’s more analysis-based and focuses on critical thinking.
How’s school going?
I’m currently extending my studies without a scholarship. I couldn’t complete the coursework in the first year because of my health. I’m currently working and using my living expenses to pay the fees.
What about friends? Have you made any?
I only have like one or two friends. None of them are purely British. I tend to make friends with Chinese people because I can relate more to their culture and worldview. They understand things like background, respect, etc., more than Caucasians. I’ve not had any run-ins with disrespectful white people, but that’s the general vibe they give off.
Tell me about how health affected your studies
I became suicidal in January [2022].
OMG. What happened?
So, in England, you have to register with a GP. You can’t just walk into the hospital and get attended to. Appointments have to be made months in advance. I started my GP registration in October 2021. However, my first appointment to see a psychiatrist was in February 2022. The medication I brought from Nigeria finished in November 2021. By January, I had to go into the emergency room because I was suicidal. I had a couple of friends in healthcare in Nigeria, and luckily, two of them are psychiatrists. When they saw the warning signs of depression, and a constant desire to be alone, they advised me to go to the emergency room.
So sorry you had to go through that. Has the healthcare system improved since then?
Nope. It’s still just the worst. When you pay for a visa, you pay something called the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) that covers hospital visits, GP registrations, tests, and whatnot. Things like dental and optical services are not covered, but I don’t really need them. The one thing I know I have had to deal with that’s NOT covered is medication. I’ve had to pay for it out of my pocket per prescription.
So here’s how payment per prescription works. If I’m prescribed three different meds, and each of them goes for £20, £30 and £40 respectively, no matter how many pills are in the bottle, I’d still pay that amount. I could be made to pay 40 for one bottle of 10 pills, for instance, which is a ridiculous amount of money. In Nigeria, the price of drugs is dependent on how many tablets you buy.
The healthcare system here is just really slow, inefficient, and they don’t really care. The hospital staff sees taking care of you as just “doing the job”. It’s not about improving your life. In a way, I understand because the NHS is overworked and underfunded. But the healthcare service is definitely my least favorite thing about England.
What else don’t you like?
Hmm. The classism. I once had a shift at a race course in Cheltenham, and you could easily differentiate who was poor from who was middle class or posh without even talking to them. When the “posh” people do talk to you, they do it with a subtle air of arrogance.
Do you have any favorite things about England?
Definitely the standard of living; it’s much higher than that of Nigeria. Also, it’s an easy country to live in once you’ve adjusted to the system, in terms of access to basic amenities and whatnot.
Would you ever return to Nigeria?
England is cold and boring compared to Lagos life, so I know I’ll come back at some point. However, I don’t think I’d like to give up the standard of living here. In my fintech job, they paid me ₦150k a month. But I can get so much more than that in the same role here in England. Nigeria will always be home, but it needs to be fixed with structure before I can go back.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Today’s subject on #AbroadLife is the main character in a tale of three countries. After deciding to study abroad nine years ago, he was finally able to in 2021. He talks about being the only black person in an English town, having a fun time living in Greece, and dealing with the language barrier in France.
Where are you right now?
I’m in Nantes, France.
How did you get there?
I got an Erasmus Mundi scholarship to study for my Master’s degree in Europe, and it’s taken me through three countries so far. It’s a joint Master’s degree programme and it’s administered by three universities in three different countries, with full tuition paid.
Wild. When did you decide to leave Nigeria?
In 2013. I got into a federal university in 2012 and was admitted to study Fishery and Aquaculture. I wanted medicine, but that’s what they offered me instead. So, I spent my first year trying to be serious and get good enough grades to help me cross into Pharmacy at the very least.
I didn’t know anything about scholarships at the time. The people who ran printing centres in school would come to class and tell us to apply for scholarships. But I always thought it was a scam just to collect the ₦1,000 registration fee.
The following year, I started seeing my friends get some of the popular scholarships at the time; MTN, NNPC, Agbami, etc. These people didn’t have grades as good as mine, but they still got scholarships worth around ₦100,000 to ₦200,000 every year.
That’s when it really hit me that scholarships were a thing. I made the decision that I would get a scholarship to study abroad for my Master’s degree. The first reason was that I wanted to become an expert in my field, and the second reason was that I knew I could do it. I started researching and documenting things in my final year.
When did you start applying for scholarships?
In 2019, during my NYSC in Akure. I applied for two scholarships in the Netherlands and the UK. I was actually hopeful because my grades were stellar, but I was served breakfast on both sides.
LMAO. What did you do next?
I got a job upon completion of my NYSC, and I started thinking about ditching my scholarship dream because I was making enough money from it. On the other hand, I had nothing to lose if I didn’t get a scholarship, so I decided to try again. The only difference was, my motivation wasn’t as high as it was before. Money can distract you from your dreams, to be honest.
The next year, during COVID, I applied for two more scholarships. One of them was the Commonwealth scholarship administered by the UK government, and it was the one I eventually got. I was selected to get funding to study in the UK, but sadly, it didn’t happen then.
Why?
Because of all the economic damage COVID caused, the UK government decided to cut funding for that year. So, I received an email saying I still had my scholarship, but I’d have to defer my scholarship till the next year. The following year, I reapplied for the other scholarship that rejected me. This time, I was successful. Now, I had two scholarships and could weigh my options.
The commonwealth scholarship offered me full funding to study in the UK for a year, after which I must return to Nigeria to develop it. But the other scholarship didn’t have that clause. Even better, it was for a joint Master’s programme to be administered by three schools in different countries: Scotland, Greece and France. This meant I’d get to see more of Europe. I chose the second scholarship and started the process of migrating.
What was the process like?
Even though it was my first time leaving Nigeria, I found the process pretty easy. I got a letter from the scholarship office stating that the scholarship would cover 100% of the tuition and a monthly stipend. I didn’t have to worry about providing proof of funds and other things like that. I was granted a visa within three weeks of applying, and I moved to the UK in September 2021.
Walk me through your journey across Europe
I arrived in London first. COVID was still on at the time, so I couldn’t move to Scotland immediately, and my classes were online. I had many friends in the UK already, so I stayed with one of them. I was there for about three months before I moved to a town called Oban in Scotland.
I expected the UK to be cold, and it was. I expected it to be beautiful; it also was. But my God, the apartments are tiny! My room was smaller than my room back in Nigeria, and I had to pay £450 every month in rent, my yearly rent back in Nigeria.
To make things worse, I had to share a kitchen with other people in the building. So all I really had to myself was a room and toilet. And the buildings weren’t so modern because they try to preserve their architectural history. To top it all up, I was the only black person in the town.
Wait, what?
It’s a really small town. If there were any other black person there, I’m very sure I’d have met them at some point. But I never saw any other black person throughout my stay.
It wasn’t weird at all though. The people were very welcoming, and I’d sometimes go to bars and get them to play afrobeats. They loved it. I had a good time, but I only spent three months there before I had to move to Greece for the next part of my programme.
What was Greece like?
Honestly, Greece is like Nigeria Pro Max. When I got there, I thought, “Did they bring me to Lagos by mistake?” People were blaring horns so loudly, and no one respected zebra crossings. It was giving Ojuelegba-level chaos.
One time, I tried to use a zebra crossing, thinking the cars would wait for me the way they would in the UK. Come and see swerving. I was the one dodging cars. At that point, I knew I’d found Nigeria’s twin. It’s a very interesting country and naturally beautiful too sha.
I lived in a city called Heraklion, and it has a beautiful landscape, beautiful beaches and many historic sites. Things were also cheaper in Greece than in the UK. Their economy was worse, which meant the stipend I was getting translated into a lot more cash for me. The buildings were not that pretty, and you could tell the country was battling sapa at the time.
Tell me about the people
The people in Greece are friendlier and more laid back than those in the UK. Back in London, everyone was about their hustle and didn’t really give a shit about you. But no one knows how to have fun as much as the Greeks.
About 70% of the people in Greece speak English, so I could get by very well in social circles without knowing any Greek. The families are bigger because they don’t migrate very often.
How long were you there for?
Six months, before having to move to Nantes in September.
Where?
Nantes, in France. It’s a student city, so I met more people from different parts of the world there. For the first time since London, I saw a lot of black people. It’s a lot like the UK actually. But the main difference is language. One annoying thing is how snobbish French people are about their language. It’s almost as if they have a long-standing beef with English speakers.
The first thing I learnt to say in French was, “I don’t know how to speak French”. The whole point was to get the person to speak English with me, but nine out of ten times, their countenance would change the minute I said it. French people aren’t as friendly as the Greeks, but they’re even less friendly if you don’t speak French. They’ll say they can’t speak English and air you, even when they actually can.
It’s so bad that even in the hospitals, the doctors only talk to you in French. The country is also very bureaucratic; there’s a lot of unnecessary paperwork you have to deal with, and they’re all in French. Emails from the authorities come in French, and when you call to ask for clarity, they’ll speak French. So, language is a real social barrier for me here. The lucky thing in all of this is that my classes are in English. If not, I’d be in trouble.
How are you dealing with it?
I’m currently learning French sha, so these people can stop airing me anyhow. I have French classes twice a week, and it’s helping. The good part is my coursework across the countries has been in English, so language isn’t affecting my studies in any way.
What do you love about France?
First of all, it’s very multicultural. In the other countries, the diversity came from the people in my own class. But we’ve been the same people moving together from place to place for the past year. In Nantes, there are people from all over the world. One time, I went to a church and saw so many black people, I thought I was back in Benin, Nigeria.
Another thing I love is the fact that it’s a welfarist state. The government cares about the people who don’t earn very much. My stipend is around €1,000 per month. But because I’m a student, I get up to 60% off my €450 rent, financed by the French government. The same goes for food and a bunch of other things I need to stay alive.
And what’s school been like so far?
Moving from school to school across different countries is very tough. Not only is the system of education different from Nigeria, but each country has a different system of their own. In the UK, we didn’t have proper exams; we wrote essays that would count towards the assessment grade. Most of my classes were online, and there’s only so much one can learn without being in a classroom. In Greece, I had proper exams and the classes were in-person. It was a better learning environment for me as I could interact directly with my classmates and ask questions in class. I’d say my semester in Greece has been the easiest so far.
France basically combines everything. Essays, exams, assignments, field trips, you name it. We do everything.
So, where will you go from here?
Back to Greece to finish my programme. It’s a two-year master’s programme. I did the first semester of my first year in the UK and the second one in Greece. The third one is what I’m currently doing, and the last will be in Greece. I can’t wait to leave the stress of this place and get back to my second Nigeria.
LMAO. Your love for that place is really something
Yes. It’s like Nigeria but with constant light.
Hey there! My name is Sheriff and I’m the writer of Abroad Life. If you’re a Nigerian and you live or have lived abroad, I would love to talk to you about what that experience feels like and feature you on Abroad Life. All you need to do is fill out this short form, and I’ll be in contact.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Today’s subject on Abroad Life moved to Togo for school in 2017 and met a country very different from what he’d imagined it was like, growing up in Nigeria. He shares what it’s like living in a French-speaking African country, his newness to the relaxed culture, and why more Nigerians should visit other African countries.
What’s your travelling history like?
I didn’t travel much when I was a kid, but we lived in a different country for a while. My mum got a job with a relief organisation that did some humanitarian work in DR Congo. So that’s where I spent four years of my life.
What was that like?
It’s mostly a blurry memory, but I remember there being a lot of people from different cultures. Congo is like Nigeria in many ways, but it’s also different. They have many tribes and sub-tribes that have beef and still marry each other all the time, just like Nigerians. But they’re also poor, which is wild because the country has more resources than Nigeria. I came back when I was ten.
What was settling back in Nigeria like?
I basically lost contact with the friends I played with back in Congo. But our financial condition became better at home because my dad started lecturing at different universities. He couldn’t do this when we were in Congo.
Interesting. So when did you decide to leave Nigeria for Togo?
I won’t say I decided on it to be honest. The opportunity presented itself. I graduated from secondary school in 2015 and didn’t immediately get admitted into a university. I wrote JAMB but my score was so bad that I didn’t even get admitted for any course. So for the next one year, I needed something to do. My mum had said something about learning French because she’s a polyglot.
I didn’t really buy the idea, but since I didn’t have anything to do, I agreed to it. I enrolled at Alliance Francaise and learnt French for a year.
The plan was to use my proficiency in French as a means of gaining admission to study in France, but that didn’t play out as hoped.
What happened?
Nigeria fell on harder times in 2016, and the exchange rate went up. My parents couldn’t afford the tuition fees anymore, so I had to start thinking about alternatives. Fortunately, I’d already applied to OAU. I got accepted, although it wasn’t for a course of my choice. My choice was mechanical engineering, but I’d been admitted for mathematics instead. I decided to take it and resumed school in early 2017. I stayed for a year. Right after the second semester, I knew I couldn’t withstand the madness of the school. The lecturers didn’t care much, we had insane timelines, and the curriculum was very weird. I was used to learning from scratch, but here I was feeling like there was a gap in my education that was left to me fill. I told my parents I didn’t think I could continue.
How did they take it?
They actually took it very well. My dad is a lecturer so he understood what I was talking about. Again, we started looking for alternatives, and my mum suggested Togo. I could already speak French, and it’s a West African country, so there weren’t any visa requirements. She also had people Togolese friends from her work who spoke highly of the standard of education there, so that crystallised the decision. To answer your initial question, I’d say the decision to study in Togo was made in 2017.
What was the process like?
My mum found out about this catholic university in Togo that had a good admission rate. I just needed to show my WAEC results and a few other documents, and I was good. I applied sometime in late 2017 and got admitted to study computer science and mathematics. I’d seen what studying mechanical engineering was like through my friends in OAU, and I no longer wanted it. I chose computer science and mathematics, and that’s what I got.
Sweet. What was immigration like?
I had my passport and admission letter, so it was easy to prove to the people at the borders that I was entering Togo for school. It was more of a long road trip than I assume a typical japa journey would be like. The only issue I had was when the immigration officers at the Togo border claimed my passport was a “virgin passport”, so I had to pay some money.
When I got to Lome, my mum had already arranged for one of her friends to come to pick me up at the park and take me to school. I stayed with her for a week while I sorted out registration at school.
What was Togo like? Expectations vs reality
The first thing I noticed was how relaxed it was compared to Lagos, where there’s this air of struggle. Here, life isn’t so hard for them. The streets aren’t buzzing till long after it’s dark and there’s generally a sense of calm here. I don’t have to wake up before dawn just so I can get to somewhere I have to be. It made me realise that what we call “hustling spirit” in Nigeria is just suffering.
Another thing I noticed was there were motorcycles everywhere, and unlike in Nigeria, they all had helmets on. It’s as if everyone owned a motorcycle and you couldn’t really tell if a motorcycle was commercial or personal.
Coming here corrected a bias I’d previously held in my mind, that other African countries are poor and somewhat rural. Even though I’d lived in Congo once before, I just had the thought somewhere in my head. Living in Lome has made me realise how much I didn’t know about other places in Africa. Lome was cleaner than Lagos, with nicer buildings, and apparently, better city planning.
They had cleaner beaches too, but I that’s because the country is not very populated. So, while my first impression wasn’t shocking or anything, it was very eye-opening.
Tell me about the people
The Togolese are a little brash, and it’s not uncommon to see a seemingly small argument escalate because people just won’t calm down. But they’re also some of the most accommodating people I’ve known. I spent four years in school, and for the first two, I didn’t go home during the holidays. I’d just stay at a classmate’s home, and it was always a lot of fun. We’d explore places in Togo that I didn’t have the chance to explore during school session.
One contrasting thing is how they tend to see Nigerians as noisemakers who like to shout to get their way. I’ve heard people make that comment so many times because they’re surprised that I’m actually an introvert.
Also, Togo is a french-speaking country, but most people can speak English, especially pidgin English, so it’s a bit easy to get by without understanding French. But not in school sha.
What’s school like?
The classes are obviously in French, but the curriculum is also a lot more detailed than I experienced back in Nigeria. Even though it was a three-year programme, it went very deep because we weren’t just learning in class. We were assigned to study groups to help us get through the material faster.
This really helped when COVID hit in 2020. I had to come back to Nigeria, but classes simply went on as if nothing happened. We moved our main classes to Discord, where we managed our study groups before. It wasn’t as easy as being in a classroom — they even rushed us harder — but it was better than having nothing at all.
I met people from other African countries and made really good friends. The experience helped me realise I didn’t know anything about other African countries in general. When I blow, I’ll make sure to visit as many of them as possible. There’s just too much to see.
So, how did your Togo story end?
I graduated from school in 2021 and came back home to look for work as a mobile developer. My brain has somehow reset into the hustle mode every Nigerian falls into.
LMAO. Do you think you’ll leave again?
It’s definitely in the cards for me, but I want to make some money first. I can’t japa without funds, please.
Hey there! My name is Sheriff and I’m the writer of Abroad Life. If you’re a Nigerian and you live or have lived abroad, I would love to talk to you about what that experience feels like and feature you on Abroad Life. All you need to do is fill out this short form, and I’ll be in contact.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
If you want to move to Canada, you need to read this #AbroadLife. This week’s subject started the process in 2017 and eventually left in 2021. Why? Drama everywhere. At some point, she even received a provincial nomination and said no. Big mistake.
When did you first decide to move abroad?
2017. I was frustrated.
Why?
My job didn’t appreciate me. They passed me up for many promotions, and I felt stagnant. It was a multinational company. People with the same job description in other country branches had higher roles.
I had a church member who kept telling me he was working on his japa to Canada via their skilled worker Express Entry program, and I should do it too. Even random people I met through work told me they were doing it, and I should too. I’d also been praying, and God told me I would travel abroad.
When did you start the process?
2017. I wrote the IELTS, verified my university degree and put some money in treasury bills for proof of funds. In 2018, I entered the pool of applicants waiting to be called by Canada based on points. At the time, more people from around the world were looking to migrate to Canada, so the average point total suddenly got higher.
One week after I got in the pool, I got a provincial nomination from Ontario because of my science background and profession. I didn’t take it.
Ehn?
See, it haunted me for years. But I didn’t take it because it came so easily, so I felt like another would come. The nomination had a two-week validity period. I needed to pay some money and rush some processes. I didn’t have the money at the time, but I could’ve borrowed it. I could’ve made the entire thing work and gone in 2018. But I was just like, “They’ll call me again joor.”
LMAO. Unfortunately…
They didn’t o. I now had to stay in the pool of applicants waiting for their scores to be called. But my 438 points were not good enough. I just stayed, praying and waiting. But the limbo was crazy.
Tell me about it
First of all, I stopped looking for other jobs because I didn’t want to invest my energy in a new one. I also stopped hustling for promotions because I didn’t think I was staying much longer. I stopped making new friends and wasn’t looking for potential partners, didn’t change my terribly old car, and even put my dream of owning lots of land in Nigeria on hold. I’d bought two plots sometime in 2016, but didn’t want to continue buying. I was saving money to settle in my new country.
When did they call your points, please?
January 2019. After a series of strong prayers, they suddenly called scores lower than they’d been calling for a while. And guess what? They haven’t called scores that low since. Definitely a miracle. That’s how I got my Invitation to Apply (ITA).
What’s ITA?
It means you’re qualified to apply for Canadian permanent residence. That’s when you do biometrics and medicals and submit documents like proof of funds, criminal records, education and work history, and so on. When this process is done, they stamp your passport as a Canadian permanent resident.
How long does it take?
Typically, about six months. But those six months coincided with me meeting the love of my life, so by the time they requested my passport for stamping in September 2019, I was already married. I rejected the passport request and added my husband to the process.
You had to start again?
Oh, no. I just put it in the application that I was adding a partner. First, it was silence from Canada. But after some more prayers and emails disturbing them, they eventually asked for proof that it was a long-term relationship and not an arranged marriage for visa by December.
What kind of proof?
Pictures and old texts.
Not Canada getting all the tea. What happened next?
COVID. In February 2021, we finally got our Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) and were eligible to travel. It was valid for two months. But there was a problem. Because of COVID, Canada said people shouldn’t come to their country. So there was the danger that the visas would expire in our hands if we couldn’t make it into Canada by April.
Omo
Because of the travel ban, no airlines were leaving Canada from Nigeria. But some airlines were lowkey flying from other countries like Cameroon and Egypt. I didn’t know how they were letting the aircrafts land, but once you were in, Canada wouldn’t turn you back.
So one hot afternoon in April, I left Nigeria for Cameroon to sneak into Canada like many people were doing. Only my husband knew about this. Once I was in Canada, he could come legally. Those were the rules.
It didn’t feel right in my spirit. The bible passage I read on my way said something about waiting for God’s time. But I went anyways. I was desperate.
At the airport in Cameroon, there were even more Nigerians than Cameroonians. Everyone was there for the same reason. We bought our tickets in cash at exorbitant prices and waited for our flight. As we were at the boarding gate, 20 minutes away from our flight, one airport official came out of nowhere and started shouting that no more flights to Canada were leaving the airport.
Ah!
It was like a movie. Apparently, someone had flagged that an unusual number of Nigerians were coming to take the flights, and they didn’t want to get in trouble, so that was the end of their lowkey trips to Canada.
If you see grown men and women on their knees, crying and begging. Pregnant women, women with children, everyone. Me, I was in a corner with some other Nigerians, praying. In the end, they didn’t let us go, I didn’t get my money back, and I had to return to Nigeria. That’s when I told my family the story.
By the end of April, our visas expired. In my life, I’ve never cried as much as I did during that period.
November 2021, we got another visa.
You left the next day, right?
LMAO. This time, borders were open, so there was no fear. We wanted to leave in January 2022 because there was a family event in December. But one morning in December, we woke up and saw that the Omicron variant of COVID had been discovered in Nigeria. What that meant was Canada could say flights from Nigeria were banned. Omo, we bought our tickets and left that day. Our boxes had already kuku been packed for almost a year. We didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to family and friends, but it is what it is. I was pregnant and didn’t want to have my baby in Nigeria.
Expectation vs reality: Canada edition
The family that received and housed us our first few months in Canada already told us we shouldn’t expect to get to Canada and immediately get a job in our career, making sweet money, get a nice house and everything. That’s why people get frustrated. They don’t understand that no matter how far you’ve gone in your career, you most likely have to start from the bottom in Canada. But things’ll move fast.
Also, I found out that information is very important here.
Give me an example
Because there’s a big Nigerian community where we live, we could make friends and get good information about the types of jobs to apply for, houses to rent, taxes, driver’s license… just everything we’d have struggled to find out if we were here on our own.
Instead of going out to look for jobs, foreigners who can speak English can get customer service representative jobs from home. It was the best kind of job to get during winter because we didn’t have to go anywhere. After a few months of living with the family friend, we got our own apartment, and my husband got a job in his field. Me, I had my baby, and thankfully, I qualified for government-paid maternity leave.
How do you qualify?
By working at least 400 hours in the year you have your baby. It’s something God did for me. The customer service job made us work overtime, so by the time I was having my baby, I’d just passed the 400-hour mark.
Congrats!
Thanks! The healthcare here is premium. I now understand why Buhari travels abroad for his health.
My delivery was traumatic. We had to switch to a C-Section, then I had a seizure, and they had to put me to sleep so my brain wouldn’t have permanent damage. I was so, so close to death.
I was treated with so much care, I thought I was a special patient. I had to stay in the ICU for nine days after delivery. The nurses were so great. They even came to my house to check on me and the baby. At the end of the day, I didn’t pay a dime because healthcare in Canada is free.
Is there anything you miss about Nigeria?
I have no help with my child. It’s just the both of us. For some strange reason, my mum didn’t get her visa to come and take care of the child. If I were in Nigeria, I’d have so many people to help me. I had a maid to help me do stuff around the house, go to the market and cook. If you’re used to comfort and not doing a lot of domestic work, moving here will make you adjust.
But after many years of trying, I’m happy to be here. Life is sweet.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
After living in the UK for three years, this subject on #AbroadLife moved back to Nigeria in 2020. Now, work has taken her back, and she misses her family and Nigerian food.
How long have you been in the UK?
Well, I was here from 2017 to 2020, and then I left and came back beginning of 2022). So, roughly four years.
Why did you go in 2017?
I came to study. I’d completed an undergraduate programme in Nigeria but wanted to study law, so I came here to do another undergraduate programme in law.
Ah, interesting. Why didn’t you just do law in Nigeria in the first place?
I was admitted to study law, but my WAEC government result was withheld, and when it was released, it was too late to enrol in the law programme at my school. They had reached their quota. And because I didn’t want to spend a year at home, I opted to study International relations and diplomacy.
Why didn’t you do law in Nigeria after your first degree?
Law in Nigeria is a five-year course, as opposed to in the UK, which is two years if you have a previous degree. I was able to study law in two years.
What was going to the UK in 2017 like?
It was stressless. My sister told me about a free service the UK government offered. They help you decide what school to go to and process all your applications up until the visa application stage. So that made it easy for me. All I had to do was show up at my biometric appointment when it was time.
Their name is UKEAS. They have offices in Abuja and Lagos. I’m not sure about anywhere else.
Sweet. Expectation vs reality: UK edition
My family used to come to the UK yearly for summers, so the UK wasn’t new to me. However, because I always came as a tourist, I expected that I would have the time to tour the UK and go to places I’d never been to.
I didn’t really do any of that, I spent most of my time in school.
Why?
Two years, no holidays. It was a fast-track course. But I enjoyed the experience. School here was different from studying in Nigeria in the sense that it was a more relaxed environment. Because people from all around the world come to school in the UK, I got acquainted with new cultures, traditions, and different lifestyles.
Why did you stay after school?
My course was from 2017 to 2019, and I stayed the extra year to work. I wanted experience working in the legal sector in England.
Did you?
COVID happened, so I was at home for most of it. Can’t really say I had the experience I was looking for.
What experience were you looking for?
I wanted to attend court sessions and sit under senior lawyers in meetings with clients.
So why then did you return to Nigeria?
I was getting married.
Was your husband-to-be in Nigeria?
He was in Canada, but the wedding was going to hold in Nigeria.
How long had you guys been together?
Six months. But we’d known each other since primary school.
Why then did you move back to the UK?
I got a job earlier in the year, and my husband and I were happy to move.
What’s been your favourite part of the move so far?
Getting to see my friends again and the ease of access to social amenities.
And your least favourite?
Being far away from family and the lack of ease of access to Nigerian food.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
If we told you how many visa denials the subject of this #AbroadLife got in the space of two years, you probably wouldn’t believe us. Here’s how he managed to get his study visa to Poland.
Also, The Polish love semo.
When did you first decide to leave Nigeria?
When Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) wanted to finish me. Before I even go too far, let me just say I appreciate the type of parent my mum is. I was depressed in OAU, and instead of being the normal Nigerian parent that just wanted their child to go to school, she sat with me and talked about changing schools.
What did OAU do to you?
Those lecturers were terrible, man. They just wanted to flex and show people that they were gods and nobody could pass their classes. The teaching was terrible, and even when I read and wrote the exact thing they taught in the exams, I saw terrible grades. I tell my friends who are still there they’re strong. Me, I couldn’t do it. I was just crying.
So I tried to leave in 2018 when I was in my second year, and I got admitted to a school in Canada, but my visa was denied because of financial reasons. Then I tried to leave in 2019 for a school in the US, and after writing my SAT and getting a 50% scholarship, I still had to pay about ₦4 million yearly. My mum is a civil servant, and she couldn’t afford that, so I had to look for more affordable countries.
My options were Mauritius, Rwanda and Poland. After doing my research and talking to friends who schooled in Poland, I decided to go for Poland. Besides, I didn’t even want to school in Africa.
Why not?
Should I call it PTSD? I just imagined lecturers in other African countries would be exactly like Nigerian lecturers. I wanted a total change of environment.
What made Poland enticing?
I found out that many young people in Poland speak English. That was a good start. Also, tuition is pretty affordable. I went from studying industrial chemistry in Nigeria to studying computer engineering here, and the tuition fee is the equivalent of ₦1.6 million a year. That’s what people pay for Nigerian universities which, I’m sure, are not as good as schools here. Also, I was planning to move to the capital, Warsaw, and heard from friends that students could easily get jobs. That was good enough for me.
When did you start the process?
2020. I found a school, got admitted and paid my fees, ready to go and start my new life in Poland. That’s when wahala started. I didn’t get an appointment for my visa interview on time.
Let me tell you the process for booking visas during the COVID period. Everyone trying to get a visa to Poland from about five countries had one number to call within a five-hour period on one day, once a week. If you failed to get them to pick your call, you’d have to wait for the next week. So I, my agent, my girlfriend and friends tried for three weeks until we got an appointment.
You might think three weeks is a short time, but because I “delayed” so long, I didn’t get my visa.
How?
Student visas take exactly one month to process. My appointment date was October 11, 2020, and school was meant to resume on November 10. So shortly before my visa appointment, the school reached out to me to find out if I was coming, and I told them I’d get my visa one day later than resumption because it was difficult to secure a date. By November 11, my visa came back denied. The reason was simple — the school reached out to the embassy to say I couldn’t make resumption, so they should deny me.
If you see the tears I cried. I couldn’t even appeal the process because my school, which was meant to be the organisation sponsoring my visa, had said I couldn’t come in. The school was polite about it when I reached out, but they couldn’t do anything about it.
Omo. Did you get your money back?
Yes. Thankfully, they returned it in euros, and we made like ₦400k extra selling it on the black market.
Sweet
January 2022, we decided to try again. This time, it was to a private school, so the fees were a bit higher. We gathered all the money we could to show proof of funds, but they denied me again. Their reason was that I didn’t show enough funds. So my mum went and gathered more money again to put in her account, and when we reapplied, they denied me again.
Same reason. Not enough funds.
Ah
At this point, most people would give up. I kuku never dropped out of school, so I could just finish in Nigeria. I even considered it. We’d wasted like ₦1m on application fees and logistics. I remember my mum and me sitting one day and just crying together. Then she asked me what I wanted to do, and I decided I was going to try a school in Mauritius. We agreed that that was a good plan.
The next day, she came and said we should try Poland again. We were going to give it our all to make it work. Thankfully, I hadn’t lost the admission, and I didn’t want to start classes online, so I just deferred to September.
Oh, by the way, I was still with my agent that started the process with me in 2020. But at this point, we’d become friends. She was pretty great throughout the entire process. When I eventually got my visa, she left her balance of over ₦100k with me because she knew I’d been through a lot. We’re still pretty close, and I still recommend friends to use her services.
Did you get your visa this time?
It was February when we restarted the process. I didn’t get an appointment till late August.
Whoa. Why?
Same reason. We couldn’t get a call in in time.
Please tell me you got this one
LOL. Nope. This one was my school’s fault. The school doesn’t have enough hostels to accommodate every student. So students get into the country and don’t have a place to stay. This time, the embassy wasn’t having it, so they were denying people who had been admitted to the school but didn’t have their personal accommodation sorted.
Now, this denial could have been avoided. Some random guy on a group chat of Nigerians who were trying to go to Poland I was on had reached out to me and told me to sort out accommodation before I got my visa appointment. He knew the embassy was shutting people who didn’t have accommodation out. To avoid this, I reached out to a friend who stayed in Poland and sent them ₦100k to help me rent an apartment. This person sent a fake landlord agreement and ran away with my money.
Na wa o
After this denial, I decided to try one last time since I knew everything I needed. I reached out to another friend who paid for an apartment for me with her own money pending the time I got in and reapplied. This time I got the visa.
Finally
When my agent called me to tell me I’d gotten the visa, I was on a danfo on my way to church. I just started crying. The woman beside me was worried someone had died, but I told her it was because I was leaving the country.
You’re not scared of village people
LMAO. I bought my plane ticket almost immediately and left. I remember getting a haircut on the day I was leaving, and having my mum follow me to the barber’s shop because I didn’t want any random issues with SARS on my last day in Nigeria.
Expectations vs reality: Warsaw edition
I expected it to be cold, so I wore a jacket. Bro, it was colder than I could ever imagine. And winter hadn’t even started when I landed in November 2021. I remember crying in the car when my friend picked me up from the airport. Everywhere looked so clean, calm and organised, unlike Lagos.
So you moved into the apartment she rented for you?
Yep. That’s where I still stay.
Living alone in a new country. What’s that like?
Difficult at first. I had to learn some Polish so I could interact with older people and buy things. It was also difficult adjusting to things like keeping to time for buses and holding my bus card. They do these random checks where, if you’re not with your bus pass, you have to pay zł160. For context, when I first got here, that’s how much it cost me to eat in a month. One time, I forgot it at home and they caught me, and after all the begging, I had to pay.
Chai
But food here is cheap sha. You can get 2kg of potatoes for the equivalent of ₦500. African food is what’s expensive as fuck. Also, the polish eat semo. Not as African food o. As their own dish.
They’re cancelled. Tell me a bit more about the Polish
They don’t smile. They’re not angry o. They just won’t smile with you. In fact, they’re always frowning. Don’t expect a friendly face in Poland. It’s only when you interact with them and become their friends that they’ll smile with you.
Also, there are a lot of elderly people here, and they all carry one type of bag. I don’t understand it. One more thing: These people party and drink a lot. A lot! Drunkenness isn’t something to be ashamed of. You know how, if you go to a Lagos party and get wasted to the point where you’re puking and passed out, it’s embarrassing. Not here o. It’s just normal.
LMAO. How’s school?
Studying abroad is not as easy as people say it is, but it’s more forgiving. If you fail, the lecturers give you more chances to learn and retake classes until you pass. That’s what happened to me when I was still settling. I’m already in my second year, and I have two and a half more.
Do you think you’ll stay after school?
At least until I can get my PR, yes. I’m already working and making good money, so why not?
Where do you work?
At a bank. My first job was at a packaging factory. I only did it for a day. I had to stand for eight hours. When I got home, amidst all the paper cuts and tears, I called my mum and told her I couldn’t do it again. My second job was as a game tester. I did that for four months, then I got a customer service job before I got this bank job. Now, I can comfortably save for next year’s tuition and live a good life.
What are your plans for the future?
When I get my PR, my babe and I will move to an English-speaking country together to settle down.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s #AbroadLife subject spent nine years in Canada, returned to Nigeria for nine years, and moved back to Canada in 2021. After all her tears, she’s settled in Canada again. And she has a lot to say about the dating scene there.
When did you first move to Canada?
The first time I came was in 2001 because my family had gotten Canadian permanent residence (PR).
But I moved for university when I was 17 in 2003. I had to first do one year of secondary school because I was too young.
Moving to another country at 17 sounds scary
Yeah. I was still a child. Thankfully, I had a soft landing. Because I came in as a PR, I didn’t have to worry about a student visa or pay international student school fees. I had healthcare, went to a private boarding school and got a $250 monthly allowance which, somehow, I finished every month.
Even though I knew my parents were rich, I still felt like the poorest in my school because of the type of people there. For example, I had a friend whose dad was an ambassador. She’d randomly invite her friends to stay with her at expensive hotels. Of course, I said yes every time. Another time, her dad was having a party outside the country, and a private jet came to pick her and five of her friends. I couldn’t go because I hadn’t become a citizen and gotten my passport yet.
When did you become a citizen?
I became eligible in 2005 or 2006, but I didn’t apply for citizenship until 2007. I got it in 2009.
What was uni like?
My course was a four-year programme. I started in 2004 and graduated in 2011.
ASUU strike?
LMAO. First of all, I never wanted to go to university. I just wanted to make furniture. That was my passion. But as someone with Nigerian parents, is skipping university even an option?
In my first year, I failed so bad, they advised me to take the next two semesters off. Because if I failed those too, they’d have to expel me. So for the summer semester of 2005, I was in Nigeria. After that, I returned to Canada. The next semester was the fall semester, and even though I wasn’t attending classes, I decided to write and help students do their research for money. I even told my dad not to give me an allowance so I could fend for myself. He still paid rent sha.
LMAO
In January 2006, I resumed and changed my major from psychology to social development and women’s studies. I was doing pretty well until I got pregnant in September the same year.
Ghen ghen
My dad disowned me. Then he changed his mind. But he made me promise I wouldn’t drop out. I tried my best, but sometime in 2007 when I was heavily pregnant, I dropped out.
What’s it like having a baby in Canada?
Oh, it was pretty great. I had my baby in a private room, with a great doctor and a jacuzzi, and I didn’t pay a dime.
Why?
My Ontario Health Insurance Plan covered it.
There’s an incident I can never forget. After I had my baby, I returned to school. I was pushing my baby in a stroller, struggling to hold my books at the same time, and a white girl walked up to help me. As we strolled, she began to complain about the prime minister taking away welfare, especially for a black single mother like me who must struggle to pay student loans. I was speechless. Why did she just assume all that? I was coming from a five-bedroom house my dad bought after I had my baby, in a brand new car my dad bought, to a school where all my fees had been paid.
Is that racism I hear?
LMAO, Canada can be very racist. I’ve experienced profiling here, but a lot of the time, I don’t know how to react. I’ve even been called the ‘n’ word while eggs were hurled at me from a moving car. This probably has nothing to do with my race sha, but white boys on skateboards robbed me of my purse with my phone and wallet when I was heavily pregnant.
Omo
In 2008, I decided to return to Nigeria, where I worked for a bit before returning to Canada to finish school in 2009. Between 2010 and 2012 when I returned to Nigeria, I did a couple of menial jobs.
Like…
First of all, I sold vacuum cleaners from door to door. While doing that, I learnt one of my biggest lessons living in Canada.
Tell me
I’ll tell you three, so people who want to move to Canada can know. First, don’t fill out forms that ask for social insurance numbers if they’re not directly from your bank. Even then, be careful. At my vacuum sales job, I gave them my social insurance number because I thought they needed it for payment purposes. Nope. Just like they can use it to pay, they can also use it to charge you. I was charged $3k for the demo vacuum even though I used it for their work.
The second is, before you move, get a letter from FRSC stating you can drive, so you don’t have to wait a year to get a license. Trust me, life is much easier here when you can drive around.
Third thing: Don’t open accounts for anyone. I once opened a phone account for someone, and they ran up a phone bill and didn’t pay. Never again.
Taking notes
After the sales job, I worked as a telemarketer. I could only do it for two months because, really, you can only get told, “Never call this house again, “n-word”” so many times. It was brutal, and I hated it.
Then I got a sales rep job at a store, where something happened that made me return to Nigeria in 2012.
What happened?
The major reason why I returned is I was tired of paying electricity and water bills for a five-bedroom house on my own. I could’ve moved to a smaller apartment, but it just felt like it would defeat the purpose of the house. Also, my child was five, and I’d been taking care of them alone for the most part. I broke things off with her father who lived in Nigeria the year she was born. I wanted us to reconnect with family.
At my store job, I met a Nigerian woman who told me she’d been working at another branch of the store for 23 years, and my future flashed before my eyes. I didn’t want to tell another Nigerian girl I’d been working at a store for 23 years, 23 years from now. I wanted to return to Nigeria and do something more.
What did you do?
I went to culinary school. I like working with my hands. From there, I built a career in Nigeria and even became a consultant for restaurants.
What did moving back feel like, though?
At first, I hated it. I was in a place with no sanity. One of the first things that got to me was the bad driving. My God, Nigerians are such terrible drivers. Then things like electricity, buying fuel, water and the Nigerian police, just made me hate living there. In Canada, things just work. People know the rules and follow them.
It took me a couple of years, but I eventually settled in Nigeria. In fact, I like to say I was at the best point in my life when I moved back to Canada in 2021. I had a good business making decent money, a group of close-knit friends I hung out with at least once a week, I was around family and had a nice apartment. It was beautiful.
Why did you move back?
Because I promised my child we would move when they finished JSS 3, so they could get used to the Canadian system before university. It was just time.
Was this move different?
Oh, absolutely. For almost a year, I cried every day. In the shower, in bed, while driving, tears. When I came in 2003, I was a student, so my life was pretty organised by the school system and whatever programmes they had. This time, I had to be responsible for myself.
Here’s another piece of advice for Nigerians trying to move to Canada: Move to a city. Especially if you’re coming alone — without a partner. I know cities like Toronto are more expensive, but if you move to a less populated area, loneliness will finish you.Trust me, I’ve been there. Texting and calling your friends and family in Nigeria is not enough.
For three weeks, the only person I saw was my child. You might say you have friends who live an hour away, but nobody wants to drive for one hour to visit you because you’re lonely. And you can’t drive to visit them because you’re busy. Just move to a place with lots of people.
Chai
Amidst all this loneliness, I had to work extra hard because the first restaurant job I found wasn’t even paying enough to cover rent. I had to cook and deliver Nigerian food on the side. Also, my credit score had become terrible when I wasn’t around, so I couldn’t even get a nice apartment or a brand new car. It was sha tough. And let’s not even get into the dating scene.
Actually, let’s do that
Both Nigerian men and women in Canada are suffering, but for different reasons. Nigerian women can’t find men, and they don’t want Nigerian men.
From what I’ve seen, Nigerian men come here and become comfortable doing mediocre jobs, earning not so well, and they don’t want better for themselves. Like why are you comfortable being a plumber or an Uber driver without any side hustles or plans for the future?
Have you seen the Nigerian women in Canada? It’s like Nigeria’s hottest women were handpicked and brought here. And these women are hardworking, jumping from job to job to increase their earnings. A foreign woman would probably be fine dating a plumber with no future plans, but not a Nigerian woman.
If men want to come here and whore around, they can do that. There’s plenty of fish in the sea. But the dating pool? The potential Nigerian men for Nigerian women to be in serious relationships with? It’s not looking good.
I’m sha currently seeing someone. But it’s not long-term because he wants children. I don’t.
Would you date a non-Nigerian?
If the person was African, I could try. There’d be some cultural similarities we could work with. But a white person? Nope. If my soulmate is a white person, I would like them to be assigned to someone else, please.
I have to walk on eggshells with white people because I hate having to replay scenarios or things they said in my head, wondering if they were making a casual comment or being racist. The lines could be so blurred.
Do you have an example?
At an old job, I was admiring some flower pots when my white boss said, “You’d like to steal them, wouldn’t you?” I know he wasn’t being racist, but not knowing how to react to situations like that can be stressful.
Recently, a white girl asked to touch my hair at a store. First, I politely declined, but when she asked again, I had to decline with a firmer tone. Now, I’m the rude black girl and probably a reason she sees black people differently. Those little cultural differences and blurred lines can just be frustrating jare.
Do you think you might move back to Nigeria?
Right now, I don’t think so. I’m here alone because my child had to move back to Nigeria after encountering some issues here. So when the time for university comes, they’ll return.
No more loneliness?
I moved to the city this year, so no. My brother’s house is a 15-minute walk from mine, I have friends I can visit not so far away, I’m happy and smiling now.
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Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on Abroad Life left Nigeria in search of a soft life, and although he had a rocky start in Ireland with the worst roommate ever, he’s beginning to enjoy his stay.
Why did you decide to move abroad?
You know when they say, “Cut your cloth according to your size”? They aren’t talking about me. I like to live an exquisite lifestyle, and thankfully, my older brothers funded that lifestyle for me when I was in Nigeria. I liked the idea of travelling and enjoying my life. Staying in Nigeria, earning in naira, wasn’t going to get me that lifestyle, so I had to move abroad where I could earn more money.
Did you travel growing up?
I travelled during the holidays, yes. My parents didn’t like travelling so they’d just send my siblings and me abroad. I went to Dubai, India, the countries on the west coast of Africa, and Lebanon. As an adult, I’ve travelled to Dubai more times. So when I say I like travelling, believe me.
What is it about travelling you like?
Getting to meet new people, experience new cultures and try new things, like paragliding and parasailing. Skydiving is on my bucket list, and I can’t skydive in Nigeria.
Why did you decide to move to Ireland?
In 2019, I decided to move to Canada. I had a group chat with my friends who all wanted to move abroad for their master’s. But, omo, Canada wasn’t smiling. Everyone except one babe got admission, but all were denied their visas. When I got my own admission, I thought I was special, and they’d let me go. Nope. Denied. Something about not having a strong travel history and them not thinking I’d return. They weren’t wrong about the last part.
The last babe eventually got admission and just bought her plane ticket and left because she’s a US citizen.
God when?
Then I applied to schools in the US and Ireland. By early 2020, I got admission with 80% scholarship in two US schools. I paid for my visa on a Monday, for a visa interview on a Friday, but by Thursday, the embassy closed because of COVID. Frustrating as hell.
On the work side of things, I was also getting super irritated. COVID meant I was working remotely, and my employers were killing me with work. I worked seven days a week, man. It got so bad I decided to put my foot down one Saturday and say I wasn’t working. I ignored work calls and emails. These people sent me a query letter, saying I had to respond to the query the same day. I just texted my supervisor and said I wasn’t going to.
Omo
The only other available option was an Irish school that’d given me admission sometime in January 2020, so I decided to go for it. I already had friends in Ireland who were telling me to come, and they were still processing admissions and visa applications, so I just thought, “Why not?”
What was the process like?
I submitted my application, statement of purpose, results, birth certificate, and waited for their feedback. I didn’t have to do a physical interview. It took about a month — July to August 2020. The semester was meant to start in September, but I left in October because I had to attend my brother’s wedding.
So you missed classes?
Nah. School was online throughout.
What was the point of travelling?
I was looking for admission abroad as a means for japa. I also thought COVID was going to blow over at some point and I’d get my chance to attend physical classes.
Expectation vs reality: Ireland edition
Ireland is not the UK. I expected it to look like the UK I see in films. But Cork, the city where I stay, is just so chill and green and beautiful. It’s way different from Lagos. No hustle and bustle. Again, I expected COVID to blow over pretty quickly, but I was stuck indoors for a while. My friends in Ireland are in Dublin so I thought I’d visit them a lot and party together. Nope. I was stuck with a roommate in the school hostel. My first flatmate was the worst I ever had.
How?
The school paired me with a Nigerian; maybe they wanted us to vibe. I’m sure they had good intentions, but this guy was terrible. Right from when I entered the room and said hi, the way he looked at me was like I stole his babe. When I tried to laugh or joke with him, he’d just roll his eyes at me. But the final straw was when I stepped out to pick up a food order in the rain and forgot my key in the room. By the time I got back to the door, this guy looked at me standing and knocking in the rain and just walked away from my view.
Ah
When he eventually opened the door, my only decision was to get in that room and beat him up, but people that’d been hearing me shout calmed me down. Thankfully, the hostels weren’t full, so I just requested a room change. But Nigeria was Nigeria-ing and my parents couldn’t send the money for the new room on time so I had to stay with him for about three more weeks.
I eventually transferred to a room with a Canadian, Korean and Palestine. They were super cool, and that’s how I started making friends. Lockdown eventually eased off, and we were able to hang out and meet new people. I also visited my friends in Dublin.
What’s your favourite part about living in Ireland
Getting my job in September 2021.
Tell me about it
When I got here, I heard a lot about how difficult it is to get a job on a student visa, but I kept applying. Thankfully, a friend’s friend told me early enough I wasn’t getting any callbacks because my CV was trash, and I fixed it.
Amidst even more rejections, a company took me through multiple interviews until I got to a strange “legal interview” during which they asked about my nationality. Toward the end of the interview, they asked what type of visa I was on, and I told them it was a student visa. That was the end. But according to their LinkedIn, they had people on student visas working for them. I just think they didn’t hire me because I’m Nigerian.
That week, a friend told me they saw a job opening at one of the biggest companies in the world. First, I didn’t want to apply, but they convinced me to. Next thing, I got the job.
Whoop! Have you started your travelling and exquisite living?
Of course! This summer alone, I’ve been to France, Monaco, London and Italy. I’m planning to go skiing in January and February, to the Netherlands in March and to the US in May.
How do you get these visas?
The first visa I tried to apply for was a UK one. At first, I was scared to apply because of my Nigerian passport. I even wanted to put plenty of my mum’s money in my account so they wouldn’t think I was too broke to travel with the €500 in my own account, but my friends told me to just apply like that. And I got the visa. I also got a Schengen visa just by applying. I think once you live abroad and have a job, the Nigerian passport factor goes away.
Do you think you’re going to stay in Ireland?
Yeah. The path to getting your passport is straightforward — you get a job to sponsor it, and within three to five years, you can apply for your permanent residency. One year after, you can get your passport.
What do you miss most about Nigeria?
The food, man. I’m a terrible cook, so I miss Nigerian food. I also miss the people, but I can always FaceTime them. The nightlife too. Clubs close pretty early here and don’t always play Afrobeats.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
Hey there! My name is Sheriff and I’m the writer of Abroad Life. If you’re a Nigerian and you live or have lived abroad, I would love to talk to you about what that experience feels like and feature you on Abroad Life. All you need to do is fill out this short form, and I’ll be in contact.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on Abroad Life left Nigeria for the US in 2014. Last year, she moved to Canada. Why? The US has too much immigration wahala. She thinks more Nigerians should come to Canada because “things work” there.
When did you leave Nigeria?
Eight years ago, in July 2014.
That’s a long time ago. Why did you leave?
My parents wanted me to. I was already in my first year at Afe Babalola University, but they thought it’d be great to send me abroad instead. I saw a chance to leave Nigeria, so of course I took it
Was the US the only option?
For my parents, yes. For me, nope. I wanted to go to Hungary or Ukraine because that’s where people from my class in secondary school were going.
Expectation vs reality: US edition
First, I expected it to be colder. But I got there in the summer and visited my aunt who lived in California first, so it was definitely not cold. Also, I expected to find it hard to fit in because I was new. Imagine a 17-year-old moving to a new country on her own. But I found that people were nice, and I made friends easily.
Generally though, I didn’t have too many expectations.
I’d imagine moving at 17 was scary
Oh, it was. But thankfully, I’d been in boarding school since I was 10, so I was used to being away from my parents. Also, being away from home gave me a new-found sense of freedom I couldn’t get when I was in Nigeria, under the wings of my parents, especially my dad.
What did you do with your new-found freedom?
I just went to parties. That’s it. My home training didn’t allow me go too far.
So settling was easy for you?
I’m thankful for one thing, and that’s the two friends I made on the second and third day of school in Arkansas. They’re Rwandan and Congolese respectively, and they were my close friends throughout university. I’m still really close with one of them.
I’m grateful because many people don’t make friends that early and end up struggling with things like loneliness and even depression. Also, it was the beginning of me having only African friends throughout my three-year stay in Arkansas.
It’s giving racist
When you stay in a very white city in Arkansas, you encounter a lot of racism. It’s not the violent kind, but you notice an air around the white people like they think they’re better than you. They’re nice, but only from afar. There are also comments they make that just make you go, “What?”
Give an example
I can never forget this one. So on my third day in school, I was in the kitchen area, warming up some food, when a white student walked up to me to say hi. As the conversation went on, he asked where I was from, and I told him “Nigeria”. He said, “Oh, so your father must be the president then.” And when I said no, he said, “Oh, so vice president?” When I said no again, he just said okay and left. It’s like he was surprised a “regular” Nigerian could afford to send their kid to the US for school.
What of the Black Americans?
They have a thing where they act like they’re better than Africans. I remember one condescendingly telling me, “Oh, your accent is so thick and African”. I just kept them at arm’s length and rolled with my fellow Africans.
When I graduated and moved to California, which is more diverse than Arkansas, I made some Asian-American and white friends who were more open-minded. But still, no African Americans.
Why did you move to California?
For work. The initial plan was to study medicine after biology because in the US, you need a bachelor’s before you can study medicine. But med school fees were looking scary so I just decided to work and chase a Green Card instead.
Have you got it?
Nope. Immigration in the US is tough. I had to leave because I ran out of time and legal options, and refused to marry anyone for papers, real or arrangée. I moved to Canada in June 2021.
Have you been back in Nigeria ever since?
Only in 2016. My mum and siblings have all come to visit since I got here, but I haven’t seen my dad since 2016. I miss him.
Why’s he never visited?
I have no idea. He even got an American visit visa but never came. I want to visit Nigeria this December but these flight prices dey choke.
What’s the plan with Canada now?
I’m currently in nursing school, and I graduate in October next year. After two years, I can apply for permanent residency (PR) myself. That’s the plan. In the US, I would’ve had to find a job with a company willing to apply for on my behalf, and it’s a lottery, which makes it difficult to know how long it takes.
Canada vs America
For immigration, Canada is better. Healthcare, Canada wins. Safety, Canada wins. The people here are also much nicer. But for taxes, the US wins. They can finish you with taxes in this Canada. As a working-class person, it’s difficult to become rich off your salary because of how much you’re taxed. But I like to think about it like this; healthcare is free, so why not?
How do you qualify for free healthcare?
I have no idea. I think it’s a province-by-province thing. I live in Alberta, and healthcare is free here for students. But I don’t think it applies to students in Ontario.
You spoke about taxes. Do you have a job?
Unlike in the US, international students in Canada can work outside the school campus. So I work at a hospital, babysit and work in disability support. I get taxed for all three jobs, but I’ll get all the money back in December because my annual income is too low to fall within a tax bracket.
What’s your social life like?
Pretty great. I decided to move to Alberta because a close friend from secondary school moved and has lived here since 2013. We reconnected, and she’s introduced me to her Nigerian friends. Oh, and yes, there are a lot of Nigerians in Canada! I absolutely love it.
What do you miss most about Nigeria?
The food. Even when we cook Nigerian food here, it doesn’t taste the same.
What do you hate most about being in Canada?
Uhm… Just the fact that I’m a student. I can’t wait to graduate and get my PR. I went from studying biology in the US to hustling for Green Card for three years to moving here for school again. I can’t wait to finally finish and settle.
Yeah —
Oh wait! Canada is also bloody expensive compared to America. Food, petrol, everything. Expensive.
Do you think more Nigerians should move to Canada?
Absolutely. I have friends who moved here in 2018, got their PR in 2021 and bought a house this year [2022]. If you’re a hard worker, the system will work for you. They’ll tax you plenty of money, but at least you know you have healthcare, safety, you can buy a house, and just have a decent family life.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
Hey there! My name is Sheriff and I’m the writer of Abroad Life. If you’re a Nigerian and you live or have lived abroad, I would love to talk to you about what that experience feels like and feature you on Abroad Life. All you need to do is fill out this short form, and I’ll be in contact.
The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
This week’s subject on Abroad Life is thankful he’s an American citizen so he could swiftly move to the US once Lagos began to stress him. In a year, he’s on the career path he projected for himself and even making music on the side.
When did you decide to move abroad?
The actual decision was made in 2019, but because I’m American, I’ve just always thought about moving here to connect with that part of me. I’ve stayed most of my life in Nigeria. I went to school there until I got my master’s in 2018. I know the streets, I can speak Yoruba, pidgin, I’m a proper Lagos boy. And although I often came to the US on holidays when I was younger, it’s not the same as living here.
How are you an American?
The greatest gift I ever received was my parents having me in the US in 1995, which granted me automatic citizenship.
God when? So why 2019?
I finished my master’s in architecture in 2018. Then, I finished NYSC in 2019 and hit the streets to hustle. Quickly, I found out one thing — Lagos is a circus.
LMAO
From horrible bosses to the roughness of the city to no electricity to people refusing to pay me for my work because I was young, I experienced everything.
When did you eventually leave?
2021.
What happened in between?
First of all, COVID. But it gave me an opportunity to pick up the music career I’d dropped for years. I used that period to make music and film about my experience in Lagos, how Lagos — and Nigeria — hinders the progress of young people.
Did you have to quit your music career when you moved?
Nope. The plan was to come here, get a job in my field — architecture or construction — grow my career and still make my music on the side.
How’s that going?
Pretty great. I’ve got a job here as a construction manager — someone who receives a project on behalf of a client and makes sure all documents and processes are intact before the actual building begins. And the money is good; or at least, far better than what I would’ve made in Nigeria.
And the music?
I’ve made progress. I’m even in the process of making an animated video for one of my songs as we speak. It was definitely the right choice to move.
Does it make sense to ask about your expectation vs reality?
Yes, because before I came in 2021, the last time I was here was when I was a teenager in 2009. When I showed the immigration officer my passport, she was shocked but happy to welcome me back home. There was definitely some culture shock.
Like what?
Food. Greens, specifically. You know the entire “Beans Greens Potatoes Tomatoes” thing everyone shouts when it’s Thanksgiving. Yeah, those greens are just leaves and salt. They taste horrible and watery.
LMAO
Another thing I noticed was things are more serious here. Even on the basic human interaction level. I like to call America the United States of Opportunity Costs, Litigation and Firearms. And I think these three things shape how people interact. Nobody wants to talk to you if you can’t make them money, people are scared of interactions because it’s easy to get sued, and so so many people have guns.
But I enjoy the great infrastructure like good roads and internet, and the many commercial activities like clubbing I can engage in.
Do you see yourself staying for long?
I guess time will tell. It’s pretty confusing now because Maryland, where I stay, is cool, but it’s expensive. I don’t want to stay in one place all my life. I won’t say I see myself returning to Nigeria, but I want to be able to move around.
Want more Abroad Life? Check in every Friday at 9 A.M. (WAT) for a new episode. Until then, read every story of the series here.
