Beyond The Hype

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Whenever I tell people that I have no intentions of relocating abroad for greener pastures, they look at me like I'm crazy.

Basically, with all the economic manipulations going on in my country, there are people who believe that the country is a failed state and nothing good can come out of it, but I beg to differ. I am of the opinion that home is home and honestly nowhere else feels comfy to be away permanently from home.

Thus, it's a common practice among people to relocate abroad in their youth and come back home for retirement in their later years

In recent times I have come to realize that our perception makes a great difference. In this same country where people are running away in search of a better life, there are still people whose grasses are greener in the midst of all the chaos.

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Let me explain further by what I meant when I said perception makes the difference. One time, I watched a young girl being interviewed; according to her, she's in her early 20s. She's a TikTok influencer, and when posed with the question if given 50 million Naira, would she stay in the country or use the money to relocate abroad? Without thinking twice, she jumped on the relocation option, and when asked, she said 50 million naira is not a lot of money in the Nigerian economy, and once you start spending from it, it's gone in a number of weeks. Then she questioned, what happens next?

I listened attentively to this young lady speak, and when asked what made her think she would succeed abroad, she boastfully said, "I'm not a lazy person; I'm a hustler." To further prove her point, she told us how she relocated from her hometown to Lagos State for a better life, and in barely one year, she is doing so well.
As always, I had so many questions.

First of all, the young lady said she's an economist, which was highly questionable because she didn't sound like one. For starters, economists see business opportunities where no one else does. An economist will never downplay the value of such money because every economist is an investor.

Again, while listening to the girl speak, I was hoping to hear her investment plan because she was asked what she would do with 50 million Naira in Nigeria that will get the money exhausted in weeks. She couldn't say anything tangible as she just kept hammering on luxury, asking how much does the interviewer thinks her wig and outfit are worth. She became mediocre to me, as I even doubted if she ever attended uni.

Basically, the average cost of relocation from Nigeria via the student route is about 30 million Naira, and even when it was 10 million, it never made sense to me that I would spend all that money to go start afresh in another country.

Personally, I feel it's a waste of one's time and valuable years because such money invested in either agriculture or the oil and gas industry in Nigeria will yield a much better return that will give one the opportunity to tour the world and come back to a comfortable life in one's own country.