SOME Nigerians in the diaspora have taken to X (formerly Twitter) to recount what led to their fleeing from the country.
This followed a question posed by an X user, Fisayo Osudo, enquiring about what made some Nigerians decide to leave the country.
“People who left Nigeria, what was the thing that made you finally decide to leave?” Osudo asked on X.
“Japa”, a Yoruba expression which means “to flee”, is now widely used among Nigerians to express a desire to leave the country for various reasons. However, while some leave the countries for a “greener pasture”, some, especially youths, were forced to leave owing to the country’s myriad of challenges.
Reacting to the post, some Nigerians who have fled the country cited police brutality, insecurity, bad leadership, unemployment and other challenges as their major reasons for leaving the country.
A Nigerian in Diaspora, @Miz_Estaa, recounted being attacked by thugs in Lagos.
He tweeted, “I moved to Lagos to be closer to my long-distance boo. I was on Alfred Rewane waiting for my colleague. Obalende boys entered my car, made me drive to their office, deflated my tires, took my keys and made me withdraw N25,000 to get my car back. Long distance marriage entered voice mail.
Another Nigerian based in the United States, Uchenna Osuchukwu, narrated how he lost some valuable possessions when he was kidnapped, but the policemen asked him to bring N200,000 when he went to report.
“I was kidnapped, they emptied my bank account and my people still paid ransom. They took my car and damaged it. One of them transferred money directly from my account to his; one bought airtime directly from my bank. I took all the evidence to the police and was asked to pay N200k, but I let it slide.
“A month after that, police at Enugu stopped me while driving back to Abuja, planted dirty panties in my luggage while searching it and threatened to shoot me right there if I argued and did not cooperate with them. They labelled me a Yahoo boy/man (meaning a fraudster in Nigeria.)
“In Abuja the next week, a police lady slapped me for nothing. I slapped back, and her colleagues, who were men, attacked me, one wanted to stab me with a dagger.
“The last thing that made me say, “fu-k it” was the day Vehicle Inspection Officer personnel in Abuja attacked me. One entered my car and nearly made me crash into a fence of Ya’dua Center. @whitenigerian witnessed this one. Right there, I realized Nigeria seriously wanted to kill me by all means. The next day, my wife and I started the process of leaving.
Similarly, another Nigerian based in the United Kingdom with X name Guyman recounted being assaulted by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit of the Nigerian Police Force notorious for human rights violations.
