Things you must do before ‘checking out’ of Nigeria

Mr Abiodun Ladepo started as a journalist with The Guardian, before leaving for the US in 1988 for greener pastures.  An alumnus of the University of Ibadan, Townson University and University of Maryland, both in the US, he works for the United States government. Ladepo is a regular contributor to many frontline online publications where he shares analyses and opinion on the state of the polity.  He was in Nigeria briefly and HANNAH OJO caught up with him.

My advice to anybody is contained in that article published online titled, “thinking about checking out of Nigeria? Read this first!” Anybody who wants to leave should go and read it. The summary for me is this: if you already have a degree in any discipline and you are under 25, you should stay in Nigeria.Even if you do your masters and you don’t get a job, if you stay two or three years later, you may likely get one. Whatever job you got, 20 years later, you will not be a junior staff anymore. You can’t have a masters degree and be a junior staff. You would have gotten married, have kids and maybe have a parcel of land somewhere you are developing.

Even if you do your masters and you don’t get a job, if you stay two or three years later, you may likely get one. Whatever job you got, 20 years later, you will not be a junior staff anymore. You can’t have a masters degree and be a junior staff. You would have gotten married, have kids and maybe have a parcel of land somewhere you are developing.

Yes, you will be in this nasty traffic and the heat but by the time you are 50 when your first child is now 18 or something, you go to the same church or the same mosque, you are somebody in the society. But if you leave, especially if you left the country with a visitor visa to the United States or the United Kingdom, it will take you not less than eight years for your stay to be regularised.That may include having to marry an American. If you don’t have any plan of coming back home, then you can leave because coming back home is more difficult than when you are leaving.

That may include having to marry an American. If you don’t have any plan of coming back home, then you can leave because coming back home is more difficult than when you are leaving.