Bonus: What in the World - Why are so many young people leaving Nigeria?

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nigeria is Africa’s economic powerhouse - so why are so many young people trying to leave and find opportunities in other countries? It’s become so common there’s even a word for it: Japa, Yoruba for escape.

Last year, Nigeria’s immigration service issued a record number of passports - almost 2 million.

So when we were in Lagos we spoke to the BBC’s Faith Oshoko, who explained what drives young professionals to move abroad.

And we chatted to students - would they ever Japa? And would they come back?

To find out more of what is going on in the world search for "What in the World" wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the BBC World Service, this is the documentary, the home of original storytelling.
0:06.0	I'm Hannah and I'm here to tell you about our podcast, What in the World, which helps you make sense of what in the world is going on.
0:13.4	And in this bonus episode, we are in Nigeria,
0:16.3	and we're talking about one word.
0:18.8	What is Jhapa?
0:20.2	Is when you try to move out of the country.
0:23.3	Jaqba means traveling out of Nigeria.
0:25.6	Everyone wants to Jaqba from this country.
0:27.8	Jaqba is running away when everything else seems to be not working in the community.
0:35.0	If I say I want to Japla, I want to leave here. I don't want to be here anymore. Just go, not to be seen, disappear completely entirely. That's what it means to be.
0:47.0	Hi guys I'm Hannah Gell Bart and I'm Macr what you're
0:50.9	listening to what in the world from the BBC World Service.
0:54.0	We're recording this episode in Lagos, Nigeria and lots of young people here are facing a pretty serious
1:00.0	choice, one that could affect the rest of their lives, and it can all be summed up in one word,
1:05.2	Japa.
1:06.2	Yeah, it's a year of a word which is one of the more than 300 languages spoken here, and as you heard,
1:11.5	it means to leave a place it increasingly has become
1:14.3	shorthand for living Nigeria altogether with the hope of finding better
1:17.8	opportunities somewhere else. I've been here in Lagos for nearly a week and in that time we have seen ads all over the streets
1:25.0	and online for different ways for people to get citizenship and work permits in countries
1:29.5	like the UK, US and Canada.
1:31.9	So it's clearly something that lots of people are after. And in this
	...

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