Japa: Alberta, Canada compounding the woes of Nigeria

The song on every lip in Nigeria today is, ‘Japa,’ travelling abroad. Every nine of ten wants to leave the shores of the country to seek for greener pastures. Can we really blame them? Considering the various crises and societal challenges which continually threaten their existence,these make their chances of survival pallid.

The government to a large extent has failed in its responsibilities to cater for the needs of its teeming populace. This is one of the reasons for the exodus.

From reliable statistics, the western world (European and American axis), has proven to be “fertile ground and a safe haven” for many of these emigrants. While it is unarguably true that some of these emigrants have made the nation proud in the areas of business sustainability and scientific inventions. Nonetheless, the colossal damages of this emigration on Nigeria’s economy cannot be quantified accurately.

Critical areas of Nigeria’s economy such as health are almost on the verge of collapse due to the incessant industrial actions which are the byproducts of the lack of respect for labour agreements, among other things.

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige recently noted that the Nigerian health industry had a surplus of doctors and other medical practitioners. Hence, the issue of migrating to other countries wasn’t a cause of concern since there were many hands working in the sector.

Few days after his submission, the Nigerian medical environment suffered a setback due to strikes embarked on by the National Association of Medical Doctors (NARD). The United Arab Emirates, got wind of this development and swiftly embarked on recruitment of doctors into its country.

Contrary to the claim of Ngige, the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organisation have revealed that Nigeria has a low doctor-patient ratio? The report further noted that unless something is done in the nation’s health sector, a doctor might be forced to attend to more than 5,000 patients as against the recommended 500.

The health sector isn’t the only one suffering from the brain drain phenomena as other critical areas such as the manufacturing and construction industries are almost on the verge of collapse due to the loss of precious professionals to foreign establishments.

Not minding the cost implications which most times outweigh the benefits, many Nigerian youths have constantly sought a way to exit the shores of the country. Some even go as far as incurring loans and debts just to ensure they become citizens of other countries.

The causative factors for Nigeria’s brain drain, according to experts, are not far fetched. The issues bordering around a moribund economy, high level of insecurity, unjustifiable rates of unemployment are some of the reasons for Nigeria’s brain drain.

Other causes include: the indifference of the government and its adjunct institutions to respect human rights, the lack of patronage for locally made goods by leaders and the likes.

The resultant effect of this has been the constant budgeting of trillions of Naira on personnel training and development which eventually yields no meaningful result.

Even in the educational environment, many professors have to fight their way through into becoming citizens of other countries due to the above-listed factors and more — such as poor infrastructure, meagre remuneration and allowances, as well as an increase in workload, which in extreme cases is 200 students to a single lecturer.

Presently, the mass exodus does not appear to be ending any time soon. The advanced countries have capitalized on our economic lapses and have astutely established some programmes whose ultimate aim is to scout for the best brains across the globe and lure them to their domains. These programmes come in the form of refugee programmes, visa lotteries, skilled migrant visas, international exchange programmes, fellowships, scholarships, and the likes. And Nigerians have been among the most targeted.

Consequently, while Nigeria is remarkably losing from brain drain, the host countries for emigrating Nigerians notably benefit from such trained experts brain gain.

This scenario has continued to have a debilitating effect on the growth and socio-economic development of the country. Undoubtedly, this erosion of Nigeria’s human capital has had far reaching negative effects on our development trajectory as the vital highly skilled personnel needed for national development are being lost.

As Nigeria is still battling with curbing brain drain, Alberta, a province in Western Canada, recently created a new immigrant path for Nigerian religious workers to secure permanent residency in Canada.

This was disclosed in a press release from Alberta province titled/  “New Immigration Path for Religious Workers”.

With this move, Alberta will join other provinces in extending its provincial immigration program to accept applications from religious leaders who meet the pastoral and spiritual needs of their communities.

The release said, “Religious newcomer professionals are now eligible to apply under the Alberta Opportunity Stream, Alberta Express Entry Stream, and Rural Renewal Stream to work with religious organizations and settle permanently in the province.”

Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney emphasized that religion is crucial to his community. He said, “Religious faith is a central part of the lives of huge numbers of Albertans. The spiritual health of our society is enlivened by diverse faith communities, all of whom share a commitment to serving the common good, particularly the most vulnerable.”

What you should know

If they meet the requirements, Nigerian religious workers can apply to the program through the Alberta Opportunity Stream, the Rural Renewal Stream, or the Alberta Express Entry Stream.

Nigerians are known to be religious people. Nigerians are willing to leave their country at every slightest opportunity. It has been generally acclaimed in Nigeria that Canada is the best country to live in at this contemporary time. A province (Alberta) in this ‘loved’ country is now beckoning on the already willing and ‘qualified religious’ people. The move is set to compound the woes of brain drain in Nigeria, as the citizens will jump at this opportunity.

Putting an end to Nigeria’s brain drain requires the collective approach of all and sundry towards ensuring that the juicy offers which warrant many Nigerian professionals moving abroad are also made available here. Our inability to achieve this will continue to be the clog in the wheel of our national progress.