Something I wrote sometime ago for young would-be Nigerian greener pasture seekers abroad
If your ambition is to leave Nigeria at any time, you need to know the following;
Money does not grow on trees in obodo oyinbo. Work must be exchanged for financial returns. Remember, “Work” in this instance can be ‘anything” you do to earn an income legally and illegally. Remember, LEGALITY or lack thereof is underpinned by prescribed consequences which can be positive or negative.
Category A: This is for those who want to “HAMMER’ and those who want to “Bute Ike” as fast as possible and within a short period of time. Those who want to follow this part must embrace some kind of illegality by way of dealing on drugs, embarking on fraudulent activities and many similar fraudulent vices. These can be very lucrative and can launch you from zero to hero overnight. Within a short period of time, you could achieve so many things money can buy that you would normally only “DREAM’ about hitherto. The MONEY LOVING SOCIETY will open doors for you. Forget about the hypocritical and cliched MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING quip, doors open with money regardless of how you have made it.
The natural caveat to the above is that you will always stand a few yards away from doing time in jail, getting killed in the line of “duty”, or living life with a very bad reputation. Your default mode would be to watch your back at all times. Yes, you will always have money in your pocket, lots of it but less peace of mind. Remember, it is also likely that you would work hard in the fast-lane industry and still not make it. Nothing is automatic or guaranteed here.
Category A can be risky as most that follow this path tend to blow their earnings while the going was good. Well, some of them actually wash their dirty money, make it clean and scratch a solid life out of it but these are in the minority. The majority blow all the money and sink into poverty eventually.
Category B: This one is boring, frustrating, labor and time intensive. It takes several years for it to begin to bear fruits. You gotta follow the educational part. You have to add-on to what you have studied before leaving Nija or start afresh and work your way up the ladder through personal educational upgrades. You may eventually end-up in academia or the corporate world and your remuneration would continue to increase, rather slowly as you acquire more skills on the way. In the end, you will probably not become a Billionaire but you will be able to live way above the acquisition of MASLOW’s basics. You will have rest of mind; you will become fully integrated in your new abode and probably become well respected too. The police cannot scare you with anything.
Fact is, you must be willing to invest 10-15 years of your life in achieving Category B. One of the few exceptions would be those who were already in the medical and health science field before they left Nigeria. Their skills are always on high demand in the WEST. For them, they just need a few years, by way of upgrading educationally to become fully integrated economically.
If you are good and you are in the medical field, you could go straight from Nigeria to the work place in the WEST after a series of exams. This happens especially with our Medical Doctors. If you are not medically inclined, then be prepared to invest time in a much focused way. Stick to your plan and do not allow the flashy lifestyle of some of our LOUD and “rich” brothers you would meet to fool you.
Forget the effizzy and initial garagara, 10-15 years from now, most of our LOUD and “rich” brothers you meet in Obodo Oyinbo would be broke and begging you for financial assistance. Category B consumes time but it is much more sustainable at the long-run. You will live a fulfilled and guaranteed lifestyle with category B. So, know what you are getting into and chose wisely.