A Shift In Perspective: Home Is Becoming Less Appealing In Nigeria....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

Would it be accurate to say that I never envisioned the current situation in Nigeria? No, that would be untrue. My concern is that we may just be beginning a downward spiral in many critical aspects of our nation’s life. As troubling as it is now, I never seriously considered that we would reach a point where the President of our country would become a source of global embarrassment over a seemingly routine issue – access to his university certificate or any certificate, for that matter.

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I had thought that we had reached a low point when the former President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, hired a team of senior lawyers to block the verification of his claim to possess a school certificate or its equivalent. However, as it turns out, Buhari’s case appears mild compared to the situation we face today. The man who succeeded him, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has taken the controversy to an international level.

By the time you read this, a US appeals court in Chicago may have decided whether or not to release Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University (CSU), including the documents supporting his admission. Tinubu had claimed that he neither attended primary nor secondary schools, a stark contrast to his earlier statements during his 1999 gubernatorial campaign. In 2022, he disowned those claims after scrutiny revealed inconsistencies in his educational history.

To make matters worse, Tinubu told the appeals court judge that releasing his school records to Nigeria’s former Vice President and appellant in the litigation, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would cause him irreparable damage. Abubakar and Peter Obi were Tinubu’s main opponents in the 2023 presidential election, and they are challenging his election declaration in the Supreme Court. With Tinubu as the face of the country, it’s hard to find solace at home.

Tinubu’s presence is a detriment to Nigeria, and the situation may not improve if recent social media analysis is accurate. The analysis suggests that Nigeria’s economic and social hardship will worsen without hope of immediate improvement. The future of Nigeria has been mortgaged by the previous administration and its political party. Every aspect of Nigeria’s future has been compromised, from the sale of underground crude oil reserves to encumbering future foreign exchange earnings.

The revelation by JPMorgan that most of Nigeria’s foreign reserves were secretly used as collateral for foreign loans further exacerbates our predicament. The national debt has skyrocketed under the Buhari regime, with little to show in terms of infrastructure. Additionally, recent practices of borrowing from future company income tax (CIT) have further strained the country’s economic prospects.

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The proposal to construct super highways, including the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, raises concerns, as maintaining existing non-super highways has been a challenge for successive administrations. The current state of many roads in Nigeria, including the Onitsha-Owerri highway, is a cause for concern and discomfort for travelers.

It’s evident that the idea of “home is best” no longer applies to many Nigerians who have chosen to risk their lives escaping the country. Our nation has become increasingly difficult to defend, given the tragic stories of those who have perished in the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert in their quest to leave. The hardships and dangers they face outside of Nigeria are preferred to the hellish conditions they endure at home.

In the face of these challenges, it is unkind and insensitive to insist that “east or west, home is best” for many Nigerians. Nigeria is evolving into a strange and difficult place, and we must acknowledge the harsh realities faced by our people.