Canada is ‘stealing’ our young people!

[Edoman]

[color=var(--atc)]Canada is ‘stealing’ our young people!



August 21, 2019

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[url=https://punchng.com/canada-is-stealing-our-young-people/]
Yes, Canada is not just taking our young people, they are taking the fattest of our crops, the best, the brightest, and the brainiest!
One of them is my friend, Olufemi, (not real name). He graduated top of his class and best in the entire university! Nine years after graduation, he got married to his equally cerebral lawyer wife, and they both had fairly paying jobs that admitted them into the struggling middle class in Nigeria. A year after marriage, Olufemi,  disillusioned by the state of his family’s finances, the  situation in the country and the underutilisation of his skills, and intellect at his place of work, sold all his assets and relocated his young family to Canada!

Femi’s story is not unique, almost every young  Nigerian professional  who is not in the process of immigrating to Canada, knows a friend, family or colleague who  has relocated or is  in the process of relocating. The situation is alarming, almost like the biblical “rapture”: you come to work one day, you see your colleagues, you resume the next day, and they are gone!
I recently had a conversation with a millennial working in one of the big four audit firms; the conversation bordered on the number of young professionals leaving the country for Canada. He informed me that their firm had started a WhatsApp group for ex-staff members that had immigrated to Canada; as of the time of having that discussion about 70  Nigerian immigrants had joined the group. A similar conversation with another tax consultant also working in one of the “big four” revealed the same trend. According to him, almost all his colleagues in their audit department had immigrated to Canada or some part of Europe!

Why Canada, you may ask? Well, Canada has an immigration process carefully designed to attract highly skilled young professionals. It requires you to be of a certain age bracket (the younger you are, the more points you gain) to take a “Test of English”, send your academic transcripts, have certain amount in your bank account and Voila! you get a Canadian Permanent Residence.
The process, while seamless, is expensive for the average Nigerian, and is also a clear indication of the class of people they want: comfortable, highly educated, extremely skilled, young professionals, hence the people who go through this process are not poor by Nigerian standard.

As a young professional in this country, you begin to wonder if there is something wrong with you if you have not  commenced your  own immigration process. When you see your friends and colleagues resign from their jobs, sell their property, and leave the country; when you watch them upload pictures of their new countries of residence on social media and ‘brag’ about how the system works; when they inform you gleefully of how they have “secured” the future of their children, and invite you to join them, you wonder if, perhaps, you are not missing out on life opportunities for your own children!

Sir, the young people leaving the country are not unpatriotic, the reality is that  Nigeria has not been kind to her youths! Furthermore, this brain drain did not start with young people nor did it start in this generation. When political  and  religious leaders send  their children  outside the country to be educated or when they  seek heath care outside the shores of their country, they send a clear and uncontroverted message to our young people  that they do not  believe  in the future of their country! Young people are therefore simply taking a cue from her leaders,  yet, this  mass immigration  in recent times  is nothing like  what happened in the past: it is massive, and it is alarming! Young bright people immigrating to a foreign land is the most telling evidence of a failed leadership!

What state of affairs of a country would make its young people leave e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.ng: family, friends,  some measure of certainty and in some cases extremely good jobs for  a foreign country,  full of uncertainties and oftentimes for less than inspiring jobs?[/color]

[Edoman]

4' 

[color=var(--atc)]Dear Canadian Govt, we’re ready to be stolen, Nigerians react to PUNCH article


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Samson Folarin
Many Nigerian youths have expressed dissatisfaction with the situation of things in the country, saying they preferred to be ‘stolen’ by foreign countries, especially Canada.
The reaction followed an opinion article, [url=https://punchng.com/canada-is-stealing-our-young-people/]Canada is stealing our young people, published in The PUNCH on Wednesday.
The writer, Izere Imosemi, a lawyer, had described as alarming the rate at which skilled youths, well educated couples and professionals migrate to Canada, “where they are faced with uncertainties and regarded as second class citizens.”

Imosemi said many people left the country because they thought there was no future for their children and their potential was not being exploited.
The article has so far generated mixed reactions. Some Nigerian youths provided their home addresses so they could be “stolen” by Canada, while others said they wanted to be “stolen” along with their family members.
See the reactions as tweeted:
One Uncle Yemi wrote, “It is better (to be stolen) than to be preserved for endless poverty. Let the stealing continue. Face your political and religious leaders.”

One Aikigbe Augustina said, “Nigeria made it so. Who wants to be in a country that has no plans for the young people? Senators still determine how much they should pay themselves, while some have no food to eat. People are becoming fedup.”[/color]

That Shy AkwaIbom boy said, “Dear Canadian Govt. Am ready mbok. Can you come and steal me too?”
@Iperson_pikin said, “God when?” Am I the only one left unstolen?”

Kolonel, retweeting @punchng, wrote, “Never use the word ‘steal’ again. Canada is retrieving us. That’s what’s up.”
Oshindare Toyin said, “Canada, my availability to be stolen to your country is approved by God and man. Please, steal me without any baggage and I am done. Looking forward to your favorable responses.ore for electricity consu

Amaka said, “Which junction do they steal the youths please tell me let me go stand der 24/7.”

A user with the alias, Good vibes, gave his address with some descriptions for easy identification.
“I’m standing in front putting on a green shirt. Canada please come and steal me,” he added.

Raphael said, “Canada isn’t stealing your young people. Your young people are looking for places where older people give opportunity to younger people to achieve their dreams. We are tired of vision-less & greedy old people who don’t deserve respect.”

One Isaac Tagondi asked those interested in being stolen to retweet his post with a link to the PUNCH article.
Over 314 people had done so.

Sharing a personal experience on PUNCH Online, a reader with the name UK, said his life changed after he left the country.

He said, “This is like my story. I was a patriotic Nigerian and still is but had to leave the country when it dawned on me that my future and that of my three kids are not secured. I did not earn enough in Nigeria to send them to a private school in Nigeria and life was miserable for me who was well educated but without a good job. 

My wife was jobless for more than 6 years after graduation. I had no choice but to relocate to UK. Now my kids are reading medicine and law in the best universities in the world in the UK. I have a great job and my wife is a top banker in the fifth largest bank in the world. I still love Nigeria and have some investments there that I would not have in my dreams if I stayed in Nigeria unless I joined politics to steal and rob the masses.”