Media personality, Suliman Pooja Adebayo has asserted that the relocation of some Nigerians popularly referred to as ‘Japa’ is destroying the foundation of friendship.
Pooja based his assertion on a story he shared about a friend who travelled without informing her friends. These were the same set of friends who bought traditional outfits worth a hundred thousand Naira for her wedding and also organised an expensive bridal shower for her.
Pooja tweeted: “Japa” is destroying the foundation of our friendships. Her friends bought”aso ebi” worth 100K for her wedding, organized a bridal shower for her in a top hotel in Lekki, her wedding lit with videos/photos trending like CNN & on Sunday, they saw her post with her new husband with UK photos. She didn’t tell ANY of them”.
Netizens react
While some of his followers agreed with him, others noted that it is a poor man’s mentality.
Philips Agbo wrote: What if you announce your japa, and at the end of the day it doesn’t come to pass. Na the same friends go still mock you. So it’s better to keep it to yourself.
Olivia wrote: She knows what her friends are capable of doing next, they all know the game they’re playing, very simple.
Olatawura wrote: Na poverty Dey make us believe someone will hold us down if we tell them about japaing, it’s your life nobody would make decisions for you and poverty has also made us see japa as achievement.
Anderson Jeremiah wrote: A friend of mine told most of his friends he wanted to japa including me too…Baba still went without any stupid mindset of bad energy spoiling it or something….That’s a baseless excuse to hide it from close friends all in the name of bad energy.
It is worth noting that there is no one as secretive as a Nigerian travelling overseas.
UK and large number of dependents
Kemi Filani news reported that an average Nigerian wants to leave the country and seek greener pastures in a foreign land, most especially in western countries to better their lives and that of their families. This ideology has since given birth to the slang “Japa“.
Nigerians are moving in their numbers, with their dependents to the United Kingdom. This has caused the British government to consider tightening immigration rules on dependents.
According to a report by dailymail , Some 34,000 Nigerians were given study visas in the UK, bringing with them a total of 31,898 dependants. A similar ratio was recorded for work visas, with 8,972 Nigerians issued with one in the last twelve months upto June bringing with them 8,576 dependants.
