Why am I here?

The intricate dance between Japa and actual freedom

3:35 AM, OCTOBER 2023. Abuja, Nigeria. FCT.

Blaring sirens jolted me awake, piercing the night's silence. 

“Whose car is that? And where on earth is the estate security?"

I got out of bed and peeked through the living room window. Voices carried up to my position on the windowsill of my 3rd-floor apartment. Looking down at the gate I saw 6 men surrounding it, attempting to climb over. Floodlights hinted at the silhouettes of another 3 men coming out of the bushes across the street. I ran back to my room to wake my fiancé. 

I recognized this scene from a reoccurring nightmare. It was one I had been dreading, and it was unfolding in front of me in real-time. I have often played this scenario out in my mind, thinking, what would I do? What would I say to them? Where would I hide? I always stopped there… where I would hide… because in my 2-bedroom minimalist apartment, which I meticulously designed to look like something out of a magazine, there was nowhere to hide. 

I woke my fiancée. 

“Nine men have broken into the apartment complex.” 

With that, trying to ignore her groggy, stricken expression, I raised the bed and ushered her underneath. As an afterthought, I shoved a bed sheet towards her to wrap herself in. 

I was filled with dread. Not for me. Not for my stuff. But for what would happen if nine men came into my apartment and found my white, American fiancé in her pajamas in my apartment. 

If it was just me, it would be easy. We know as we go do, we know as we go talk am. This wasn’t my first rodeo with intruders that arrived in the dead of night in my life.

Then the ramming started. My body felt cold.

---

Some days later, OCTOBER, 2023.  London, United Kingdom.

As I sip my morning coffee recounting the events above, it occurs to me that this is not my Japa origin story. 

To Japa is to emigrate from Nigeria, typically to a Western country, for better living opportunities and working conditions. But as someone who has escaped the gravitational pull of Nigeria multiple times, I somehow find myself still returning to its orbit. This was an experience that brought to my attention the fact that I had already left Nigeria. In January 2015, I moved back to Nigeria from the USA to start a software consultancy. Five years later, through a series of fortunate events, I found myself a partner in an American software consultancy where I could work remotely from anywhere in the world. The crypto boom of 2020 provided the means to acquire a second citizenship. Technically, I did not need to be in Nigeria after that. so why was I still there? 

That question nagged at me in the days after the attack. My fiancé and I got lucky. The robbers got chased off the property by nearby vigilantes coming to the rescue and shooting into the air. But not before they had stabbed a neighbor, stole another neighbor's jewelry, and attempted to steal a car. So, why was I  there?… The only reason I could think of was family.  But was that all?

My dream has always been to see the world. And in my quest to escape the limitations of the Nigerian green passport, I have found that the grass is not necessarily always greener on the other side. When you Japa, you trade one system for another system. And every system has its pros and cons. Over the past decade, I have traveled along less known paths, which has led me to see the world from a very different perspective from what I got on the news. This has made me an immigration nerd. Following geopolitics, following immigration laws, and learning how the rich Westerners navigate the world's laws, and make it work for them. I found that the answer to a free life is not necessarily moving from Africa to a free Western country but straddling the whole world… dipping your fingers into every pot to understand the world and become a global citizen. taking advantage of what the world has to offer.

Initially, Bankole and I talked for hours brainstorming strategies for Nigerians to legally engage with the global market; At the time Bankole was looking to move to Rwanda to start, in his words, a virtual production experiment. The fundamental problem here was how to create a business while solving infrastructural issues in Nigeria such as constant electricity and also how to escape the ever devaluing Nigerian Naira. The short answer is that it is nearly impossible. 

Something that is hard for the casual observer to see is that Nigerians are trapped. The requirements needed to leave your borders just for a 2-week holiday in France are monumental. You need to prove you have a job. The company has to know you are leaving. You have to show you have had a buoyant bank account for the last 6 months. And that’s just the beginning of the mountain of other invasive paperwork you’ve got to submit. Compare this to my American business partner who two years ago applied for a long-term visa to France to live there for a year, and his reason for moving to France was “to learn French”. This option does not exist for Nigerians.

But the blockers on Nigerians are not just geographical. There are financial blocks, and informational blocks that effectively render many people around the world as second-class financial and digital citizens. Bankole and I have spent at least 3 years talking about these issues and trading notes on how to succeed in spite of them.  It was from these conversations that this newsletter was born. 

Freedom comes in many forms: financial freedom, geographical freedom, and the freedom to choose what to do with one’s time. As an African, attaining this is a very different journey than that of our Western counterparts. And that’s what this newsletter is about. From earning USD while living in Nigeria, to how to access the most countries with the least number of approved visas, on a Nigerian passport, this newsletter is a chronicle documentation of our journey to becoming global citizens.

We aim to publish these notes once a week. In addition to our stories, we might do some commentary on recent trends we notice in the immigration world and share travel hacks. Whatever seems interesting. Our hope is that as we try to solve these issues for ourselves, what we find and share makes life easier for others who are on similar journeys.

In the next post, you’ll hear from Bankole. Until then, keep pursuing freedom in all its forms.