NaijaPositive.com

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5442

Na Wa O!

After reading this earful, some of which I've heard before, all I can say is NA WA O!

If one tries to tell most Nigerians yearning to come abroad the truth, they think you're trying to keep them from getting a good piece of the pie or you're keeping paradise for yourself. Well, I'm glad some people are willing and beginning to speak the truth of their circumstances, rather than painting untrue fabrications of melodyland for their unknowing brothers.

One who is armed with truth can at least make his/her decision and accept responsibility for it, rather than being fed phantom stories only to arrive and realize they've been misinformed, and it's neither cheap nor easily feasible to make a quick turnaround.

I've met some Nigerians who came here recently only to end up suffering, and when they recount some of the phantom stories and unfulfilled promises by their hosts that they were told before they embarked on their journeys, they are filled with regrets. Most tell stories of woe after sleeping on their host's couches only to be thrown out when they couldn't meet their share of expenses.

I've even heard stories of those who were thrown out (sometimes by their own family members and in-laws), became homeless and had to sleep in shelters, when they left their own homes and better circumstances behind in Nigeria.

One cannot fully blame the hosts, because sometimes the migrants have very unrealistic perspectives or fantasies of what their lives in their perceived paradises would be, and when realities set in and they become burdens to their hosts who already have more than enough mouths to feed, the hosts have no choice but to ask them to leave and be masters of their own circumstances.

Reality dictates that a non-contributing adult member of any household will eventually become a burden if others are stuck with the responsibilities of feeding, clothing, housing him/her. If the migrant happens to be a bad houseguest, it can only worsen the circumstances. Kato Kalin and O. J. Simpson relationship was once one of those.

Many who have made the costly mistake of migrating only to find out it's not what they envisioned are usually either too poor, too ashamed or too ill-equipped to return to the greener pastures they deemed hell when they embarked for some of the hells they deemed greener pastures, so they remain in the newly found hell hoping one day it will cool down, and sometimes it does, but there is no guarantee it will.

Unfortunately, when it's their turn to inform the next set of migrants, 'some' are too ashamed to be candid and thus perpetuate the cycle. The lucky ones can eventually tell their stories of mediocre to rags and back to mediocre and sometimes to riches, but how many really can, especially those who have Phds and other good qualifications, yet left better jobs and sold all their assets, only to realize they have no 'hell' coping skills with which to survive, and have nothing but regrets when they have to sweep train stations, and clean elderly poo just to make ends meet.

If they get lucky, they may eventually get jobs as security guards or cab drivers, but not being what they qualified for, it can be terribly demeaning and to save face they may feel the need to exaggerate and live elaborate but false lifestyles, which only falsely impresses the next set of migrants.

Some who won the U.S. DV-lotto for instance end up forfeiting it when they realize the reality is not what they envisioned, and the wise ones return home, or have one spouse test the waters first, before exposing their whole families to the harsh realities of survival in the Diaspora.

I hope this thread will continue to serve as an educational and enlightening tool for those can benefit from it.

Cxsm
1/27/04

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