Japa requires discipline, finding love abroad difficult – Canada-based Nigerian
A Nigerian, Kenneth Osadolor, who has lived in Canada for 10 years, shares insights about living abroad in this interview with SHARON OSAJI
What can you say about the ban on foreigners from buying properties in Canada?
First of all, you will look at how things have turned up in Canada as a whole. The housing sector in Canada is in crisis; prices have gone up. Let’s assume in a family of four or five, the husband is making 55,000 CAD and the wife is making around 40,000 CAD, that’s a household making about 100,000 CAD per annum. Literally, that family cannot afford to buy a house in Toronto now, because prices have gone up to a million dollars in just a manageable, comfortable neighbourhood. And if you want to go to the outskirts, like Mississauga or Brampton, houses are now going for up to 600,000 to 700,000 CAD. So, the average Canadian cannot even own a home anymore. What happens now is that foreigners who probably want to get permanent residence can just come and buy properties and leave, with nobody knowing how they made their money, whereas for those residing in Canada, how you make money is regulated. As a Canadian citizen, you’re either rich, average or you’re poor. Now the poor people have subsidies, the government subsidises houses for them, so they’re okay. The average earners, who are supposed to be able to comfortably own houses of between 300,000 to 500,000 CAD, are required to make a down payment of 10 per cent. They can move in and pay up in 25 years. However, things have got so bad now that they had to reduce that 10 per cent to five per cent down payment because housing has become too expensive. Now, the ban is a new plan by the Canadian government to help Canadians own homes. For Nigerians, for example politicians, that want to invest in Canada, the realtors here will get money from them, buy the house and they shoot up the rents. It’s now very hard for people with nine-to-five jobs to pay monthly rent. Where I stay here, for example, it is owned by a Nigerian and I pay 1,200 CAD monthly plus utilities. Doing that for 12 months, you see how expensive that is, if, for instance, I earn 55,000 CAD yearly, which is gross, not net income. So, this is the reality of a Canadian citizen who doesn’t get subsidies from the government.
Earners from 52,000 CAD upwards don’t get subsidies because they’re considered to be comfortable citizens. The income tax here is 24 per cent; so, if you’re making 55,000 CAD, the government is probably taking like 9,000 to 10,000 CAD. There is also pension to be paid. So, when they remove all these things from your earnings, you’re probably going home with 39,000 CAD per annum. When you deduct 12,000 CAD for housing, you’re already down to about 25,000 CAD minus feeding, miscellaneous, car insurance and the rest. So, basically Canadians can’t even own a home anymore and that’s why the government is having issues. Most of the houses now are empty and people are using them for Airbnb. Many are leaving Toronto for places like Alberta because they can’t afford houses there anymore. Rent used to be about 600 CAD monthly, now it’s up to 1,000 and 1,200 CAD with utilities.
What is your advice for Nigerians who are coming to Canada through education or permanent residency route and selling their properties to fund the japa trip?
Some provinces offer residency by investment but even as a permanent resident, you have to be in the country for another three years before you can apply for citizenship, which will take another one year or two to get, that’s a total of five to six years from just permanent resident to citizen, that’s minus the years spent before getting permanent residency. So, for people who want to buy houses from outside, it’s best to just abide by the law. Some people will want to cut corners to buy houses and would give a resident money to help them buy the house in their name. Many Nigerians do this because of the incentives attached; but you never know when somebody would decide to be a bad person. With the new law, if arrangement backfires and the issue ends up in court here, the case would be thrown out cause you have broken the law; you’ve been told that foreigners aren’t supposed to buy houses, so why try? And the justice system is not like Nigeria’s; they will hunt you down and you will lose a lot. Sometimes you may think you have got away with something, but it is when you want to apply for citizenship that you will know that it is good to respect yourself in this country. The way they will do all the necessary checks and dig up dirts from years back you’d be amazed and I bet you, you would not want to have issues with that. But if you follow the law and do the right things, one shouldn’t have any problem.
Canada recently unveiled plans to welcome 1.4 million migrants between 2023 to 2025 and a lot of Nigerians will want to get on the bandwagon for an opportunity to leave the country in search of greener pastures. Is the grass really greener in Canada?
If I tell you the population of Nigerians I know that are stuck in this country, you’d be shocked. I’m not saying it’s not good to japa but it should be a means to an end, a well-thought-out plan, not an escape route. I’ve stayed in Canada for over nine years and I’m a citizen now, but I can tell you that Nigeria is the best country in the world. All we need is one good leader at the centre. Just one leader that can influence like 15 others to do the right thing and actually serve. If we have 15 governors plus a president that is upright, righteous and do the right thing, I’m certain that a lot of us will move back to Nigeria immediately. When they come they will understand that things aren’t always greener on the other side, it’s not something you have to tell them, they have to experience it themselves. They have to come themselves and see it. For instance, after all your years of experience in your job back in Nigeria, you leave it and japa to Canada, then imagine you apply to a company, then a young girl that just finished high school will become your boss, ordering you around, just because she’s white and she’s a citizen. I’ve seen bank managers, Shell workers come here and start working night duty in warehouses, loading sugar and stuff. Those are the early stages though; along the line they find their feet and start doing what they want to do. But being abroad will break you and level you. You have to strive, you have to fight, you have to keep on taking exams, keep on going for interviews here and there and improving yourself. Also expect rejections and plenty of it. But once a door opens for you, your life will change. If you have a good relationship with God and you are very prayerful and hard-working, it’s just a matter of time, one day it will surely pay off; but you must put in the work, you can’t escape it.
Nigerians are not patient, that’s the problem. We just think that once someone travels out he’s made. So many people get depressed when they get here because the reality is far from their expectations. But you at home when they tell you they’re depressed, you won’t understand what they mean. Here the environment already prepares you to be depressed, but back in Nigeria you can wake up one day and all of sudden you’re a millionaire. Connection here and there and a few strings pulled, that’s all. But here, there’s nothing like who you know. If somebody decides to help you and get you a job because he is in a higher position or you’re related, he will get into big trouble for helping. They will audit the person to the very last dollar. One of the ministers here had to resign because she didn’t declare 1,500 CAD on a trip; imagine! See countries that work very well and every territory has their advantages and disadvantages. Many Nigerians get depressed easily when they start living abroad. Why? Because the average Nigerian does not know what it is like to live in a system that works. We have actually never experienced a good or working system, so when you move to a new place and see how things are done, it’s sometimes very difficult to fit in. The average Nigerian believes that everything you have, you have to struggle for it. Water, electricity, feeding, you get it here on a platter, everything is easy and accessible. No queues anywhere, you get your documents in minutes. So when our people come and see all these things, that’s when you will hear them saying ‘I will rather die here than move back to Nigeria’, just because they are not used to it and you can’t blame them, see the kind of structure we have in Nigeria.
So, are you saying it is not advisable to join the japa train?
Many of us, for instance, like myself in another three to four years, I’m back in the country, because there’s nothing I want to get here again. So many people don’t know they’re living in luxury in Nigeria. Everything here is monitored up to your work; there’s a timer that is reading your productivity, so you can’t even afford to gallivant around. You will work for every dollar you earn, there’s no free money anywhere. That is not to say to live abroad is not good. It is, in fact, very. But the people who enjoy being abroad the most are the ones who travel for some time, enjoy themselves, go for vacations and then return to Nigeria. That’s the honest truth. If we can just develop Nigeria a little, put some things in place, invest in tourism here and there, Nigeria is a beautiful place.We have beautiful places in Nigeria that the world needs to see, but we have a very bad government that knows nothing about tourism and even if you want to attempt to travel around the country, you can be kidnapped. The government can decide to invest money in tourism and people in Nigeria will be travelling within the country without a need to travel out and the money will be circulating in the economy. I’ve had the opportunity to visit a few places in Nigeria and I can say for free that tourism can fetch this country millions. It’s the same oil money that Dubai has used to develop their tourism to number one in the world, it’s same oil money that Qatar used to host the most expensive World Cup in history. What are we using ours to do in Nigeria? Just take a look at our budget, it’s all about debt financing. How can we have a budget in deficit of N12trn and revenue N9trn? Is that a joke?
Then you talk of the wage disparity; compared with the western world, it is too wide. A family of four in Nigeria with the husband earning N100,000 monthly, what can that get you? The labour laws don’t work, the labour unions are equally not better. In Canada, if an employee reports bad treatment at his office, the next day the labour union has landed in the office. They will literally sit with you all day and find out why you’re being treated badly. So it’s good Nigerians come experience it first-hand then make a decision about which is better — to remain or move back, after you’ve gathered all the experiences you want? To live abroad is not for the faint-hearted.
Recently there was a case in the United Kingdom of a Nigerian man that was arrested for allegedly trying to lure a 13-year-old girl into a sexual relationship. Is there really no hope for love abroad?
People that have japa two to three years ago, check up on them and they’ll tell you they miss Nigeria; they would love to go back if things can just be better, because the freedom we have in Nigeria is a luxury you cannot afford abroad. The way you talk, the way you think, it’s a different culture entirely. You work round-the-clock form Monday to Monday; there’s no weekend here. Imagine drinking and eating alone on a Friday night in your house for years, how fun is that? Your social life literally dies. Now let’s not even go into marriage, because being single abroad is another ball game entirely. If I was in Nigeria I would have since been married with a child. There’s no love here; if you cannot control your sexual urge, it is highly advisable you do not japa because you will most likely land in prison. Just stay at home, find somebody and marry because abroad there’s no one-night stand or anything. Any misbehaviour, you will wake up in prison. Even if you marry and move abroad, you’re at the bottom of the food chain; so you have to comport yourself very well, because the system puts women and children far ahead of the men. If your wife wakes up and wants to leave the marriage, you will share half of everything and start again. As a woman, no man will even stop to greet you because nobody wants trouble. All of us are stuck here, men and woman.
Via: https://punchng.com/japa-requires-discipline-finding-love-abroad-difficult-canada-based-nigerian/
