“Lack of work is killing us.” Those were the raw words of Nkoyo Toyo, a former lawmaker, and they hit harder than most political speeches we’ve heard in a long while. She wasn’t exaggerating. She was simply saying what everyone already knows but our leaders refuse to admit: people are leaving Nigeria not because they want to, but because staying here feels like a slow death.
Everywhere you turn, young people are packing their bags. It has become normal to hear that your doctor is now in Canada, your engineer is in the UK, and your cousin who once had big dreams in Lagos is suddenly doing menial jobs in Germany. That is Japa madness. And the root of it, as Toyo boldly pointed out, is the fact that Nigeria has failed to give its citizens the one thing that gives dignity—work.
From the 80s to Now: A Broken Promise
Toyo reminded us of a time that almost feels like fiction today. Back in the 1980s, fresh graduates would walk out of university straight into jobs. No long waiting lines, no endless applications, no humiliating interviews where you are asked to have ten years’ experience at age 25. That Nigeria is gone. What we have now is a system where graduates sit at home for years, parents carry burdens they should not, and the streets are full of frustrated, restless young people.
This is why Japa has become the most popular word in our homes. It is no longer a joke, it is a survival strategy.
Work Is More Than Money
This is not just about salaries. It is about self-worth. Work gives you a reason to wake up in the morning. Work tells you that you are useful. Without work, a person begins to rot from the inside. That is why lack of work is killing us, not just financially but mentally. Depression, anxiety, hopelessness, these are the quiet diseases spreading in our cities, and nobody is talking enough about them.
The Indignity Abroad
Toyo also did not hide the other side of Japa. Nigerians who leave often discover that life abroad is not heaven. Many end up doing work far below their qualifications, sometimes facing open discrimination and hostility. We see it in South Africa, we hear the stories from the Middle East, we feel the pain of Nigerians who left with high hopes but live with constant humiliation. Yet they still stay there, because coming back home is worse. That is the real shame.
Nigerians are tired. Tired of being told to “wait.” Tired of leaders promising that things will get better tomorrow when they can’t even fix today. Tired of policies that benefit politicians but leave ordinary people begging for scraps. What people want is very simple: a country that works. A place where finishing school means getting a job, not buying a ticket out.
Why This Matters Now
When Nkoyo Toyo said “lack of work is killing us,” she was not speaking as a politician seeking attention. She was speaking as a Nigerian who sees what we all see. She was holding a mirror up to the nation. We cannot keep pretending. Japa will not stop until we fix the root problem, and the root problem is work. Jobs. Opportunities. A system that values its people.
