Nigeria’s Diaspora Success: A Double-Edged Sword

There’s something bittersweet about watching President Bola Tinubu beam with pride over the achievements of Nigerians abroad. It’s like a parent bragging about children who had to leave home to flourish. Don’t get me wrong – it’s great that Nigerians are excelling in Canada, making waves in science, sports, and business. But shouldn’t we be asking why they had to cross oceans to achieve these feats?
The Canadian High Commissioner’s glowing report about Nigerians in Canada reads like an advertisement for brain drain. “Nigerians demonstrate high responsibility, civility, and purposefulness,” he says.

Well, surprise! Give Nigerians basic infrastructure and functioning systems, and watch them soar. Who would have thought?

What’s particularly interesting is Canada’s eagerness to “expand its interest” in our oil and gas, ICT, and agriculture sectors. Let’s decode that diplomatic speak: they want our resources and talent pool.
Meanwhile, these same sectors are struggling at home, not from lack of human capital, but from the suffocating embrace of poor policies and infrastructure decay.

The Sierra Leonean High Commissioner’s revelation that “more Nigerians are doing business in Sierra Leone than Sierra Leoneans” is both a testament to Nigerian entrepreneurial spirit and an indictment of our business environment. When our businesspeople find it easier to thrive in Freetown than in Lagos or Kano, shouldn’t that ring alarm bells?

Then there’s the Ethiopian Ambassador talking about focusing on “culture” and Ethiopian Airlines. At least that’s refreshingly honest – no pretense about deep economic cooperation or technological exchange. Just culture and aviation, while our own national carrier remains a PowerPoint presentation.

The Vatican’s representative got perhaps the most interesting response from the President. “Education reduces ignorance and poverty,” Tinubu said. True, but what reduces brain drain? What keeps our educated youth from joining the next “japa” wave? These are the questions begging for answers.

Let’s be clear – it’s wonderful that Nigerians are succeeding globally.
Their achievements deserve celebration. But each success story abroad is also a reminder of what could have been at home. When the Canadian High Commissioner praises Nigerian professionals in Canada, he’s essentially thanking us for our continuous export of trained talent.

The irony is palpable. We’re proud that Nigerians are teaching in Sierra Leone, excelling in Canada, and doing business across Africa. Yet we seem unable to create the conditions that would make them consider staying home or returning. We’re effectively running a high-quality human resource export programme while our domestic industries starve for talent.

President Tinubu’s pride in diaspora achievements is understandable. These success stories do inspire the younger generation, as he notes. But they also inspire them to leave. Every viral story about a Nigerian becoming a top surgeon in America or a tech executive in Canada adds fuel to the “japa” syndrome.
What’s missing from these diplomatic niceties is any serious discussion about reversing the brain drain. Where are the concrete plans to create conditions that would make Nigeria as attractive as Canada for our professionals? When will we move beyond celebrating diaspora remittances to building an economy that retains its talent?

The truth is, these diplomatic encounters reveal more about what we’ve lost than what we’ve gained. Yes, Nigerians are proving their worth globally, but at what cost to our domestic development? We’re exporting our best minds while importing basic goods. Something’s fundamentally wrong with this picture.

Perhaps it’s time to move beyond the feel-good stories of diaspora success. Instead of just lauding their accomplishments, let’s focus on creating the conditions that would make staying in Nigeria as attractive as leaving. Until then, these diplomatic celebrations of Nigerian excellence abroad will continue to taste like bittersweet medicine – pleasant on the surface but with a painful aftertaste of what could have been.

But then again, maybe I’m being too harsh. After all, every Nigerian success story, whether at home or abroad, adds to our national pride. I just wish we didn’t have to look so far from home to find so many of them.