Onye Nkuzi
Twitter: @cchukudebelu
Christian, Igbo, Nigerian, African. A complex personality, not a stereotype – Western Media take note. An admirer of M.I. Okpara – an unsung Nigerian hero.
In 2018, 150 million Chinese tourists left China to see the world. 99.9999% of them returned home, very few sought asylum.
China, as we all know, is supposed to be an authoritarian state, like the Soviet Union.
As I’ve always said, the main attraction of the West is economic.
Do Nigerians have less personal freedoms than Chinese? No.
Do Nigerians have less economic opportunities than the Chinese? Yes, and that is the major reason why Nigerians are a lot more desperate to migrate abroad than the Chinese.
The West isn’t a terribly pleasant place to live. In Britain, for example, the weather sucks, taxes are high and houses are small, but we go there, not because we desire “political freedoms”, but to build careers.
Our motivation for migration is primarily economic.
Of course, there’s a correlation between migration and economic growth in Nigeria. When the economy was growing at 5 – 7%, we saw a lot of movement towards Nigeria, rental occupancy in VI/Ikoyi/Lekki was higher.
At 1 – 2%, you see a lot of movement in the opposite direction.
You can follow @cchukudebelu. Feb, 18, 2020
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