Renowned Nigerian medical professional, Dr. Olufunmilayo, recently shared on Twitter that a significant number of Nigerians living overseas, especially those based in the United Kingdom, often exaggerate their challenges abroad in order to evade financial expectations from their relatives and acquaintances.
In a lengthy Twitter post, Dr. Olufunmilayo pointed out that while life presents its own set of challenges in the UK, the depiction of extreme hardship by Nigerians residing abroad is not entirely accurate.
Read below ;
A lot of Nigerians living abroad especially those living in the uk tell very dirty lies and engage in blatant exaggeration of how life is tough abroad. For some it is simply to avoid “billing” and remain largely irresponsible to their family and friends who are not as fortunate as they are.
Don’t get me wrong:
Life is incredibly tough in uk,
But it is absolute bullshit to give the impression that on the average, it is worse or equal to the hardship in Nigeria. No it is not. And it will never be.
But people living abroad many times exaggerate the harsh reality of life abroad to escape recurrent billing from those at home.
Yes the bills abroad are huge.
But at least you can still pay them.
You may not have much left afterwards, but at least you get paid your earning on time, you get paid quite fairly based on how much hard work you put in and more importantly, you can pay your bills.
How do you compare that to a country like Nigeria where people are owed salaries, paid actual peanuts and earn on average far less money than their monthly expenses.
And don’t misunderstand me:
I’m not saying there are no exceptionally terrible cases of people who travel abroad, become homeless, turn street beggars and their lives turn out far worse than they left nigeria. Do they exist? Yes. But is this the experience and situation of the vast majority of those who travel abroad? Absolutely not.
But compare it to Nigeria:
The average random person is incredibly poor, extremely struggling, possibly jobless or will soon be; underpaid, late-paid or not paid at all; with expenses that far outweigh their income on a monthly basis. For so many Nigerians, this is not the exception, it is now the norm.
And that right there when you compare the last two paragraphs, therein is the point.
Yes life is hard abroad. But it’s not as gory or hellish as some of you deliberately twist it to be and paint it to look.
And to be clear;
This is not a defence of dirty entitlement where people feel they have a right to someone else’s money just because “he lives in abroad nau”. Nobody owes you money just because they live abroad.
Let’s be clear on that.
However on the other side;
If God has been kind to you and put you in a place where you have a little more than you need and make a little more than you spend; pls remember those that are less fortunate than you are. Especially if those people are your family and friends.
As I said earlier;
I’m not saying everyone abroad it has it rosy, and for those who are really struggling, I pray things get easy for you.
But for those who make far much more than their expenses, and have a lot to save as extra; it is to you I write this. Try and remember those who are less fortunate than you are.
He that the sun shines on today should remember that the sun may not shine tomorrow.
