Marlon Ward

Mr. Sokoloff
Midterm Paper
Period C
December 18, 2019

Nigerian Immirgation and the Role it has on the Rest of the World

How does a newly free country with so much opportunity for growth, and success
accomplish its goals, but at the same time invite poverty, famine, and violence in-Nigeria is an
excellent example of these qualities. Nigeria as a country have thrived greatly over the years with
so much unused potential. Nigeria is only starting to see how much room for growth they have
now and in the past couple years, since the issues that they are experiencing continue to worsen.
One of Nigeria’s most efficacious issues is the migration rate in and out of Nigeria, families are
fleeing Nigeria because of many significant reasons. Migration occurs when either an individual
or more than one individual fled their country to go to another. Immirgtaion has the same
meaning however, immirgation ​usually involves the government authorities, and it means to
permanently move to a different country. Over time since Nigeria's independence in 1960 the
reasons for migration have changed, in Nigeria migration is the main issue and smaller problems
within the country are the causes for migration. In the past they were mostly because of political
reasons and the violent take back that some of the community participated in after Nigeria cut its
ties from Great Britain. Today, citizens are fleeing Nigeria because of their declining school
system, poverty rate, terrorism, and unemployment rate. A lot of these reasons for migration
seem of low standard however, citizens of Nigeria also choose to Migrate themselves and their
families out of the country. They do this because they have received a new opportunity
elsewhere or just simply because they seek a change in their current life.
Throughout the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s the country of Nigeria was a thriving and growing
country who had just gained its independence from British rule. They may not of had the
dominant and well-known economic or population status that they have today, but they did have
resources, land, and opportunities to grow. Nigeria is still a fairly new country who has truly
come a long way from where they started 55 years ago in 1960. 55 years ago Nigeria had to build
their own military, and political system. This is a task that most newly independent countries
didn’t have to do because they were controlled by more developed and older countries like
England or France. Nigeria’s first president ,Dr. Nnmadi Azikiwe, lasted three years in office
1963-1966. This information is pretty interesting, because that means from 1960-1633 Nigeria
didn’t have a president in office so, who ran the country? Following this celebrated time for the
people of Nigeria the country started developing and increasing the main most important parts of
the country. For instance, they started applying for and receiving oil licenses so they could
attempt to improve their economy, they also started dividing Nigeria into twelve states so that it
could be easily governed. So, it seems as if Nigeria was starting to make themselves a dominant
base in the world. However, following the independence there were horrendous events that
started to take place throughout the country. In 1966 two of Nigeria’s western region governors
were assassinated, in 1967 genocide attacks were launched at the people of Eastern Nigeria. Yes,
Nigeria was becoming a self-sustainable country in the major areas but, underneath all of that
terrible events were taking place that sparked some major reasons for Migration, mostly involved
with violence and poverty.
Blessing​ Rogers a Nigerian-American Massachusetts citizen experienced a majority of
these events unfold around her throughout her child-hood. Blessing grew up in Aba, Nigeria she
was too young to understand and comprehend the independence, elections. She also wasn’t near
the attacks that occurred closer to the capital Abuja, Nigeria. I interviewed Blessing, for 35
minutes and she provided me with tons of detailed valuable information that can effectively be
used throughout my project. Blessing is an immigrant, she came to America at the age of 19
fresh out of high school and looking for an education. So, that she could be qualified to achieve
her goals which she would surpass and achieve later in her life. Blessing may not of experienced
the multiple major political movements that occurred in her childhood however, she did
experience one of Nigeria’s biggest wars in history. In 1967 three eastern states secede as the
Republic of Biafra, this sparked a three year civil war. Blessing grandmother was deeply
involved with this war. She recalled “​Evading​ her home and her village from the soldiers ,
running and running through the woods, night after night sleeping in the bushes hiding from the
soldiers” 1This was a very challenging time for Blessing grandma because this happened to her at
a very young age, and she has a fairly big family that must have been pretty hard to account for.
Also her father was an intelligence officer in the war so, in all this was just a very
nerve-wracking time for Blessing and her family.
Immigration in Nigeria was not a very big problem throughout the 1960’s 70’s 80’s and
90’s, because it was newly developed country that had lots of resources to offer. Nigeria and its
people were also excited, they were excited for the bright future that Nigeria had ahead of it.
Nigeria did not have the large population that they have now back then either. However, Nigeria
has worsened in multiple ways since then;today Nigeria has terrible school systems, terroism
surrounds their country and they have a very high unemployment/poverty rate. All of these
circumstances go along with poor immigration, yes there are good forms of migration but, right
now in Nigeria the poorer forms are starting to take over. This is a problem that must be fixed, it
is unjust that 6.5 million kids are left uneducated and it’s inhumane that more than 7,000
immigrants are consistently left at borders in their own country and in foreign countries every
year.
As Blessing said during her time of immigration things were much simpler this doesn’t
mean that everything was perfect for her though. She still had to struggle with the effects of her

1
Ward, Marlon J, and Blessing Rogers . “Nigerian Immigration
move and especially today when things have worsened and there are struggles for her people
coming into this country as well as others and establishing a life their. Aspects of Immigration
and Migration based in Nigeria created hardships as well as success for my African family but,
more importantly, my Grandmother was on her journey to becoming a successful American.
Over the years the country of Nigeria and the reasons for migration within the country
have drastically changed when my grandmother was involved with migration she told me that in
her tribe of the Igbo people many Middle-Upper class Nigerians were fleeing Nigeria because
Nigerian universities didn’t offer the specialty degrees that the UK and America and offered.
Majority of Nigerians that had the opportunities to go off and start something better for
themselves took the chance with gratitude. Statistics show that Nigerian Immigrants turn out to
be some of the most successful people in the countries that they migrate to. For example, in
America Nigerian Immigrants main areas of specialty are involved with the studies of medicine,
engineering, and law. An article on Ozy.com mentions that “Today, 29 percent of
Nigerian-Americans over the age of 25 hold a graduate degree compared to 11 percent of the
overall U.S population” 2this means that in the past and today there were some upsides to
Nigerian Immigration. Everything isn’t just because of War, terroism, and poverty some of it
involves a families or individuals desire for a higher degree.
The strive for education and a better life were the goals of Nigeria Immigrants in the past
and not to say that they aren’t today but, today Nigerians are faced with severe poverty which
contributes to a high unemployment rate, terrorist attacks committed by Boko Haram, and poor
education systems leaving families uneducated and having to fend for themselves. This all
contributes to the choice of immigration for most families, and once they make the decision to
leave their country they don’t always find success. As mentioned before thousands of
Immigrants without the proper financial aid are left stranded throughout the world in foreign
countries. Today, this is a much bigger problem than it used to be, but there are also more groups
like the IOM that strive and dedicate themselves to provide these families with the resources they
need to start their new lives wherever they wanted to.
Over the past 55 years since Nigeria gained independence from British rule, things have
changed drastically. Honestly, it’s very hard to tell whether if things have really gotten worse
overall, or if just small subsections of the internal structure of the country have worsened.
According to Blessing everything was better when she was growing up in Nigeria just because of
the lack of attention that was on Africa in general. Today Africa and more importantly Nigeria
have lots of resources that they export to other countries and they have a very large tourist rate.
Today, Nigeria suffers from many social challenges that are usually the turning point for families
wanting to move. Nigeria is so populous that in some parts of the country people literally live on
top of each other these conditions worsen and cause-disease, famine, the loss of jobs, and it

2
Fosco, Molly. Molly Fosco to Ozy web forum, "The Most Successful Ethnic Group in
the U.S May Surprise You," June 7, 2018. https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/
the-most-successful-ethnic-group-in-the-u-s-may-surprise-you/86885/.
makes there large cities targets for attacks. The driving force behind, the challenges that Nigeria
faces that ultimately lead to migration out of the country could be their population density.
Throughout the 1960’s and 70’s there population rate wasn’t even close to what it is now which
is why things were probably simpler and more quiet. It is insane how underprivileged people
must struggle for everything in Nigeria, and yes their government/external aid groups are trying
to show attention towards these issues but, this is an issue for one country that must still govern
itself and run the more primary parts of their country. This shows how some of the less public
and more humanitarian problems that go on won’t receive the attention that they should because
this usually happens to lower income families in Nigeria, these problems aren’t hurting the
government officials or president of Nigeria there just creating headaches that they don’t
necessarily want to deal with. That’s why these issues go so long without being solved and even
though it’s very hard to fix population density they shouldn’t just be becoming aware of it now,
it’s not like 5 million people just moved into Nigeria. This main issue has consequences and its
just been building up over the past ten years and now its at the point where 6.5 million children
aren’t educated, thousands of citizens are left jobless and even more are left stranded at
immigration centers.
Boko Haram is another vigorous force behind driving Nigerian citizens out. Boko Haram
is a jihadist terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram is known for
causing massacres in highly populated areas of Africa (mostly in Nigeria) mainly for political
reasons. They started coming into power in July of 2009 and they are sort of brother group to the
Taliban, they partake in very violent and public kidnappings, bombings, and police motivated
attacks. For example, in January 2012 more than 100 peoples were killed in coordinated
bombings and shootings, than in April 2014 Boko haram kidnapped more than 200 girls from a
boarding school in Chibok, this event called an international outrage. As portrayed Nigeria has
indeed worsened in minor sections of their country, within the past 20 years the terroism rate,
poverty rate, unemployment rate, and the economy have exacerbated all of these reasons connect
to why citizens want to migrate out of Nigeria. This entire problem is very intractable, it’s like
layer after layer of information to unfold to ge to the multiple reasons of why people want to
leave Nigeria and what the country has worsened. Honestly, today the most important reasons of
Migration from Nigeria and from anywhere around the world are seen as poor. There are many
people who leave their countries for better opportunities and for educational purposes, but in our
world today we have seen immigrants fleeing war, poverty, prosecution, and just terrible events
that they hope to not endure in their new home. This is also not seen as a problem because we
should be inviting foreigners into our country. However, on the other hand if conditions in their
home countries worsened to the point where everything is becoming overwhelmed with the
amount of people going out than something must be explained and changed.
In all, over time Nigeria and their connection to immirgtaion has worsened,because of
surface problems that affect smaller areas and groups of people. This issue can occur anywhere,it
could happen in China with their population density or it could happen in California when people
must evacuate because of wildfires. One major problem such as population density) can relate
and cause so many other unwanted very significant events in that country. Despite some of the
hardships that Nigerian’s endure in their country or in a new country that there getting newly
accustomed to they seem to always find success somewhere. An article from Ozy.com
mentioned that “ Overt racism hasn’t stopped Nigerian-Americans from creating jobs, treating
patients, teaching students and contributing to local communities in their new home. All while at
the same time confidently emerging as one of America's most successful immigrant ​countries”3
Nigerians emerge from their hardships as some of the most successful people in the world they
always strive for greatness. Despite the challenges they face in Nigeria most of the citizens
achieve greatness in their lives no matter what their specialty. In the Igbo tribe where Blessing
was raised focused on agriculture and education while other tribes focus on family and other
things. Brittannica.org mentions that ‘Most Igbo traditionally have been subsidence farmers their
staples being yams, cassava, and taro”4 Blessing also mentioned that “Igbo people are very
culturally appreciated people, they take any chance they get to represent their village and culture
to the world” 5
Many sources that connect to Nigerian Immirgation make lots of connections with other
worldwide events, it seems as if these external sources an aid that apply to Nigerian Immirgation
want to make people feel sorry for the cause. This is a very ineffective way of getting the
information out to the world, because aid groups should not make people feel substandard they
should make them feel informed, they should make people want to go out there and help others.
Nigeria needs help, yes they can be successful without any help but more people with less
opportunities than others the occurrences of terrorism, political attacks, and ineffective school
systems get to them leaving them disadvantaged.
Overall, Nigeria has worsened over the years, this opinion is portrayed in my interview
when Blessing reflected on and said “how simple and quiet Nigeria was back thaen compared to
now when everything is bustling with action and terrorism creeps around every corner”6. She
also said that “Now it can be hard to travel between America and Nigeria because of the airline
security”7.(this is something that can happen anywhere) Lastly, Blessing grandmother reflected
on how Nigeria just felt better before the population significantly increased,and before Nigeria
started receiving all of this attention for the various sources that they supply to the rest of the
world. Blessing, preferred Nigeria in the past and she said that if Nigeria offered the proper
education she would have stayed there. Blessing also referred to the fact that she would probably

3
Fosco, Molly. Molly Fosco to Ozy web forum, "The Most Successful Ethnic Group in
the U.S May Surprise You," June 7, 2018. https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/
the-most-successful-ethnic-group-in-the-u-s-may-surprise-you/86885​/.
4
Lotha, Gloria. "Igbo People ." britannica.org. Last modified July 20, 1998.
Accessed November 4, 2015. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Igbo​.
5
Ward, Marlon J, and Blessing Rogers . “Nigerian Immigration
6
​Ward, Marlon J, and Blessing Rogers . “Nigerian Immigration
7
​Ward, Marlon J, and Blessing Rogers . “Nigerian Immigration
have been successful much earlier in her life since she wouldn't have to overcome the challenges
that she faced in America as a black (African) woman in the 80’s . Furthermore, the events that
happened in Nigeria in the past were much safer and better than they are today, but no matter
what because of my heritage, my family will always feel and experience the changes that have
occurred and will keep happening in Nigeria.