00:00Home again after a stint in the UK, Yimeka Owaje is one of a few young Nigerians who
00:09have returned from living and studying abroad.
00:11Like many others, he had gone seeking better opportunities, but Yimeka says he wasn't
00:17prepared for the challenges.
00:19He studied screenwriting in London, but afterwards he found it hard to get work.
00:25He took odd jobs to make ends meet, but after three years, he felt it was time to go home.
00:56Yimeka experienced culture shock.
01:00He was homesick, but he knew that coming back after being abroad wouldn't be easy either.
01:06In Nigeria, it's often seen as failure.
01:25Now he's in Lagos, living out his dreams, teaching improvisation to aspiring actors.
01:37Like the crowd here, Nigeria's population is young.
01:4170% are under the age of 30, but many are leaving, doing jakba, which is a slang for
01:48running away.
01:50The country's economic and other problems mean they feel they have no future here.
01:54I think going abroad right now, I think it's almost necessary, you know, to leave the country
02:06as of right now.
02:07So yeah, I have plans to leave, just because of that, just because of my profession, and
02:11I want to upskill that, and the only way I can do it is in a different country, not here.
02:17Personally, I just want to experience other cultures, other countries.
02:21I don't want Nigeria to be my only reality.
02:24More than three million people have left the country in the last two years, says Nigeria's
02:29Immigration Service, which has issued a record number of passports.
02:35Development experts say people who leave could have a part to play in the country's growth.
02:40They want the government to do more to make returning home more attractive.
02:45Some of them have acquired skills, because going abroad, going to the Western world,
02:48they learn skills, they learn things that they couldn't get from here.
02:52So it's important that we continue to attract this talent, people who have left, who have
02:57learnt things out there, bring them back to come and plug into our industries here.
03:03Yumeka wants to be part of those returning to make things better.
03:07Taking the decision to move back was hard, but he had support from his family.
03:12I was very happy to have him back, extremely happy.
03:15Him knowing that he could come home, and there wouldn't be that reproach of, oh, you went
03:21away.
03:22Wait for the consequences, come back, there are different things that you can do.
03:26So hard decisions, but no regrets whatsoever.
03:30Yumeka says he is here to stay.
03:33I feel more comfortable, I feel happier, and that is what matters to me more than anybody
03:40else's opinion of what I should have done.
03:43But the lure of opportunities abroad continues to attract many young Nigerians.
03:49What, the hug?
03:50Which hug?
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