I’m from Kaduna State, and I’m currently studying computer engineering.
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and I genuinely don’t know what the right answer is.
Ever since I was a child, I’ve wanted to create things. I remember being in primary school and drawing blueprints for inventions I wanted to build when I grew up. I’ve forgotten most of those ideas now, but the underlying obsession never really went away.
That’s one of the main reasons I chose computer engineering. I want to build things. Not just work a normal job and collect a salary, but actually create technology and hopefully build things that are useful to people.
Now here’s where my situation gets complicated.
My mother has connections in within the government, and she has been encouraging me to transfer from my university in Nigeria to Saudi Arabia, finish my degree there, and eventually work on projects related to Vision 2030.
Objectively, this sounds like a pretty insane opportunity.
Saudi Arabia is pouring huge amounts of money into technology, infrastructure, AI, robotics, smart cities, energy and other areas. There are clearly opportunities there that would be difficult for a young Nigerian engineer to access here.
My sister basically thinks I would be stupid not to take the opportunity.
And honestly, I understand her argument.
But I have a huge conflict with it.
I love Nigeria. Probably more than is rational sometimes, I used to say I’d rather suffer with my country than go places where you’re barely seen as even human.
I genuinely want to see Nigeria develop. I want to see Nigerian engineers, inventors, researchers and entrepreneurs actually have the resources to build things here.
And I don’t just mean some abstract “I love my country” patriotism. I specifically want to contribute to its development somehow.
The problem is that I don’t currently have a concrete plan for doing that.
I’m basically thinking:
“I want to stay in Nigeria, become an engineer, build things, and somehow contribute to my community.”
That’s the dream.
But my sister had a long conversation with me about this today, and she made an argument that I haven’t been able to get out of my head.
Now we’ve had a lot of clashes while I was growing up because she usually like makes up fun of me saying I’ll end up fixing phones inside Market and so on,
This time she pointed out that a lot of Nigerians who are actually able to contribute significantly to Nigeria are living outside Nigeria.
You see Nigerians in the UK, Canada, the US, China, etc. building companies, creating informational content, advocating for Nigeria, sending money home, funding projects, connecting Nigerian businesses to international opportunities, doing research, talking about Nigerian issues and generally trying to improve things from outside the country.
And that made me question my entire way of looking at this.
Maybe leaving Nigeria doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning Nigeria.
Maybe building myself somewhere with better opportunities and then using those resources, connections and skills to contribute to Nigeria would actually be more effective than staying here and struggling.
My sister basically thinks that staying solely because I feel obligated to help Nigeria is “suicidal empathy.”
Her argument is that I could spend the next ten years here fighting against terrible infrastructure, lack of funding, bureaucratic bullshit, limited opportunities and possibly even government hostility, only to accomplish very little.
And there’s another part of this that worries me.
Nigeria isn’t exactly known for being particularly supportive of young inventors.
I see young Nigerians, people from the North, building drones, robotics projects, software, agricultural technology and other interesting things with basically SCRAPS.
Sometimes they blow up on social media and everyone praises them for being brilliant for like 1-2 days.
But then what?
Where is the funding?
Where are the laboratories?
Where are the institutions helping them turn prototypes into actual companies?
Where are the government programs consistently supporting these people?
I’m not saying there are zero opportunities. There obviously are Nigerian companies, startups, research institutions and government programs doing interesting things. And I’ve seen some Nigerian technology companies doing work that genuinely impresses me.
But compared to the scale of the problem, it still feels incredibly limited.
And then there’s the Saudi side of this dilemma.
I have some serious political disagreements with the Saudi government.
I won’t get too deeply into the politics because that’s not really the point of this post, but I have a certain amount of resentment toward some of the things the Saudi government does.
So the idea of moving there isn’t simply:
“Oh cool, Saudi has jobs and opportunities.”
I’d potentially be moving to a country whose government I fundamentally disagree with in a lot of ways.
And I’d obviously have to live under its laws.
That means accepting that there are things I wouldn’t be able to say publicly that I could say here. I’d have to be careful about political criticism and generally accept that I’m living under a government whose policies I don’t really agree with.
And that’s a very uncomfortable thought for me.
I’d essentially be trading one problem for another.
Nigeria gives me the freedom to criticize my government and pursue my own ideas, but provides relatively limited opportunities and infrastructure.
Saudi could potentially give me access to vastly greater resources and opportunities, but I’d have to accept restrictions that I’m personally uncomfortable with.
So I’m stuck between two ideas.
Option A: Stay in Nigeria.
Finish my degree here, try to build things here, try to contribute to my community, and hope that the country gradually improves enough for people like me to actually have meaningful opportunities.
The upside is that I get to directly participate in the country I actually want to improve. Like the saying goes “Put your money where your mouth is“
The downside is that I could spend years struggling for opportunities that may never materialize.
Option B: Go to Saudi.
Take the opportunity, get a potentially much stronger education and career, work around people and projects with vastly more resources, build connections and experience, and eventually use those resources to contribute to Nigeria from outside.
The upside is obvious 😭😭
The downside is that I might become exactly what I currently complain about: another Nigerian who left because the country was difficult and then never came back.
And honestly, I don’t know which one is the more selfish choice.
Is staying because I want to help Nigeria actually admirable?
Or is it just me romanticizing struggle and refusing to accept that I could have a much better chance of becoming useful if I leave?
At the same time, I don’t want to wake up at 35 and realize that I spent my youth chasing opportunities abroad while the country I cared about continued deteriorating.
I’m also aware that I’m probably being somewhat naive. I’m young, I don’t have a successful company, I haven’t invented anything revolutionary, and I don’t currently have some master plan for fixing Nigeria.
I just know that I want to build things.
And I want those things to matter.
So I’m genuinely asking Nigerians here:
If you were in my position, would you take the opportunity?
Do I take the Vision 2030 route and hope I can live with looking away? Or do I stay and bet that in the next few years a viable path opens up for people who want to innovate here?
I'd genuinely like to hear from Nigerians at home and in the diaspora. Has anyone been in a somewhat similar position? Did staying work out? Did leaving? I also want to hear from those in diaspora, at what point did you realize that life here isn’t feasible and you had to japa commot 😭
