Over the years, even after independence from colonial masters, Africans, especially West Africans, have been characterized by high levels of mobility from their home countries to the Americas and Europe.
In an exclusive interview with www.sixscribes.com, a young man known as Patrick has narrated how he ended up settling and making a nuclear family in Ghana after being duped by a “country man”.
He said after losing his job in Nigeria due to low demands, he decided to sell all his belongings and travel to America or Europe in search for greener pastures. He later got excited when a ‘brother’ from his hometown proposed to help him travel to Germany, but the man had a different agenda.
“I sold my car. He took a huge amount of money from me and assured to take me to Germany. He told me that it would be easy to fast track traveling documents in Ghana so we’ll take a transit there” – Patrick said.
“When we came to Ghana, he asked me to wait for him and that was the last time I saw him. I didn’t want to go back to Nigeria considering the amount of effort I invested into traveling….how I survived in Ghana, only God knows”, Patrick added.
Watch full interview session below:
The desire and zeal of the people of West Africa to relocate is associated to a lot of related factors.
According to a survey done on 26th May, 2021, Afrobarometer cited “economic considerations (including “finding work”, “economic hardship”, “poverty” and “better business prospects”) as the most important reason for considering emigration between 70 and 90 per cent of respondents in all 14 Western African countries.”
What could actually be done to kill the interest of Africans from traveling to Europe for greener pastures?