By Prof. Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor
“The real tragedy of Nigeria’s exodus isn’t that our children are leaving small families behind—it’s that a nation is systematically forcing its best minds to build futures everywhere else.”
I like this article by Funke Egbemode
This is a thought-provoking and provocative piece, and I agree with one of its most important observations: the real concern is not simply the number of Nigerians leaving, but who is leaving. When doctors, academics, engineers, entrepreneurs, skilled artisans, and other highly capable young people leave in large numbers, the loss of human capital can indeed be profound. The author is right to draw our attention to this dimension of the problem.
Read Also: Nigeria’s departing future, By Funke Egbemode
However, I am less persuaded by the suggestion that having only two children necessarily leads to the kind of loneliness portrayed in the story of Chief Adeyemi. We should ask a fundamental question: who has been most responsive to the message of “two children per family”? Is it not largely the educated and urban middle and upper classes—the very people whose children are also most likely to have the education, skills, and opportunities to migrate?
And there is another important dimension that the article seems to overlook. Africans, particularly Nigerians, have traditionally not depended exclusively on their biological children for companionship, care, and family support. Our extended-family system is far more embracing than the nuclear-family model. Cousins, nieces, nephews, siblings, in-laws, and other relatives often step in when parents become elderly or vulnerable. A large house does not necessarily have to become an empty house simply because one’s two children live abroad.
The more troubling issue, therefore, may not be that Nigerians are having fewer children. It may be that Nigeria is losing too many of its most capable young people—and, more importantly, failing to create conditions that would make them want to stay or return.
The author has done us a service by emphasizing the quality of those who are leaving. That, in my view, is where the national conversation should be concentrated. We should not merely ask, “How many Nigerians have left?” We should ask: What kind of Nigerians are leaving, why are they leaving, and what would it take to make them want to build their future at home?
A rejoinder to Funke Egbemode by Prof. Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor of Michigan State University
