By Henry Akubuiro
- Navigating the Return: Nigeria Case, Nwamaka Nwobi Okoye, Gearshift Africa, Lagos, 2024
The dream of many Nigerian youths today is to search for greener pastures, but the land isn’t always greener on the other side. Some who have sojourned abroad have found genuine reasons to return home after some time. How do you establish yourself as an entrepreneur from the diaspora? Nwamaka Nwobi Okoye has seen it all as a sojourner to the Western World and has returned to Nigeria to carve a niche for herself.
Nwamaka Okoye did the unexpected when, in 2007, she packed her luggage with her six-month-old baby and headed back to Nigeria. She was bored with the daily routine of a working class lady in the US. She wanted to add more value to the land of her birth, bearing in mind that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Her transition became a roaring success, a model for emulation. But not everybody who wanted to replicate that miracle from abroad had a good story to tell. Theirs became a metaphor for failure. There is a way out, however.
Okoye has since established herself as an entrepreneur in Nigeria. Given that experience is the best teacher, she had found herself at a vantage position to pen a book on how to effectively make the transition to start a personal business in Nigeria as a way of adding value to our contemporary society. In this book, the author interviews ten entrepreneurs who made the most of the transition home, operating in various industries. She also surveys thirty-tree returnee entrepreneurs who have become industry leaders. “If, after reading this book, you decide you still want to return home, then you are armed and prepared,” affirms the author.
The first chapter of the book paints a global perspective of “Return Migration”, which she describes as the phenomenon where individuals who have migrated overseas, either on temporary visas, work permits and student visas or on permanent visas, eventually return to their country of origin. Quoting copious authorities and deploying charts, the author cites the rate of the return, which has tilted towards a high mark for the educated migrants after concluding their studies. The book explains why different migrants look towards their sociological home base after a while abroad. As she finds out, returnees often contribute to the national economies, but the journey to the top isn’t without challenges, which she breaks down in the book. One is the problem of reintegration.
The book guides you on the need for contemplation before setting out to invest at home. This is covered in the fourth chapter entitled “Understanding Your Way’’. Motivation, no doubt, is key, as the author explains in this chapter, exploring different theories of motivation.
A significant section of the Nigerian book industry teems with motivation books on how to make it in life when, in reality, the authors’ lives are emblematic of a penurious existence, a direct answer to a verse in one of Fela’s songs – “teacher don’t teach me nonsense”. Okoye doesn’t fall into this league, however. On page 80 of this book, she begins a compelling chronicle of why she moved back to Nigeria. “I returned to Nigeria in 2008 because I always wanted to give back to Nigeria,” she says.
As a child born with privileges, she narrates how her travels to Europe and the US on vacation opened her eyes to the wide disparity between the West and Africa. She felt hypocritical living in comfort abroad –comfort made possible by their citizens – while criticising the dystopian condition of the land of her birth without making any attempt to improve it.
Kejinde Oyeleke, a Nigerian financial services provider, is one of the returnees she featured in the book. He narrates the story of how his foresight led to the establishment of the company. He had to sell his house in New Jersey to raise the fund for it and teamed up with a partner to start the microfinance bank. He also details how he passed through teething problems on the way to success, from funding, lack of infrastructure and personnel to the effect of political climate and policies. The beauty of this book is that it offers practical lessons on how Oyeleke subdued these challenges. His experience will surely guide would-be returnees.
At a point in our national life when japa has become a major talking point among Nigerian youths, Nwamaka Okoye’s Navigating the Return invites those aspiring to leave the country for greener pastures and those who are already there that there is no place like home – nothing beats adding value to your own country. As she says, “Africa beckons; only those who hear the call must answer. If you hear the call, then answer.” The lessons in this book are abundant. Okoye’s patriotism goes beyond the telling.