“Hey handsome, nice to meet you. Are you open to friends with benefits?”
A GOOD WORLD
I joined my partner in Toronto at the beginning of winter, when there weren’t a lot of activities for someone coming from a warm climate.
LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS ARE HARD TO NAVIGATE
The last time I saw my husband was in September 2022 at the airport. A lot of the changes we went through over the past one to two years have been separate.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
When I first got to the UK in 2021, I landed in Chelmsford. I moved to London a year later, after I got my degree.
AN IMMIGRANT DIED BECAUSE OF COLD
Education here is expensive, especially for international students. My friends doing undergraduate programmes at the University of Alberta pay 50,000 CAD every single year.
THOUGHT I WOULD BE DEPORTED
Starting around 2018, my mom desperately wanted me to leave Nigeria. She would go to Poly Road and follow up with agents.
RETHINKING MY FUTURE IN NIGERIA
The first time I considered Japa was in 2018, when I graduated. I was the second person in the history of the Department of History to finish with a first class.
GERMANS COMPLAIN A LOT
Families here get child support from the government. It’s not like that in Nigeria.
GETTING USED TO REJECTIONS
Before coming here in 2021, I heard many stories that all Germans are racist and not friendly to foreigners. I prepared my mind for the worst.
FAVOURITE THING ABOUT AMERICA
My favourite thing about being in America is humiliatingly simple — the unlimited availability of electricity and Wi-Fi.