And I still found my way to Canada.
They told me I needed ₦2 million for an agent before anything could move. I didn’t have it.
They told me I needed connections — somebody abroad who could pull strings for me. I had nobody.
They told me ordinary Nigerians without connections cannot apply for Canadian jobs directly. That was the biggest lie of all.
The way out of Nigeria was simpler than anyone was willing to explain!!!
Two years ago I was lying in my room at midnight, phone in hand, searching “how to japa without money” for the hundredth time.
My results from school were nothing special. I had no uncle in Canada. No aunty in the UK. No classmate who had made it abroad. The agents I contacted quoted me between ₦800,000 and ₦2 million — just to open a file. Before any visa. Before any interview. Before anything.
Everyone around me had advice that made things worse.
The agents wanted millions upfront before they would even look at my documents. The japa TikTok accounts were either selling expensive courses or showing off their new life in Toronto. My neighbour who left in 2019 just kept saying “save up first” — as if saving ₦2 million on a Nigerian salary was a realistic plan for a normal person.
What nobody was telling me was simpler than all of it.