Japa Lyrics

My country is forcing its people to rewrite their dreams

To fold their purpose and tuck it into travelling bags

To reduce their relationships to screens

To travel across continents wearing identities that feel alien to their beliefs

Nigeria what are you doing to us?

A girl my age looks at her parents

And her heart breaks every time she inches closer to leaving

With their wrinkled hands, they pack the deed to their house

A legacy they hoped she would inherit

And they sell it with all their memories in it

Just to give her a chance at meaningful living

Because my country is sometimes not a place for logical dreaming

Naija what are you doing to us?

A man craves his lover's warm touch

But all he feels is the cold screen

His relationship is straining due to distance

Fights emerging due to the frustration of being distant

Lovers who could have gone the distance

Break up due to the distance

Nigeria what are you doing to us?

Friendships built over decades

Have been watered down by the Japa wave

Real love swallowed into the fans of planes and scattered across the world

Every day someone is battling double emotions,

Happy their loved ones have found their way out

Sad because their next meeting might never happen

Naija what are you doing to us?

Some of our brightest minds,

Quit their decade-long careers to study courses, do jobs not relevant to their dreams

While working overtime to feed their families back home

Homes dangling between two continents

Spouses and children experiencing life in different time zones

Nigeria what are you doing to us?

October 20. We tried to shake off your grip

We tried to beg you to stop hurting us

We tried to believe that you could change

But Nigeria,

Trying to survive you is like wearing a life jacket while your house is on fire

A young woman takes a train because of her fear of planes crashing

But a herdsman cuts the tracks of her life short

A schoolgirl goes into a church to read and 4 men turn her into a feast

Like a con artist, my country is forever outwitting us

We scream Japa Japa!

But how many of us can leave?

Nigeria what are you doing to us?