Aumen Journal of Moral Education in Africa

The movement trend from Nigeria could be traced to the slave trade period, when many able-bodied men and women were forcefully transported abroad to work in plantations in Caribbean islands and the United States. At the end of slave trade, this movement increased tremendously as many Nigerians had to go abroad for educational purposes, to acquire skills to replace the departing expatriates. Today, what one can consider as drivers of Nigerian youth migration, include the breakdown of the Nigerian educational system at virtually all levels, high unemployment and poverty rates in Nigeria, and a general disillusionment with the country’s political leadership. These have been the background for the influx of Nigerians to Europe and America. It is the interest of this paper to generally look at migration amongst Nigerian Youth and particularly link the ‘search for peace’ as one of the major drivers of Nigerian youths to exit the country. Nigeria has a very vibrant youth population that is not well catered for by the Nigerian government. One imagines how the future of the country would be with the youth that are not empowered, exiting the country with their potentials. Nigeria, which was once tagged as one of the peaceful country has turn out to be a land of insecurity and abject poverty. The position of this paper is that structural violence is mostly the push factor for many Nigerian youths exiting the country.

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