by Uyu Eyo Ita

I huddled in my chair and tried to distract myself from thoughts of when my yet- to- acclimatise- body would finally acclimatise to the British weather. I must have succeeded because my thoughts floated away from my discomfort to the snaking line of people making their way to the front of the church.

It was testimony time but how on earth was the pastor going to listen to all of these people? God was indeed faithful to this particular congregation. That much was obvious. There was the senior medical consultant thanking God about a successful presentation before her hospital board. She had worked in Australia, Canada and now the UK and had developed a system that would help people recover faster.

The young couple took the microphone next with the wife praising God for success in their professional examination beside her silent husband. She said it had been very tough but God saw them through. There were so many testimonies about MSc distinctions that one almost forgot what it meant to accomplish such a feat in a UK higher institution.

There were testimonies about promotions at work and those about securing jobs and one in particular resonated with me a position with Jaguar Land rover.

It was the first Sunday and God had been good to His people. Their cadence was proof of this, it flowed on richly with the distinct ebb and flow that took me home to the bustle of Lagos and the energy that is ours alone.

I looked again at the radiant brown faces alight with the glow of success and something struck me: this was not an isolated event in a church in England oceans away from Nigeria. No this was happening all over the world. Nigerians gathered in their churches with their lively praise and heavily adorned women, to celebrate their achievement.

They met in France and Florida, Germany, Italy, Tokyo, Texas, Sydney and New York. They met all over the world and recounted how far God had brought them. These thoughts then led to others: What is it about the motherland that could not keep these ones? Were they destined to excel on this scale or was it just a case of being in the right environment? What profiling would now be done on these ones? The world is used to seeing a certain type of Nigerian- the ‘prince’ that swindles hapless lonely white women.

These ones were unsung and yet each day, their efforts bettered the shores they now called home.

I sat in that auditorium in the West Midlands, more than a little awed at the sheer wealth of knowledge in the room. I reflected on the resilience of these people and the price they must have paid to be where they were.

My thoughts went back to the medical consultant and the difference that her skills would make to our comatose medical sector back home. Except that she was not a lone case. There were many more like her in the same field scattered all over the world.

If we had them all back home, would we stop being India’s greatest medical consumer. The same applied to other highly skilled Nigerians in every sphere of life.

What if they took their blessings home?
Uyu Eyo Ita- a postgraduate student at University of Warwick

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Kolapo Olapoju