As a young family man with fairly good paying job, i have never really been keen to to leave this country for good but have noticed the massive outflow of Nigerians (even those with good job and living above average means) selling their properties, including landed properties, cars, kitchen and general household materials and moving out with their families for good!

Am talking with fact and it's really insane the rate at which people are doing the 'japaa' movement out of this country!

Recently, Pastor Paul Adefarasin stated that about 150 of his workers have in recent times permanently left this country with their famimies and most of them settling in Canada, that was when it dawned on me that this is no joke!

If you know Paul Adefarasin's church very well, you would understand that it is a church attended mostly by the middle and upper class individuals and so, those workers in the church would mostly be those with good paying jobs. So for them to decide to to permanently leave this country, it means that what is the fate of those living below the average standard in this country

A friend recently moved his wife and two kid permanently out of the country, for good. He auctioned every single thing in his former home in Maryland, Lagos including the children's toys

A visit to the passport office or depature lounges of some of Nigeria's international airports would give one a clue of What's really happening

Nigerians, what is really happening?

Let me state here that am into real estate marketing and consultancy and am speaking with facts and authority on this issue

The demand for Miniflats and A room self contained apartments is unprecendented in recent time.

The reason is very simple - alarming rate of poverty among Nigerians especially those staying in the cities with Lagos as a focal point

As a real estate outfit, we get hundreds of enquiries for Miniflats and A room self contained apartments and statistically, the number of men or women with families is higher in proportion than those who are single individuals

From stats deduced, majority of these people, are mostly moving from 2, 3, or even 4 bedrooms and some from duplexes to mostly miniflats apartments to be able to house their families in the face of harsh reality of high rising cost of rents

Now, there is so much pressure on Miniflats and A room self contained apartments that you can imagine in areas of Lagos like OGBA, ojodu, ogudu, Sabo, Yaba, Maryland, average cost of rent for decent miniflats is N400,000 with some going for N600,000 to even N1 million for a 'common' miniflats. These are amount that were just enough to rent 2, 3 and even 4 bedrooms just few years ago!

If you doubt these figures, you need to do away with just online searches and come into the field to know what is really happening! Whenever an agent tells you a miniflat goes for N250,000, N300,000 or even N350,000 in those areas I mentioned, brace yourself to see dilapidated structures, apartments and building that are either located in far inside roads that are not really motorable or apartments that you would not even want to stay with your family even if given for free to do so!

By the time they then add Agency, agreement, Damages and other sundry charges, you would be forced to take your apartment searches to the surburds like Ikorodu, Ijegun, inside bariga, Badagry, ibafo, Waawa, and other far flung areas that have cheaper apartments with even better structures but too far from the city centres and come with high cost of transportation to access.

Of course, that seems to be the strategy of the high cost of rents within those choice areas so that those who can't afford them can gradually be inching and moving closer to their villages!