The Nigerian experience is physical, emotional, and sometimes international. No one knows it better than our features on #TheAbroadLife, a series where we detail and explore Nigerian experiences while living abroad.
Chike* (32) and his wife were struggling to pay bills despite being two medical professionals in a no-child, two-income household. In this story, he shares how he left that life behind to become a cleaner in the United Kingdom and what life has been like in his first six months there.
Where do you currently live, and when did you leave Nigeria?
I live in the United Kingdom. I left Nigeria in 2025. I’ve only been here for about six months.
What inspired you to leave?
First of all, I don’t even think of it as leaving. I would say I escaped Nigeria. My reason for escaping was the search for better circumstances, for a better life.
What was life like in Nigeria?
Life in Nigeria was hard, with little to no reward for the stress. I am a radiographer and sonographer. My wife is a nurse. We don’t have children yet. Even though we were two working medical professionals, it was still difficult to pay the bills.
We couldn’t even make rent sometimes. We could barely get through the month without exhausting both of our salaries and sometimes having to take on debt.
That’s insane. Did both of you travel or just you?
Both of us. She actually moved first. She got a job as a nurse with the National Health Service (NHS), and I joined her a couple of months later.
I had registered and gotten licensed to practise radiography in the UK, but getting a job here proved difficult. Many employers still want UK experience.
So what did you do?
I looked for other jobs. The first job I got was as a cleaner at a warehouse.
Wow!
I know, right? But I showed up with pride every day and took my job seriously. The shocking part is that I earned more cleaning in a week in the UK than I did in a month as a radiographer in Nigeria.
In my first two months in the UK, I worked many different jobs in all sorts of places. Really labour-intensive jobs at packaging companies, food production companies, bottling companies, warehouses, anywhere that was hiring.
But those were stressful. It was starting to tell on my body. So I got a job in care. Very recently, I finally got a job as a sonographer. I’m really happy about it because it was very difficult. To be honest, when I left Nigeria, I never imagined it would take me up to six months to get the job, considering all the experience I had.
Sometimes I just think about how hard it must be for my colleagues applying from Nigeria. The process is just getting tougher for immigrants.
Congratulations on the new job. Any long-term plans?
My goal is to progress within the NHS, do a master’s degree and specialise. I’m hoping to have started and maybe even finished my master’s within the next three years. My wife and I are trying to time it so we start our master’s together. That way, when we’re studying, we can both encourage each other.
I’m really grateful for the grace of having a partner in all of this. Our ideals, goals and both short-term and long-term plans are all in alignment. That has been amazing.
You called leaving Nigeria “escape.” Any possibility of a return at some point?
If it weren’t for family back home, I wouldn’t be looking forward to coming back to Nigeria anytime soon. So the plan is to visit once in a while after we’re settled.
To go back permanently, I don’t see that happening for the foreseeable future. The only thing that would ever make me seriously consider moving back would be a genuine and very drastic change in the conditions back home. The current Nigeria, as it is, is not a place I want to be.
You’ve only been in the UK for a short period. But apart from your wife, have you started to build a support system?
I’m naturally a bit reclusive, so to be honest, currently, my wife is really my only support system here. Even the few Nigerians I’ve met here were introduced to me by my wife. They are her colleagues and friends, and I guess they are sort of my friends by extension.
Let’s talk about your experiences in these first six months. Any culture shocks?
When I got off the plane, the first thing that hit me was the cold. I was mentally prepared for it to be cold, but my body clearly wasn’t. It took me a few weeks to adjust.
I’ll say the stereotype about their food being bland isn’t dishonest. They don’t do spicing as we do back home. We mostly cook Nigerian food at home. Unlike my wife, I’m open to experimenting and trying new things. So I’ll always try British cuisine. Some of them are downright horrible, but some are actually very good.
There’s something I’d heard about the culture here, and I’ve seen it for myself. People can be polite, smile with you, meanwhile they figuratively stab you in the back. But I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. Even when I can tell the smile is fake, I still appreciate it. I feel like even a fake smile can make someone feel a bit better.
And honestly, I think it’s part of why their system works. There are aspects of the culture I really appreciate. For example, even superiors at work still have to respect you and treat you correctly. Because of that, every job retains the dignity of the person.
I said I was proud of my first job here as a cleaner. Back in Nigeria, it would be unimaginable for someone of my academic standing to accept such a job with pride. It would be considered embarrassing, and you’d be paid next to nothing. But here, even a job like that pays a livable wage.
So while there are cultural differences that take some getting used to, I can’t criticise them because I think it’s all part of why their system works.
Let’s talk about highlights and lowlights. What has been your worst experience so far?
My worst experience was a very long warehouse shift. Twelve hours of back-breaking work with only one hour of an unpaid break. To make things worse, the bus that was supposed to take me home never left the station that day. I had to trek for almost two hours to the next train station. That day was just the worst.
Sounds horrible. What has been your best experience?
My best experience was getting the NHS sonography job. That was the moment I finally felt like I had arrived. After six months, I felt like I could start my life here.
It’s like in the journey of my life, I was travelling down a smooth road, then when I got here, I turned onto a very rough side path. I had to take that path for six months. When I finally got this job, I felt like I’d started to turn back onto the smooth road again.
The process was tough. It involved a physical interview where I had to perform a live ultrasound scan in front of a four-person panel of British professionals. It was nerve-racking, especially because it had been over five months since I left Nigeria, so I was out of practice.
Honestly, I was doubting myself. It was the first time I’d gotten to the interview stage of any of my applications. I knew there were many other applicants. I didn’t have UK experience. So I was nervous.
It had been so difficult getting to that stage. If I didn’t get it, I didn’t know how long it would take me to get another. So it felt like a lot was riding on it. I tried not to think about it too much so I could manage my disappointment if I didn’t get it. My wife was more confident than I was. She believed in me more than I believed in myself.
When the acceptance mail came, I screamed the whole house down. I bet my neighbours thought something was wrong. That was my best moment so far.
I can imagine. Congratulations again. On a scale of one to ten, how happy are you in the UK and why?
I’d say a solid eight point five. My major reason for leaving Nigeria was to seek a better quality of life. I’m not looking to work less, but I want to actually see the fruits of my hard work. I don’t want to be living to work, I want to work for a living. Here, I feel my hard work is rewarded.
As a radiographer in Nigeria, I could barely afford my own needs. But here, I can even help out family back home.
It doesn’t feel like a fool’s dream to plan towards buying our own home in a few years. You don’t have to save two years’ salary untouched before you can afford an old car just to commute. If we live frugally for two to three months, we should be able to get at least a fairly used car if we want.
A lot of the things you’re conditioned to see as luxury back home are considered basic here. So it’s just a much better quality of life.
It’s not a ten because I still think about my family in Nigeria. Even if you escape a dungeon and you still have family there, then a part of you is still in that dungeon. So even as things get better for me, I still have to put in extra effort to help make things better for them.
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