‘I Sold Mum’s Shop, Dumped UNILAG For Europe Through Libya’

For Nurudeen Owodunni, traveling abroad was the surest way to a successful life. A former Law student at the University of Lagos, Owodunni had abandoned his studies in part three to seek greener pasture in Europe.

While some Nigerian youths are still crazy about traveling to Europe through any means including the desert option, Owodunni has advised Nigerians to learn from his experience.

“My parents are from Ajase-Ipo, Kwara State of Nigeria. My dad was the only child and his mother wanted him to have many children so they brought him the second, third and fourth wives,” he said.

Obviously life was tough for the Owodunnis in their Ajegunle home in Lagos and young Nurudeen must have to break the jinx of poverty anyhow, escaping to Europe was the shortest route he thought.

On what created the traveling interest in him, Owodunni said, growing up in Ajegunle, traveling abroad was the most fanciful thing.

“I was born in Ajegunle. Back then in the beighbourhood, when you are abroad or you have a family member abroad, people see your family as a rich one and you were respected. If you were abroad and you came home, people would want to get close to you, so everybody wanted to be abroad,” he recalled.

The erstwhile Law student may have seen no prospect in a future law practice but the illusion of getting to Europe fascinated him. “I told my Arabic teacher I wanted to travel abroad, he said he has a friend called Mr. Okon. I met Okon who asked me to bring N100,000. It was a huge money in those days. I had no alternative than to sell my mother’s shop to get the money,” he confessed.

Unknown to Owodunni, Okon was also saving for a journey to Germany. “The Okon got the money was the last day I ever saw him! He cried.

“After Mr.Okon took the money, I started having problem communicating with my mum because N100,000 was a lot of money then. I had a little job doing to support my education. I was earning N2,500 a month and you could imagine how long it would take to raise the N100,000 I lost. Some friends told me how to travel to Europe through Libya, it was as easy as ABC. I was to take my exams to 400 level. So I said when I get to Libya, I‘d cross to Italy then from Italy, I’d find my way to Germany to look for Mr. Okon.”

Without counting the cost, he embarked on his journey from Lagos. “We started the journey from Lagos to Sokoto. We got to a village called Ilela, a border town, then we crossed to Kone and then to Agadez, the second largest city in Niger Republic,” he narrated.

“There were lots of extortions and bad things. They can kill you and take your money. They don’t even speak English, they were called Janjaweed, terrorizing Africa before Boko Haram.”

Narrating his ordeal through the desert, Owodunni said, “Everyone on the journey had a gallon of water each, you have some garri, a cup and spoon. You would pay for the gallon space and the gallon would be tied to the vehicle.

“We would get to a military post and submit your passport then you would pay to get the passport back. If anyone wants to lose weight, that is the easiest way. It takes about seven days to get to Libya from Agadez.

“The Janjaweed would strip off your cloth, put finger in your anus, open your mouth, looking for money. If they don’t find money on you, they know you must have done something. They may open your stomach to get the money. I lost two of my friends in that process. I was mercilessly beaten, they broke my head and my eyes and I was thrown in the sand. I advise people not to try it because it is hazardous and a suicide mission,” he cried.

Stating further the harrowing experience, Owodunni narrated how corpses litered the desert. “You’ll see dead bodies with international passports on them. If you see a green passport would beg the driver to stop and check the name so they could send the passport to the relatives of the deceased.”

Narrating the survival strategies of Nigerians, he said, “Nigerians were into so many crimes then and Gadaffi didn’t take things lightly. At Dorku, a little desert village, there was no food to buy, except bread which was very expensive. We could get water because there are streams. We started strategising with some of my Nigerian friends and started a pure water business. We had something like iron, we got local stove we got some nylon and we started making little amount of money.”

Talking about the ordeals of Nigerians in Libya, Owodunni said, Nigerians were suffering in the north African country. “Nigerians were just picking up jail terms in Libya as if they were going to school. We embarked on the journey from Libya to Morocco, it was a very difficult journey,” he narrated.

Continuing his narration, he said, “We were about 10 that left, two people died on the journey. It was very sad. When I got to Rabat, Morocco, I got in contact with people that transport travelers to Malaga, Spain. The fare was $1,000 then, it was like one million dollars. I was able to raise some money from my work on a farm.”

He eventually made it to Malaga, Spain, where he eventually encountered the immigration officers.

“We were about seven of us living together in a motel in Malaga. Three Nigerians, two Sudanese, one Ghanaian, a Togolese and some other people. We were all illegal immigrants, without any document.

“Eventually, the immigration and police arrested a co-tenant and he was brought to the motel. We were all arrested. After about two weeks at the deportation camp, they escorted us from Barcelona to Lagos and I was taken to Obalende Police Station.

“I had no money to bail myself because I came with only a top, a short and slippers. I eventually was let off the hook, walked from there to CMS where I got a free bus to Ajegunle. I couldn’t go home so I lived in the Boundary market, for about four years,” he relayed.

According to Owodunni, his life took a dramatic turn while providence made him to meet different kinds of people in the market. “I met a man called Equal Right and Justice, an Indian hemp seller. I started seeping inside the market for about three to four years.

“Later I met another man called Ustaz who told me that his dad was the first Controller General of Immigration Nigeria. According to him, he had studied Mass Communication in a school in California. I would follow him down to where he smoked, after which he would still ask me to borrow him money and he would still smoke with it.

“Ustaz took me down to a cyber café and advised me to look for money to learn desktop publishing and data processing. He told me that if I needed to return abroad, it was for me to develop a concept,” he said.

He ended up establishing a company, Glide Global Consult. “We stated sending mails to universities abroad, that was how we signed an MOU with a University in Europe. They gave me the invitation and I went to their embassy. I got the visa and that was my first visa in my life,” he narrated.

After reuniting with his family, Owodunni again through family support raised money to travel. “Again my family gathered money for me and I traveled genuinely for the first time. I traveled to Ukraine, I was welcome and that changed my perception. I said to myself, Nurudeen, this is your job, you have to get back to Nigeria and help people. Today, Glide Global has helped more than 500 students from Nigeria, about 200 of them are now practicing medicine, aeronautic engineer, info tech and nursing,” he testified.

While assisting students with information to study abroad, Owodunni couldn’t return to UNILAG. “I couldn’t go back to UNILAG because I didn’t defer my admission. I had do take Mass Communication at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism Ogba, Lagos State in 2006. I returned for HND in 2009 and I did a course in International Air Travel Association (IATA) in Montreal, Canada as well as in North Western University and other places.”

Today, United States-based Owodunni, is a successful education consultant and Chief Executive Officer at Glide Global. The outfit has provided information and supported hundreds of students to gain admissions into various universities around the world.

He is however encouraging Nigerians to travel legitimately and add value to themselves to be able to contribute meaningfully to the national economy instead of looking for short-cuts which are mostly dead ends.