More
Nigerian families are having their babies in the United States and Europe. This
is costing the country hard earned foreign exchange, and is sparking fears of future
loss of valuable manpower, writes OBODO EJIRO.
When Mike Ogundipe’s wife was seven and half months
pregnant in December 2016, he sold his only car. He had bought the car, a
Toyota Camry 2013 model, a year earlier with funds collaboratively raised by
himself, his wife and close friends, before his wedding ceremony.
“We had to sell something valuable to fund our
ambition of having our baby in the United States,” the 29-year-old property
developer and his wife, who works with a newspaper told me in their living room
in Surulere, Lagos.
“Today, my daughter has an American passport and birth
certificate, which is a head start,” Mrs Ogundipe cheerfully told me as she revealed
that her second child will follow the same path (she is already carrying her
second pregnancy).
