“Japa,” a Nigerian slang term meaning “to escape with the intention of not returning,” has gained widespread popularity in the Nigerian public sphere. Studies on migration in the Nigerian context have focused on the socio-economic implications of emigration, with inadequate attention paid to the linguistic and discourse analysis of talks and texts on the recent quest to emigrate to the West, primarily to find greener pastures. This study adopted a qualitative critical discourse analytical approach to analyse a purposively selected dataset of 152 pro-japa Facebook posts between 2022 and 2024, using Van Leeuwen’s theory of legitimation because of its emphasis on legitimation, ideology, and context in discourses. The findings reveal that authorisation, evaluation, rationalisation, and mythopoesis construe japa as necessary given the unfavourable situation in Nigeria.
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Oyebanji et al. (2026) studied this question.
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