Between 2016 and 2023, over 600,000 Nigerians filed for asylum in other countries during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari, who served as President from 2015 to 2023, handed over to President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023, following Tinubu’s victory in the general elections earlier that year.
A report released by Statisense, a data collection organization, on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, detailed that out of a total of 664,384 asylum seekers in the eight years of Buhari’s tenure, 355,792 sought asylum between 2016 and 2019, while 308,592 did so between 2020 and 2023.
The year-by-year breakdown shows that 66,862 Nigerians sought asylum in 2016, 91,924 in 2017, 84,624 in 2018, 112,382 in 2019, 73,233 in 2020, 83,105 in 2021, 83,402 in 2022, and 68,852 in 2023.
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Statisense noted a significant increase compared to the previous years, as only 204,791 Nigerians sought asylum between 2004 and 2015.
Over the last 20 years, from 2004 to 2023, a total of 869,175 Nigerians filed for asylum in other countries. The report, which cites the United Nations Refugee Agency, was posted on Statisense’s X.com handle @StatiSense.
Another report shared by the organization on the same day revealed that the Republic of Niger had the highest number of Nigerian refugees in 2023, with approximately 200,497 Nigerians, and a total of 1,268,464 Nigerian refugees between 2015 and 2023.
Niger’s proximity to Nigeria’s northern region, which faces significant insecurity from banditry, terrorism, and the herdsmen-farmers crisis, contributes to these high numbers.
Additionally, Nigerians topped the list of African asylum seekers in Canada in 2023, with about 10,111 asylum seekers, followed by Kenya with 1,345.
The report also stated that 1,345 Nigerians sought asylum in the United Kingdom and 5,136 in the United States of America.
