Connect with us

News

Are You an “I Just Got Back” – #IJGB? Signs, Symptoms & Cures of the new JJC!

Avatar photo

Published

 on

LagosAirport

“How was your flight?”

“Ugh, the airport was so hot! And my bags came out so late!”

“I tried to enter with my American passport, so they kept me waiting for hours, but my parents came to get me later!”

Welcome to Christmas in Lagos. Or Abuja. Or any big city in Nigeria in late December/early January. It’s the season of “I Just Got Back”(s) or #IJGB! In the old days, someone who just came back was known as a “JJC” aka Johnny Just Come – Johnny, to represent the playful English name of a foreigner. Or perhaps the nickname you adapted because they (oyinbos) couldn’t pronounce your name.

How can you tell who they (or we) are? There are 2 main categories – those who just moved back for extended periods of time – for NYSC, a job, or for good, and those who are here for a brief holiday or a major occasion like a relative’s wedding – for a few days to a few weeks.

It depends how well you adapt, but after 6 months to a year, your #ijgb status is revoked.

How can you spot us? Well let me give you a couple of pointers –

  • We often complain about everything. The heat. The traffic. The rudeness. Customer Care Service. The questions – When are you getting married? When are you moving back? – (for people in the second category) People not minding their business.
  • We find it hard to “price” things down (bargain, negotiate).
  • We tend to stay roaming on our foreign networks as we are only here for a while.
  • The accent.
  • The way we react to people – shocked/outraged at regular things that happen everyday here.
  • “We” read BellaNaija. Lol

Any other ways to spot us? If you’re a Nigerian graduate, do you think IJGBs look down on you? If you’re an IJGB that thinks you don’t fit in the category completely – maybe you visited every single school holiday and adjusting is a breeze let us know!

Perhaps you only went away for a Masters program after schooling in Nigeria all your life. Do you count? We often hear complaints in our “Move Back To Nigeria” column that anything less than 5 years abroad doesn’t qualify as “moving back”.

Are you reading this abroad right now readying for your return this Christmas?

If your IJGB status has been revoked, what advice do you have for your former group – IJGBs to adjust quickly?

Please mention in the comments!

Just for laughs, see some tweets with the hash tag #ijgb, there’s even a Twitter account @ijgb_ng and website, Lol.

 

 

 

Share your thoughts!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Nkechi “Ink” Eze is the Weddings Co-Editor at BellaNaija. And Yes, she just got back.

Ink Eze is the Founder of AsoEbiBella.com, a platform for sharing African traditional styles. She Modern Culture and Media at the Ivy League Brown University. She honed her skills in advertising and digital media at one of America’s leading tech companies in marketing. She became BellaNaija Weddings editor in 2013, and Assistant Editor of BellaNaija, heading the lifestyle section - Style, Beauty and Living until January 2017. Under her leadership, BN Weddings gained international prominence and became Africa’s foremost wedding media brand with millions of followers across several platforms and coverage on BuzzFeed, BBC & more. #AsoEbiBella became BellaNaija.com’s top feature, with over 1.8 million followers on Instagram. She conceived of BBN Wonderland, Nigeria’s top bridal event since 2015 with Baileys Nigeria. Now she spends her time on AsoEbiBella, and has executed marketing campaigns with local and international brands including HP Nigeria, Orijin and Sunlight Detergent. and sharing her insights with the world. For more Ink, join her on @Ink.Eze | @AsoEbiBella

css.php