Emmy

full interview

Good evening, sir. And welcome to this interview.
Thank you.

I’m glad to have you here. 
Same as me.

I’ll be asking you a few questions. Some of them might be too personal. You may choose to skip or answer the questions. Now, I’ll be asking you some questions about your current situation and your past experience. What kind of housing do you have at the moment?
What kind of what?

Housing. Where do you live?
Well, I have a social welfare where I get accommodation from, like the government give me social, a place where I stay. A member of Barcelona.

Thank you. How long have you been staying here?
How long have I been staying here?

Yeah.
There, or…?

Yeah, there.
Yeah, I’ve been there for four months now. Ah, roughly four months. Three months and two weeks.

Well, before that, ah, where have you been staying?
On the street.

That would be very challenging. 
Life itself is challenging. 

So, in this housing, you stayed alone or with anyone?
No, actually we are 10 in number.

Ten? 
Ten.

Wow. How has life been since you arrived in Europe?
Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. Not too bad.

So what’s been good about being here?
Learning? Learning? Yeah. Learning.

What has been difficult for you? 
Not having residence. That’s been probably, not probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever faced in my life.

So how does being away from your family, how does it make you feel?
It makes me feel strong because…because, because to, to, to achieve you need to be away from the family. You know, to, to know your, your own personal strength and weakness, you know, to know, to know what you are capable of. So that’s why I prefer to use the word strong.

Okay. Yeah. I see you use the word strength. What gives you strength?
Training. Going to the gym. That’s what gives me strength. 

Do you think you, um, developed the ability to deal with these challenges?
Yes, I have. I have been able to, should I say, get used to the challenges because life itself is a challenge. 

Can you describe it, the reason why you left your country? 
Greener pastures.

Um, greener pastures. Can you, can you describe what happened?
It’s a long story, but I believe we do have time, so I’ll cut it short. Well, um, I was in my school, and I was a student of political, political science. I was in my second year, and I was, I was the head of department for students, you know? So, so we had political kind of riots, you know, against the police brutality in Nigeria. More especially the eastern part of Nigeria, where, where I am from, you know, which was in, this was, this was happening in 2019. Okay. So, so after, after a while going out on riots and things like that, I got, I got picked out as one of the, one of the culprits, you know, of, of, of the struggle we had. So, after a couple of them, I thought my life was, was no longer, no longer safe. I decided to, to move from Nigeria to, to, to the North of Africa, through, through the route. You know, just like I said earlier on, greener pastures to, to better my life. I probably look for work and I can go back to school. Yeah. Just, just to cut the story short. 

Thank you very much. How was the journey to Europe? Is there any experience that was particularly difficult, that you can tell us about? 
Um, difficult. Well. Of course, of course, of course, in, in, in, in Morocco, it wasn’t easy. You know, getting to Morocco, being in Morocco, it wasn’t easy because, because of, it was my first time out of Nigeria, you know, going through different countries to be able to get to Morocco, you know. Especially the desert, desert of Mali, Morocco. So, and being in Morocco it wasn’t, it wasn’t easy, you know. Staying there before being able to go to Spain, it wasn’t easy getting to meet new culture, new world, new different people, you know, people from different countries. I stayed in Morocco and, and meeting different people, you know. Yeah. 

How does that make you feel?
Well, the whole experience, you know, makes me feel that, you can, if you persevere, that is, if you can be resilient, you are rewarded. You would always beat your challenges.

So does your, the situation you face, does it affect you today?
What situation, please?

The one you faced, um, in Morocco and over here?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course it affects me because, like I just said, um, it was a very difficult challenge and I believe that to be strong enough in life, which has been able to. Well, walk us through what? Particularly in Spain, you know.

So can you tell me what, what gives you strength? 
Going to the gym is what gives me strength, personally for me.

Okay, thank you. So, before, before that event that led you to flee your country. What was your dream? 
My dream was to become the president of Nigeria and move Nigeria forward. An African destination. 

Okay, thank you very much. Is there anything you want to tell me in this interview? 
Thank you for the interview. That’s what I want you say. To be able to, to make people hear about life, my story.

Okay. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your presence and your time. Thank you very much, sir.