My Life Took a Huge Turn: Nigerian Ukraine-Based Doctor who Lost Everything to Russia’s Invasion
On February 24, 2022, the world was hit by shockwaves after the Russian military invaded Ukraine in one of the brazen, widely-condemned brutal assaults on democratic sovereignty - leaving dreams cracked and skyscrapers wrecked into humble specks of dust amid fear and serious scamper for safety.
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It felt like a dream when the first set of bombs struck houses in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital and most populous city. Although there had been rising political tension between the two countries, no one ever thought it could lead to war.
From the streets of Luhansk and Lviv to the calm ambience of Kharkiv and Kherson, Russia’s military onslaught, which already degenerated into a large-scale war in Ukraine, has now led to a humanitarian crisis, with families scattered across Europe and businesses brought to ruins.
Source: Original
Justina Ajayi, a young Nigerian living in Ukraine with her family, is one of those badly affected by the war. The Lagos-born medical doctor graduated from the Medical University in Odessa and worked as an assistant OBGYN in Kiev. She also ran a fashion business in Nigeria and Ukraine when her life “took a huge turn.”
She was sleeping in her apartment when Russia attacked Ukraine.
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No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark - Warsan Shire
Justina said when the first set of bombs struck at 5:30am, she felt “some sort of nudge” in her sleep as if the entire house was shaking. She eventually woke up to a myriad of missed calls, mainly panic ones from her patients.
“It still feels like a dream to me sometimes when I relive the memories from that day. February 24, 2022. My life took a huge turn. I woke up and found countless missed calls on my phone. I called the uppermost contact, a patient. She panicked and screamed, asking me to look through my window. I did, and what I saw was devastating.
“I cannot even accurately recount. My first instinct was calming everyone down and taking safety precautions with them. I did that through my social media platforms while I stayed on several calls with closer friends and family,” she told LEGIT.ng.
Justina was one of the lucky people to leave Ukraine when the war escalated beyond what was imagined. Unlike others, she was not evacuated. She and her family left their house in their car. The airports were already shut down as it was too risky to fly any plane, the train station was jampacked, and buses were nowhere to be found.
Stuck in the car for days in search of safety, Justina said leaving Ukraine was a hell of an experience. But then, it was not as fetid as it was for people “stuck in a city called Sumy, in the far eastern part of Ukraine.”
On the road, there was the constant fear of where and when the next bombs would drop as they left Ukraine, perhaps on their head.
“Safe to say it was the worst three days of my life, being stuck in the car just trying to get to safety, and being scared to death also, not knowing if the next bomb would be dropping on our heads. I must mention though, that my experience is minimal compared to people who had to escape without their own vehicles,” she recounted.
Like Justina, the escalation of the war in Ukraine made millions of people flee, now scattered as refugees in neighbouring European countries like Poland.
Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows that as of Wednesday, February 15, 2023, 4,848,209 people have been registered in the “Temporary Protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe.”
Out of the number, about 1,563,386 refugees from Ukraine are in Poland, while millions have also crossed borders to countries like Slovakia, Romania and Hungary.
As people gravitated towards the borders in the first few months of the war, there were multiple reports of racial discrimination, especially when people were starting to board the final trains to get them across the border into Poland or Hungary. Many countries, including Nigeria, condemned such treatment.
Finding a place that feels like home
After ten months of leaving Ukraine, searching for light, Justina said she finally settled in the United Kingdom. Where she knew as her home — apart from Nigeria — is now in the mouth of Moscow sharks.
Surreal! All she has are memories of her loving patients and friends, and her businesses are now grounded. As a medical doctor living her dream in Ukraine, starting from scratch in the UK was difficult. Sometimes, she still feels the anxiety and struggles to sleep.
“I left everything behind. Everything that I had spent a decade working for. I will not throw a pity party; I would say it all still feels so weird one year later. The PTSD, the anxiety I get from loud noises, my struggle with sleep, the tears from looking throw memories on my phone, how much I miss my friend, my workplace, my tribe, pretty much everything. I even miss speaking the language every day.
“I feel like I would begin to forget. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember some words already. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m taking it one day at a time. It’s a new place, we’ll make new memories,” she said.
On the cultural similarities between Ukraine and Africa
Having spent over ten years in Ukraine, Justina said there are some values the country shared with Africa, especially Nigeria.
She described Ukrainians as loving people, “brave, resilient, and strong.” In the face of adversity, they would still manage a smile. Just like in Africa, the culture of respect for elders is highly upheld in Ukraine.
“Something that I really love about their culture is respect. Like Africans, they hold their elders in high esteem. They are also well known for how they discipline their children. They do not watch them rot. Morally, they are very similar to Africans.
“We share a lot more similarities than commonly known, and their best trait to me, they are very blunt and straight. If a Ukrainian doesn’t like you, you can tell just by their look. And if they do, you’ll know straight away. They do not pretend. They act according to how they feel,” she further emphasised.
Ukraine, because of its accommodating culture, Justina said she has been able to have a lot of friends, start a business and make the world better. She even speaks Ukrainian, though she admitted to a recent struggle to “remember some words” now that she is in the UK.
Justina still misses Ukraine, and her love of the country is unquantifiable. Although there are no clues as to when the war will end, the young doctor said she could not wait to return to Ukraine — the lands where her heart belongs.
“If the war ends today, I am going right back. No questions,” she said, hoping that both Ukraine and Russia would allow peace to reign. This may take a few years, or it could be over soon.
On Nigeria, the first milk of life
Justina Ajayi might be making headways in Europe, but she does not joke about Nigeria, her first love and fatherland. Born and bred in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, former capital and its commercial nerve center, she spent her formative years here, having both primary and secondary school educations.
She went halfway with tertiary education at a university in Osun state, southwest Nigeria until she realised that medicine, her course, was not accreditated at that university.
“I got tired of the whole JAMB and PostUTME cycle then decided to look into studying abroad, this happened a little over 10 years ago. I had a few friends who had siblings studying medicine in Ukraine which piqued my interest,” Justina said on leaving Nigeria for Ukraine.
With Nigeria now enmeshed in a leadership crisis heightened by the tension surrounding the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) naira redesign policy which has brought untold hardship to Nigerians ahead of the general elections, Justina said she hopes there would be a “positive turnaround.”
“A lot is going on in Nigeria right now. Not just a lot, too much. It’s unbearable. My heart goes out to everyone struggling to make ends meet back in Nigeria. Unfeasible as it sounds, I really do hope and pray, that Nigerian gets the positive turnaround it desperately needs,” she said.
Source: Legit.ng
