Published 16th Dec, 2023

In early 2020, Folu Oloyede, a Nigerian teacher, travelled to Canada to visit his sister who had just put to bed.

For the journey, he booked a roundtrip flight out of Nigeria, hoping to reunite with his wife and four-year-old after spending a few months in Lethbridge, a city in Alberta, Canada.

It would, however, take him three years before he could set eyes on his family again.

“It’s a total coincidence that I’m here. The plan was to meet my nephew, spend a few months in Canada and go back home to my four-year-old son and my wife,” said Oloyede, in an interview with Vancouver Island Free Daily, a Vancouver-based online newspaper.

While he was preparing to return to Nigeria in April 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the start of the Covid-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020.

The announcement forced airlines to cancel flights all around the world, and many countries, including Canada, closed their borders. This also led to Oloyede getting stuck in the North American country.

“Nigeria shut down its air space. I was stuck — I was stuck and all I had was a visitor’s permit. I couldn’t work and I couldn’t bear not being with my family,” said Oloyede.

“I was thinking, maybe I can just see if there’s a plane, a way to get out of here (Canada). I thought maybe it would open up again in June or July. And then, in June, a new policy came out and everything changed.”

In June 2020, travellers and foreigners stuck in Canada on a visitor’s visa were allowed to apply for a closed work permit without having to leave the country.

With the new policy, Oloyede applied for a temporary teaching job in Fort McMurray, a municipality in Alberta.

“I was travelling back and forth between Lethbridge and Fort McMurray for about a year, and then my sister’s husband got a job at the university in Kelowna,” Oloyede said.

“When they moved to Okanagan, they asked me if I was going be okay in Fort McMurray on my own. I wasn’t, really, so they started helping me look for other job opportunities.”

While he still worked as a teacher, the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) programme, a government initiative that helps Canadian communities and businesses benefit from the immigration of skilled workers by creating a path to permanent residency, was introduced.

“I assumed it was just going to be another work permit. I had no idea that the programme would be a fast track to permanent residency,” said Oloyede.

“I thought it would be another four years before I could bring my family to Canada.”

On December 6, 2022, a year after first hearing about the RNIP and nearly three years after getting stuck in Canada, Oloyede became a permanent resident.

Four days later, his wife and son also arrived in Vancouver and reunited with him.

“When I was waiting to see my family again, I was just working on adrenaline. My mind was divided, but I had to be professional. I’m working with young kids and they can tell when you aren’t totally focused,” said Oloyede.

“When my wife and son came here, my whole outlook on life changed. I felt whole again.”

Oloyede now works as a child educator in Vernon, a city in British Columbia, Canada.

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