By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
The Nigerians in Diaspora have in the past five years invested heavily to the tune of over $90 billion into the home’s country economy as part of their contributions to propel development and growth.
“Nigerians in diaspora, those people have vast resources abroad, they were millionaire in Dollars, and in the past five years, they have brought home to Nigeria over $90 billion in investments into the economy of the country”.
The Nigerians In Diaspora Commission Secretary, Dr. Sule Yakubu Bassey said, “So the diaspora phenomenon is an evolving phenomenon. It’s not something that we can play around with. It’s catalyzing development in Nigeria, and it’s contributing over 6% of our national GDP”.
The commission secretary was speaking in Bauchi during a sensitization and advocacy visit to the state, where he emphasized the need for Nigerians in diaspora to heavily invest in the country’s education agriculture, mineral resources, tourism and cultural sectors of Nigeria
Bassey described the sensitization and advocacy drive of the commission as a national project entailing going from one geopolitical zone of the country to the other, while carrying same in five different continents of the World.
“We are sensitizing both the federal and state governments to engage with the diaspora, you must empower them and also have them to know that despite the few challenges we have, the Polish people are investing in Nigeria, Chinese are investing in Nigeria. So why not Nigerians who are in the diaspora?
“We have very high rate of returns on investments in Nigeria, more than anywhere in the world. Anything you invest in Nigeria, you will have 40% return on investment, in other developed world, it’s only 2%, 3%. So, we are telling the Nigerian diaspora to invest at home”.
Secretary Sule Yakubu Bassey however chided the Nigerian press for de-marketing the country and it’s citizens to the outside world, “Yes, the press, I must address you, because sometimes we are the ones that de-market our own country”.
Diaspora scribe further disclosed that Nigeria has over 20 million of its citizens in diaspora, consisting of modern diaspora of over 18 million, and the historical African diaspora of about two million”.
“He said, “One of the competitive edge advantages Nigerians have today globally, is that there is no party that takes place anywhere without Nigerian music and dance being played,
Jollof Rice is served in London as City Jollof, while Masa is there in African kitchen in California
“Agege Bread is there in Canada and the U.S., taken by our diaspora, and they are multimillionaires in donors as of today. All we are saying is that while they are out there, they should come and invest at home, and also help to catalyze development”, Bassey added.
Governor Bala Mohammed has in response, described the advocacy as a cutting-edge phenomenon of development and diplomacy, which the commission on diaspora is establishing for the state, with the requisite connectivity, sensitization, advocacy and understanding between the diaspora population and citizens of Nigeria.
According to him, Nigerians are the diaspora brothers and sisters, kith and kin, and the advantage drivable from that partnership, are the removal of the encumbrances, suspicion and mistrust, and misdemeanors that have hampered that kind of development in the past.
He noted that the commission is working assiduously to ensure that all impediments are collapsed, expressing delight that the Nigerian diaspora are bringing prosperity, while relinking Nigerians with their kith and kin, from the historical perspective, which is more than migration or immigration.
Governor Bala said that Bauchi has a large diaspora population, especially in the medical field, science and technology, and engineering, and one of them was Professor Ali Pate who was back home recently, stressing that diasporas coming back would help train more medical doctors, nurses, engineers, especially the ICT incubation center.
“We have one of the best universities that trains in electrical engineering and ICT, and will really develop local capacity in our state university and Polytechnics and colleges of education, so that we can develop the human capital. It is the beauty or the quality of the human capital that is required outside”.
“We also need it here, since our population is increasing, we need to look at the issue of diaspora window. The way India did, they didn’t have any oil, they didn’t have much resources, but they got most of their foreign currency or foreign exchange from repatriation of proceeds from diasporas all over the world”
He further explained that there is no country that doesn’t have criminals, hooligans, and charlatans, so we should not be de-marketing ourselves, but rather we should emphasize the good qualities that we have, and appreciated the chairperson of the commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa for taking the commission to the global map.
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