President Yar’adua opens 2nd Nigerians-in-Diaspora forum on Science and Technology
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Jul 24, 2007, 18:47

President Umaru Musa Yar’adua will on Wednesday July 25, declare open the 2nd Nigeria Diaspora Day and 3rd Science and Technology Conference. More than 400 Nigerians abroad have registered to attend the conference from 32 countries. From home, more than 200 have registered. On the whole, about 600 participants are expected to attend the events.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Connecting Nigeria with Her Diaspora”. The conference will be broad-based, specific driven and focused on Science and Technology with emphasis on IT, Health, Education, Investment and Youth Engagement. The first three are areas where the Nigerian Diaspora has great potential to impact positively on the country. They are also areas that offer great opportunities for Diaspora initiative and investment.

The objectives of this year’s conference as well as the side activities of the conference, are contained in the kits given to you. Those are activities that some Nigerians in the Diaspora had indicated they would like to engage in during the period of the conference.

The Nigerian Diaspora Day July 25 of every year, was declared in 2005 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to recognize the Nigerian Diaspora as important stakeholders in the Nigerian project. It was first celebrated in 2006 with the 2nd Science and Technology conference, which was initiated a year earlier by the Nigerian Volunteer Service (NNVS), an organ under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of Federation, and established by the Federal Executive Council to among others, midwife a constructive engagement between Nigeria and her Diaspora and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The Federal Government’s initiative to engage her Diaspora which begin in 2000 was motivated by three principal factors, namely the changing profile of the Nigerians in the Diaspora, the accumulation of human capital and resources of Nigerians abroad especially professionals and the fact that other developing countries notably India, China, Malaysia, Ireland and others, had and continue to utilize their Diaspora to accelerate their economic growth and development.

In both pre and immediate post independent Nigeria, it used to be that Nigerians who traveled abroad especially students were eager to complete their studies and return home. That changed between the 1970/1980s, as Nigerians began to migrate to all over the world. The period witnessed not only limited return of students who have graduated from their studies, but experienced the gradual exodus of highly qualified professionals and academicians especially from Nigerian universities and colleges of medicine. By the 1990s and into the new century there was the real explosion involving both professionals and non-professionals. It is interesting to also note that this period also witnessed the decline of Nigerian economic fortune.

It is estimated that there are between 5 to 10 million Nigerians all over the world including the new generations, the off springs of Nigerians who have migrated and now domicile across the globe. In almost everywhere they reside, they are engaged as doctors, (the most successful group) lawyers, teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, social workers, nurses, pharmacists, engineers, managers and others in the administrative cadres.

According to the US Census Bureau, 73% of Nigerians in America work in the private sector, majority of them in the health and education sector. In the United Kingdom, a study by the Institute of Public Policy Research revealed that 61% of Nigerians are among African born immigrants in Britain that are doing better economically than many other immigrant groups. The study therefore highlighted the need for policies to ensure that Britain makes the most of the benefits immigration brings.

It is the same philosophy that underlines the Federal government’s Diaspora policy initiative, the strong belief that the nation needs to harness the resources of its nationals abroad, to accelerate and boost the country’s transformation process, especially in the areas of capacity building and investment.

This is borne out of the realization of the diversity of skills and expertise of the Nigerian Diaspora who are among the most educated of immigrant population and over the years have acquired specific skills that can be deployed for the benefit of the Nigerian state. It is therefore in an effort to tap into their resources and encourage Nigerians abroad to transfer their skills and resources in aid of the country’s development that the government began the move to engage its nationals abroad.

Only last week, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, during his senate confirmation as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria revealed that Nigerians in the Diaspora, remitted $8 billion dollars in 6 months.

At the beginning of the year, the CBN had put the remittances at $4 billion. If the new figure is true and there is no reason to doubt the CBN, it means that if sustained the Nigerian Diaspora would, by the end of year, remit $16 billion, indicating that the Nigerian economy will receive twice as much in revenue flow from the Nigerian Diaspora.

We need to bear in mind the amount of money that many in the Diaspora are investing in the stock exchange and other development activities like in infrastructure and in capacity building is not included in the remittances.

This in itself makes a good case and the need to sustain the immerging relationship in order to expand the pipeline for more revenue flow and other development activities from the Diaspora.

It is not only Nigeria that is involved in the efforts to mobilize, engage and involve its Diaspora in the development process at home, Indeed, Nigeria is starting late but has the potentials to catch up. This is more so because of the increasing desire by the Nigerians in the Diaspora to be involved in the development process, and the fact that government is committed to putting in place a predictable environment, improve security of lives and property, level the playing field and assess for all Nigerians. Once these are in place this country will experience the power of the Diaspora.

This was exact what India and China and a few other countries had done to encourage their Diaspora. More than any other country, India is a living example of how Diaspora effort particularly in Science and Technology, has made the country into one of the global giants in terms of IT development. The India Diaspora was a significant player in making India an out sourcing destination while the Irish America contributed in no small measure in bridging the managerial gap in the Republic of Ireland, that help transform the country from the “sick man of Europe” to one of the leading counties in Europe an continents.

(This information was prepared by the Media Department of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation)

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