New Agency of Nigeria has asked for my views on The Nigeria in Diaspora Trust Fund launched by Mr. President yesterday January 11, 2022. It is also worthy of note that the opportunity of this event was seized to launch a 327 page Compendium entitled +600 Diaspora Icons @60 which showcased prominent Nigerians in various areas of endeavours across the world.

I must commend my friend Hon. Abike Dabiri Erewa the Chief Executive officer of the Nigeria in Diaspora Commission for the giant strides the Commission has recorded in about one year of its existence. This is what to expect when you put a Lady of Abike’s calibre in charge. Recall that most of us got to know her as a reporter with NTA when we saw her as a focused, goal oriented and passion driven person determined to make her mark wherever she finds herself. Therefore the progress of the Commission under her watch in a short duration of one year did not come as a surprise to many of us.

Well I suppose the issue of an office for the Commission is well and truly settled by now and the show of shame whereby an agency of government proceeds to eject another agency in an advertised rancorous manner will never be allowed to happen again.

We are all witnesses to the fact of how the Commission has rallied to assist Nigerians in various predicaments including those who were unjustly incarcerated and visited with all manner of injustice across the globe bringing succour. Nigerian in diaspora number over 17 million and found in almost all regions of the world engaged in many and varied exploits giving a good account of themselves while contributing to the rewriting of the negative profiling of Nigerians. Consistently as has been made clear remittances from this group has averaged 25 billion dollars in the last three years representing about 6% of the nations GDP as well as 80% of our annual budget. Therefore the importance of this group for the growth and development of the Nigerian economy cannot be over emphasised.

It is therefore commendable that the Commission has risen to challenge of facilitating greater impact by Nigerians in the Diaspora aligned with the private sector with the launching of the Investment Fund by the President. The President whilst launching the Fund promised to provide intervention fund to assist the efforts of the Commission. The Compendium would encourage those so recognized to go the extra mile to make their collective and individual impacts felt on our investment landscape. And since the Compendium is programmed for periodic reviews no doubt those who think they should have been included in this maiden edition will be gingered by their individual contributions to be thus recognized when the next edition is going to be published for our collective benefits.

It must be encouraging to Nigerians in Diaspora that attempts are being made for the establishment of a Mortgage Housing project for them in collaboration with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. This will give needed assurance that remittances for this purpose will be deployed effectively contrary to experiences which some of then must have had in the past. The discussion to enable Nigerians in Diaspora to be able to vote in our elections is worthy of single minded pursuit to facilitate inclusiveness as well as underwrite commitment to the development of Nigeria. The idea of a merit award properly conceptualized will go along way to facilitate the attainment of objectives in this connection.

Without an iota of doubt Abike Dabiri Erewa has justified the decision to establish the Commission. She has started very well. But she must not rest on her oars. She must continuously rise to the challenge of enhancing the value proposition of the Commission by regularly thinking outside the box for innovative schemes, projects and services. She does not need me to inform her that she will multiple her degrees of freedom to the extent that she is able to locate funding sources for her operations outside the treasury. Abike congratulations; so far, so good. But keep on pushing so come the next anniversary of the Diaspora Day on July 25 there will be a plethora of success stories to tell!

Boniface Chizea