Public Hearing on a bill for an act to establish the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission

Arisenigeria Presentation on the Public Hearing on a bill for an act to establish the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission etc. (HB 294)

Date: Tuesday 2^nd March 2010. 
Venue: Conference Room 028, House of Representatives, New Building, National Assembly Complex, Abuja.

BACKGROUND

Arisenigeria wishes to thank the Committee on Diaspora Affairs for initiating the idea of a Bill to establish the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission.

Who are we?

• Arisenigeria was formed to fill the vacuum created by an apparent lack of Government’s commitment to the welfare of Nigerians in the Diaspora, the lack of representative missions to stand for Nigerians and for Nigeria’s interest; and to address the problem of the negative image associated with our country.

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• Most Nigerians in the Diaspora are entrepreneurs, students, professionals, skilled workers who are ambassadors of our motherland. Arisenigeria find it absolutely incomprehensible to understand why they are not accorded protection and assistance in foreign land as most other nations would extend to their citizens.

• It is hard to understand why our country’s representatives never seem to have any plan in place to represent their citizens in their time of difficulties in a foreign land. Many have simply resigned themselves to this fate. Indeed for many Nigerians visiting a Nigerian Mission is a thing that calls for “prayers”.

• On February 23^rd 2009, during our interactive session with the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs in London, we listed some of the frustrations encountered by Nigerians in Diaspora. Among the issues raised were the negative attitudes of our foreign missions’ staff in their treatment of fellow Nigerians who had business to transact at our embassies/high commissions. Arisenigeria then proposed the setting up of a body to be called “ActFast” to address this problem. The interaction with the House Committee afforded us the opportunity to propose the setting up a Diaspora Commission.

• Arisenigeria is pleased that since that meeting, the House Committee has taken on board our concerns and has worked tirelessly to draw the attention of Government to the plight of Nigerians in the Diaspora. We are especially pleased that there is the proposal of a Bill to facilitate the establishing of the “Nigerians in Diaspora Commission”.

• However before we dissect the issues; we think at this point, it will be apt to highlight the short comings of the objectives of  the proposed Commission as contained in the letter of invitation:

1. The objectives appear to concentrate on the potential economic exploitation of the Diasporians without any interest of how to improve their well being, a factor which could improve the productivity of those potentials.
2. The objective of the commission appears not to appreciate the fundamental needs to re-organise and re-orient our foreign missions before its stated objectives could be made achievable

The Problems

• It is on record that the population of Nigerians and descendants of Nigerians living in the Diaspora continue to rise. In most countries, especially in the West it now constitutes a major power block.
• It is also on record that whilst most of this segment of the Nigerian population remains committed to the development of their homeland, there are no organised structures to facilitate the best of their intentions.
• That a further worrying development is the disconnect between children of Nigerian descent and Nigeria; with the potential loss of economic gains which countries like India and China are harvesting from their Diasporians who are culturally connected with their motherland.

Our Recommendations

It is our candid beliefs that the following suggestions will go a long way toward enabling the proposed Commission achieve its stated objectives in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. These suggestions are made under the following sub headings:

• Foreign Mission
• Converting Brain Drain to Brain Gain
• Trans- Business Initiative
• Cultural Exchange

1. Foreign Mission:

• The primary responsibility of safe guarding the welfare of Nigerian citizens abroad at the moment is not an active objective in the minds of our representatives in our various embassies and high commissions. The people posted to our missions are detached non-professionals who are best described as products of ‘settled politicians’. They do not stand up for Nigeria and Nigerians. The way they conduct the affairs of our missions continue to enhance the poor image of our country.
• Our foreign policy and missions seems to lack a sense of nationalism, purpose and commitment. We were alarmed at the situation in Libya last year where the House Committee on Diaspora and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were working on different briefs on one subject; and it took the Foreign Affairs weeks to help Nigerians who were granted amnesty to be repatriated back to Nigeria. In the same circumstance Nigerians were sentenced to long term in jail and some to death without translators and legal representatives, yet we have an embassy in Libya. We still could not believe that 30 Nigerians could be murdered in the Chinese prison without a recall of our Ambassador from that Country and valuable compensation for the families of those murdered.

• In our opinion no meaningful engagement with the Diaspora can transpire without a review of our foreign policy objectives, a thorough clean up in our foreign missions, including a review of how officials are trained and selected.  Additionally, Government of the day should resolve to partly assess performances of Ambassadors/High Commissioner based on a yearly rating from the Nigerian community in the country of their primary assignment. This rating should put an end to the embarrassing culture of impunity at our foreign missions.

• The population of Nigerians living outside the shores of Nigeria form a significant proportion of the total Nigerian population. It is believed that approximately12% of this figure live outside the continent. It is therefore imperative that a specific government ministry should be created with the sole responsibility of overseeing the affairs of the Diasporas and every mission should have a Diaspora section manned by competent specialist Diaspora Officers, with its Minister/Director reporting directly to the President. With this arrangement, the Foreign Affairs Ministry would only be saddled with international diplomacy and administrative matters.

2. Converting Brain drain to Brain Gain

• There is an urgent need to commission a full study into all aspects of ‘Nigerians in Diaspora’. This should include why they leave the country, where they are, the different categories, what they do, the old and the young generation, their characteristics, the cost to Nigeria, what to expect from them, how to link them with Nigeria and how to plan for them.
• Arisenigeria has developed an educational and social project which can link all the Nigerian Diaspora Youths and youths at home. It is essential that the Federal government contributes to this type of project without necessarily running it. The project will provide the opportunity to monitor, to know the concerns of the young people of Nigerian ancestry, and provide a culturally sensitive linkage between them those in Nigeria thus providing a platform for lasting friendships and partnerships. This kind of project also has the potential to help government associate with both their intellectual and social welfare. The suggestion below for a cultural exchange is an extension of this programme.

3. Cultural Exchange

• Children of Nigerian parentage or mixed parentage are at the risk of losing their Nigerian heritage exclusively to the culture of their host countries. Culture essentially does not only mean our local languages; it is an embodiment of the ways of life of Nigerians.
• We believe that the Commission should develop a cultural exchange programme which will allow Nigerian children to visit Nigeria and for Nigerian teachers to visit and teach Nigerians in Diaspora. We make it bold to demand for a festive week for Nigerians in Diaspora, a week celebrating our cultural heritage and the commissioning of documentary programmes introducing Nigeria to the Nigerians born in Diaspora.

4. Trans- Business Initiative

• Although several government departments have made considerable effort aimed at attracting both foreign owned and Nigerian owned businesses to Nigeria, there still seems to be a lack of a coherent plan to ensure that anyone coming to Nigeria for business is introduced to a friendly business environment.
• The trade department in our missions are still as ineffective as they were ten years ago and the resources at their disposal- both human and material and are nothing compared with what were, for example, available at the trade section of the Kenya Mission in London some fifteen years back. Because of this problem, it has not been possible for Diasporas to effectively contribute to the national economy in an organised and purposeful way. There is a need to provide more human and material resources- officers who are professionals in the fields of commerce and proud to represent us.
• We call for the nurture of Nigerian interest groups in Diaspora to constitute business/commerce sections which can engage themselves to development projects at home on the basis of private public partnership.

• Most multi nationals in the western world have institutionalise    out-sourcing and has achieved high success level in their establishments, we therefore feel that since scores of our intellectuals, highly skilled professionals and lecturers have migrated for economic reasons and are not prepared to relocate in the short term, the commission should engage the Ministry of education to establish an out sourcing units with the Diaspora. This will illuminate our educational system.

Conclusion

Finally, we suggest that when established, this Commission should:

1. Be staffed by core professionals in every department.
2. A percentage of the staff especially those located in foreign missions should be reserved for Nigerians or people with Nigerian parentage living in those countries. Amongst this group of Nigerians, the appointee should not have been resident in such counties for anything less than ten (10) years. The aim is to ensure that these individuals have a good understanding of the host country and be connected enough to attract businesses etc from the host countries.

We take this opportunity to thank every one of you who have shown interest and commitment to the development of our motherland and the attainment of the Nigerian dream.

Long live Nigerians in Diaspora!!

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!