Contributions of the Diaspora

This article being the first in this series aims to bring our long travelled friends, relatives and families a little closer to home. It will be dedicated to the effort seen and unseen of Nigerians in the Diaspora. What manner this will be done is yet to be ascertained but I will in subsequent months endeavor to highlight the highs and lows of the Nigerian emigrant. Our beloved, who tirelessly sojourn in foreign lands with the intention of improving their way of life and their standard of living, growing up in the south eastern part of Nigeria, one of the first things that I realized as a boy was that almost all my friends and relatives had a friend or relative that was living, had lived or was planning to live abroad. Fashionable or not, taking that long trip at times across the Atlantic and pacific had been synonymous to Nigerians as early as the 1900’s. Education has been the oldest and most powerful force that draws us to strange lands but as our country matures and grows (stunted or not) the forces have become more and more diversified. The need to attain better financial positions, raise a family and contribute to the growth of our dear Nation has all been thrown into the mix. Has our sojourn over many decades been a successful one? Are we counting in decades or in reality centuries? We must not forget that our forbearers were subjected to known and unknown hardships in the name of slave trade. There are no Yes or No answers to these questions. To move forward we must consider the advantages that Nigeria has by having a growing number (according to World Bank figures 836,832 annually) in the forays of a world outside ours.
The UNDP defines development as a condition that creates an enabling environment for people to enjoy long healthy and creative lives. According to Orozco, one key consideration of the relationship between Diaspora, migration and development is that Diaspora form, in part, as a response to changes in the composition of the international system, that is the global economy or the international political landscape as well as development or underdevelopment. How has the average Nigerian in Diaspora contributed to the Nation? Are they even doing so? I think the answer to that is yes. Maybe not in magnanimous gestures but in small bits that makes a whole and eventually becomes significant. A typical immigrant’s economic linkage with the home country extends to at least four practices that involve spending and investment; family remittance, demand of services such as telecommunications, consumer goods and travel, capital investment and charitable contributions to philanthropic organizations. The stock of Nigerian emigrants remits about 3.5 billion dollars a year.
Recently, Oby Ezekwesili the World Bank Vice president for the African Region reiterated the call by Robert Zoellick the World Bank president on donor countries, to devote 0.7% of the amount of their stimulus package to a vulnerability fund for Africa.
I’m making a similar call but this time not for physical cash and definitely not 0.7%. I am making a call for donations of Intellectual property, property that is abundant amongst Nigerian émigrés, one that will have a significant effect on our developmental journey as a nation. Intellectual property which in principle and by right is owned by everyone, because as the old African adage goes “it takes a village to raise a child”, thus after the child is grown it also takes a village to enjoy the full potentials of our child.
There is no benefit to us as a country if our best minds are not within our boundaries experiencing those day to day hardships of Nation building and contributing significantly to it. My friends and relatives abroad always argue and rightfully so, that the main reasons why they are not compelled to come home and help is long winded and almost infinite. The lack of basic infrastructure, the lack of adequate security, a less than authoritative penal and justice system, the continued corruption in the public and private sectors, the insecurity which emanates out of the corners of the country in the guise of religious and political differences, their lack of will power to continually lay eyes on dying, poverty and disease stricken fellow citizens and the list goes on. I am further reminded that this steadily dilapidating situation in Nigeria has been consistent for decades.
My father, who happens to be of a generation that saw events differently in Nigeria; he reminds me constantly how they as young men and women in the early decades of the 20th century sojourned to foreign lands before Nigeria’s independence. The main purpose then as it partly is today was to acquire education and quickly board their vessels returning home with a sense of patriotism and national service in mind. Many of them contributed positively to the Nigerian state. Their contributions today can be seen by the newer generation as the decaying social, economic and financial structures that where not sustained and have gradually faded into obscurity. History has a funny way of repeating itself but if we allow it then us as a country of great minds and great people will have lost out in the dramatic wind of prosperity, economic development and globalization which has swept the world from the Far East to the rising west.
There are organizations that have been created in recent times that tout their abilities to represent Nigerians in the Diaspora in different countries. A mere search on Google will further clarify their existence. But are there of any usefulness? What are the organizational structures behind these groups? What are their Aims and Objectives, barring the need for one or more individuals that have the zeal to take up these noble efforts but lack the resources to move it further than outdated websites and long opinionated paragraphs? Nigerians in Diaspora have been crippled by their lack of cohesion; in the United States for example there are numerous villages, family and community meetings and organizations that sprawl the whole country. Many a times efforts are duplicated, resources wasted and no clear goals achieved. This is not a situation peculiar to any particular ethnic group. The need for Nigerians living outside their homelands to join hands and work together is past over due. There are various models they can copy. Jews for example are well known for their togetherness and efforts to be their brother’s keeper irrespective of location or situation, Koreans and the Chinese are no different. Yes it would take a great deal of effort, damnation of pride and total annihilation of egos, the bottom line will surely justify the endeavour.
But all is not lost as there are still solid contributions that we have seen from the Diaspora. For example, the Obasanjo administration made concerted efforts to attract good men and women of the Diaspora to contribute to his government. The likes of Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Magnus Kpakol, Oby Ezekwesili and even Maurice Iwu have contributed in their own way to the Nations growth (stunted or not) in the past few years. The Federal capital Territory in addition encouraged the Diaspora by setting aside developmental land specifically for those interested in capital investment in the country. Apart from the remittances that has steadily been on the increase over the years there are good men and women in the Diaspora who have in their little way been involved in various Non governmental organizations and private enterprise that have a sense of duty, purpose and obligation to their country. Medical doctors, pharmacists and nurses individually or in groups have been making regular visits in a bid to set up temporary camps and clinics whereby they reach out to the rural and urban citizens with free medical services and products. There is a need for more of this, not only by the medical community in the Diaspora but by lawyers, Engineers, social workers, artists, educators, technocrats and all who have some form of knowledge to impart on the present generation. Only then can the steady rise in decay in our communities and the nation as a whole start receding.
The development we see which attracts us to Europe, America and the Asian continents where not achieved overnight, but happened through painstaking effort, will, loyalty, patriotism and dedication towards a common goal; Nation First.
If we fail at it we only leave a legacy and a future of more suffering and hardship for the generations ahead. If we succeed our land will smile upon us and upon our future generations.


This article was published in the second edition of Phenomenal People Magazine 2009.

All Rights reserved.