The Nigerian Diaspora Commission: A disastrous policy failure

In 2001, President Obasanjo, in Atlanta, Georgia, initiated a major Nigerian Diaspora project with a view to tapping into the huge Nigerian Diaspora resources for development of Nigeria. The idea was basic and simple – Nigeria’s quest for development, especially in the field of science and technology and human capacity building would require a structured and systemic engagement of Nigerian citizens overseas. Everybody saw this initiative as a brilliant policy move.

Obasanjo’s government teamed up with prominent American-based Nigerians such as Emeka Ugwuonye, a Washington DC based lawyer, Bart Amu, an Atlanta based medical doctor, Professor Augustine Esogbuo, etc. to establish the first Nigerian Diaspora Organization (NIDO) for the Americans with offices in the Embassy of Nigeria.

There was so much excitement, especially on the part of Nigerians in the Diaspora who assumed that a new era of strategic engagement with their home country had come. They remembered with envy the strong relationship between Israel and the Diaspora Jews. And thought that President Obasanjo’s Diaspora initiative would replicate the Israeli model.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian brand of politics and half measures kicked in and the Diaspora project got caught in the middle. First, there was tension over which Nigerian Consulate in America – Washington DC or Atlanta, would represent the Nigerian Government in the partnership. Second, the conditions for funding of the project were an issue. Further, conflict of interest among the officials of the Diaspora organization rose to problematic levels, as some saw it as opportunity to get positions in the government at home. With such perversive incentive structure, the project was undermined soon after inception.

The only option was for the government to play some stabilizing role. It didn’t. Instead, successive administrations in Nigeria developed ambivalence toward the Diaspora project and abandoned the original ideas. Lack of unity and stability within Nigeria further derailed the Diaspora movement.

The question may now be asked: What is the current state of the Nigerian Diaspora project? The honest answer will acknowledge the startling failures. There has been a complete change in the concept. Rather than stable interface with Nigerians overseas giving back to their home country and the Nigerian government enabling them, we have a Diaspora Commission that hates Nigerians overseas and treats them with contempt.

The Diaspora Commission is headed by Mrs. Abike Dabiri, a person of zero credentials on Diaspora matters. Mrs. Dabiri is known best for her unreasonable and provocative statements and hostility toward  Nigerian citizens overseas. Her latest was her gratuitous comment ordering Nigerians implicated in a recent FBI list of indicted suspects of online fraud that are in Nigeria to travel to America to surrender themselves.

Mrs. Dabiri’s comment is most unfortunate and totally irresponsible. First, the Americans have not yet requested the assistance of Nigerian Government in the matter. It seems Mrs. Dabiri is begging for such a request, even if American Government does not consider it in its interest to bring into America those people just to try them and feed them in prisons for many years.

A proper thing for Mrs. Dabiri, if she was intelligent, would have been for her office to find out how so many Nigerians who have never been to America would have committed crimes in America and be tried in America. Since many of them are based in Nigeria, why can’t they be tried in Nigeria with the evidence at the disposal of the FBI? After all, trying them in Nigeria will contribute toward the development of Nigerian legal system, and save the Americans the logistical costs of moving them to America, trying them in America, imprisoning them in America and the cost of deporting them after serving their sentences.

The Diaspora project failed in other ways. Till date, Nigerians overseas still cannot vote in Nigerian elections, and there is no plan to change it. Also, they are not even allowed to return to Nigeria to contest elections because they might have acquired dual citizenship. Nigerians overseas are more alienated and excluded today than ever before.

To the extent that Mrs. Dabiri is the personification of the Nigerian Diaspora policy, the Diaspora project Obasanjo started in 2001 can be declared dead and buried.