That Nigeria hemorrhages its
skilled workforce to The West and the Middle East is no news. There are many drivers of this phenomenon at
work, but they can be broadly classified into three or four push categories – economic,
work environment, family pressure and security. Bottomline is that these Made
and Trained in Nigeria men and women feel compelled to look for opportunities
elsewhere. We hear and read of some who have brilliantly excelled in their fields,
and who otherwise would have been unknown in their motherland for lack of
support and hostile working and living environment.
Common to these skilled
immigrants is the desire to see a better Nigeria, to hear of a better Nigeria,
and to be able to boast of their homeland. This desire remains a dream, and a
painful one too, having experienced good governance and political vision in
their destination countries and understanding that the making of a normal and
functional society is no rocket science.
We read of remittances from
the Diaspora and how much it outweighs Official Development Assistance. We know
that these remittances go on to save lives of relatives, send siblings to
schools, ensure food on the table and leave a little for religious activities.
We know that without these remittances, many lives would have been lost, many
children out of school and many would have really felt the crunch of our
voodoo-nomics. Life would have been difficult for many but for these
hard-earned dollars.
But this does not give a license
to self-entrench in complaints about Nigeria or to denigrate in social media or
to condemn in articles in online newspapers. No one should ever mount a high
horse as regards one’s homeland. Once a Nigerian product, directly or
indirectly, always a product and tens of additional nationalities cannot undo
that. A multitude of accents cannot undo one’s origin either.
Now it is time to call on Diaspora
to give back something to their homeland in an organized manner – A kind of Official
Diaspora Assistance, another ODA but fully funded by the Diaspora for rural
roads and clean energy in rural areas of Nigeria as per the standards of their
destination countries. It is a drive to transform brain drain into organized
gains for the homeland. It is an opportunity to see the dream of translocation
of the destination environment into rural Nigeria.
How will this Official
Diaspora Assistance work?
A bit complicated but not
impossible.
The idea is that
diaspora Nigerians are taxed in their destination countries under a tax system
called “Country of Origin Tax” for the development of their homeland of origin.
I propose about 2.5% of their annual income. These monies are declared by the
destination countries every year and every two years, the destination countries
put up a matching contribution which is then committed to rural road networks
and clean energy in rural areas. The management of these monies and execution
of the projects can be assigned to a UN Committee. I will quickly add that the
monies are strictly for operations and should not be committed to travels, meetings
and consultancies by the UN body (they are very smart at that)
Thus, we have 3
contributors to these funds:
1 1. Nigerian Diaspora – 2-5% of their
income taken from source by destination countries
2 2. Destination countries – Matching
contribution
3 3. UN – Their travels, meetings,
conferences etc.
What do we give
the Diaspora in return?
-
- The right to vote and to be voted for even while in Diaspora
-
- The creation of a Ministry for Diaspora Affairs
Though, I have no doubt that
the idea is quite feasible, I accept that it is a very complicated matter and I
do not have all the answers. But then, there are many smart people out there
who can flesh up this skeleton.
Just imagine what Nigeria
would look like in another 30 years if we can get this working.
Let’s together Make Nigeria
Great…..I didn’t deliberately put “Again” because I cannot remember when it was
ever great. I do not think Mr Trump also has a reference for his "Again" too...
I hope our very smart and
courageous Abike Kafayat Oluwatoyin Dabiri-Erewa reads this and acts on it.
If
ever a Bill is sent to the Nigerian Parliament, I want this Bill to be called Abimbola
Lagunju Official Diaspora Assistance Bill. No joke!
CAVEAT
Just two caveats:
1. If ever any government in power in Nigeria wants to take control of these funds, block it.
2. If ever any agency of the UN wants to start deducting its travels, meetings and conferences costs from these funds, block the process.