LAGOS- Mr Bola Babarinde, a former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in South Africa, says Nigerians in diaspora are ready to assist in the task of nation-building.
Babarinde, who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos, said many countries had tapped their enormous resources and deployed them to improve their economies with the help of their citizens in diaspora.
According to him, countries like India, South Africa, China have successfully leveraging on the capacity of the intellectual and material resource generated from their diaspora for socioeconomic development.
“Now that APC is back in the saddle, we in diaspora that are core and loyal party faithful with love of the country at heart and with enough substance to get the country out of the woods, had been neglected by local individuals.
“These individuals may feel threatened by our ability to think out of the box and also ready to call a spade a spade by doing things differently.
“Nigeria will not get out of her economic and political problems if certain measures are not put in place.
“Diaspora APC members have the ace but being blocked by powerful individuals close to power and frustrating the efforts of those who wish to assist the country and states in doing the right things to help our dear country,” he said.
He stated that the emergence of President Bola Tinubu and Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State with their electoral victories was also with active and well documented contributions of Nigerians in the diaspora, especially the progressives minded individuals.
The diaspora leader said that APC chapters all over the world notably South Africa, UK, U.S and Canada spent resources to change the narrative that Tinubu would elevate governance and will not be a continuation of past regime.
The chieftain said that the chapters also did a lot to impress on Nigerians in diaspora on why Tinubu should be elected as President and why APC must be voted into offices in both the executive and legislative positions.
“We have a lot of ground to cover for our nation to advance and we need individuals close to power to tell the President the truth on State of the Nation.
“We must chart the course to take in getting to the promised land as campaigned by our party,” he said.
According to him, in the recent appointments at the federal and state level, APC in diaspora are shunned, jettisoned and treated like outcast.
He said that this happened because some individuals wanted the status quo to remain ,”a situation where majority of our people at home remains in abject poverty and readily available as tools for continuous use as mere electoral materials”.
“The Nigerians in diaspora would be relentless. We would continue to call out and advise those in government to remember those who worked with them during elections and are sincerely ready to assist them to move Nigeria forward.
“Some patriotic Diasporans are willing to take reasonable risks and pay cut to get to serve the nation, improve our battered image in international communities and bring in innovations to spur developments,” Babarinde said.
He said that the Nigerians in diaspora were ready to improve tourism, security challenges, sports management, revenue generations, food security in agriculture, provide solutions to oil theft, and ensure first class infrastructures and less borrowing.
“Nigeria is supposed to be a lender if the potential of our economy is properly harnessed and not this ridiculous level of debt where interest on loans and expenditure is ballooning more than our income.
“These are solvable with solutions and further avoidable borrowings,” he added.
According to him, the president and state governors should trust Nigerians abroad more, engage them with utmost respect.
Babarinde said that leaders should view them from the perspective of coming to contribute their quotas to solve the nation’s problems which seems so intractable.
He said: “Solutions should start from having the Diaspora department or ministries to be created and headed by real Diasporans.
“Governance in Nigeria should not be business as usual. It is time to get serious and real serious about how to make lives better for the citizens.
“Many Nigerians abroad are eager to come home with their hard earned money but have little or no trust in the handlers of our policies, but with some of their owns injected and allowed to bring innovations to the system, zenith will be our limit.”
He urged the president and state governors to remove the “invisible shield or barricades around them and allow Nigerians abroad willing to help have uncontrolled access to make things happen for them.”
“They are the hope for survival of this country,” the diaspora leader stated. (NAN)
