My talk at the Diaspora Day 2013 was on converting Brain Drain to Brain Gain for Nigerian National Development. When the subject was proposed to me by the organizers of the conference, I wondered why but not for too long. I was soon to learn that the topic was triggered by an opinion piece "A confused Policy Tool" which I published almost immediately I assumed office as Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe in November 2011. In part the article reads: “To actualize the full potential of the Nigerian Diaspora, all hands need to be on deck. For a start, NIDO needs to restructure, such that they are able to attract the best in the Diaspora, who can think strategically and willing to selflessly give of themselves for the service of fatherland. Rude disappointment awaits those who come into NIDO leadership in the expectation that it will be a launch pad into political appointments. That is not what it should be and it is thankfully not so. It is about service to fatherland, giving of your human and financial capital because you believe in the Nigerian project. The new structure must have a way to downgrade mediocrity and opportunism and upgrade professionalism and integrity. NIDO leadership must move away, for good, from the notion that Government will have to financially support the organization to place it in good stead to achieve its objectives. Government only needs to place its institutional capital at the disposal of the Diaspora, in a structural manner. A purposeful Diaspora leadership must have the capacity to convert such resources into financial capital to run it affairs. In doing so, the private sector must be a core partner. The Diaspora, with huge remittances to its name and a growing number of upwardly mobile individuals and corporates, has become a market that smart businesses can no longer ignore. The organization, under the leadership of Dr John George C, an industrialist of repute in Eastern Europe, did it in the period 2007 – 2009 when he was Chairman of NIDO Europe. They can do it again” - A confused Policy Tool (April 2012) citizensplatform.net/2012/04/a-confused-policy-tool/
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 14:40:22 +0000
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