Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa has called for more strategic collaboration and engagement between the federal government and the citizenry in order to hasten national development.
Dabiri-Erewa made the appeal while delivering the 12th Convocation lecture of Afe Babalola University, (ABUAD) in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
In the lecture entitled: “Diaspora Engagements For National Development”, Dabir-Erewa e said such partnership could come, either as individuals, or as groups, through any of the numerous programmes of government to complement its efforts in attaining sustainable development.
“It would not be easy but we will go far and fast if we all unite with a single purpose to develop Nigeria.
“Nigerians, both at home and in the diaspora must join hands to develop Nigeria, as no foreigner will do this for us,” Dabiri-Erewa said.
She expressed optimism that the global exposure of Nigerians in the diaspora can be leveraged as a catalyst for national development, which is achievable under the mandate set up for NIDCOM to actualise.
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She encouraged Nigerians abroad to work with Nigerians at home, as some of the very best migrants in the world and make a difference just as India , China, Singapore tapped into their diaspora skills and talent for national development.
According to her, with the vantage position ABUAD has attained as the best private university in Nigeria and beyond, the University can collaborate, by implementing staff and student exchange programmes, through collaborative research, that address global challenges and sabbaticals to Nigerian diaspora lecturers.
She commended Aare Afe Babalola, SAN for his commitment to the advancement of education and other areas of human development in Nigeria, saying that the university has added positive impacts to the country and the world after visiting some of the facilities on the campus.
Speaking in the same vein, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) and Founder/ Chancellor of ABUAD, said Nigerians belong to all the citizens and such must be proud of it as God has endowed it with huge human and materiel resources.
The legal luminary and elder statesman wonder why some Nigerians, especially the youths, are still contemplating of traveling out without a mission and focus as Nigeria is blessed with both human and natural resources capable of making it a great country.
He maintained that the university in the last 15 years of its existence has impacted on the nation’s education and health sectors, which has made local and international organisations to rate ABUAD as the best in Nigeria and the world.