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See Your Diaspora As Untapped ‘Oil’ Resource, Fayemi’s Aide Admonishes States
By John Adeagbo
In what seems to be his relentless campaign that states, especially in the southwest region, should aggressively look in the direction of their diaspora indigenes if they must fast track their economic developmental agenda, the Senior Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor on Diaspora Affairs Mr. Femi Odere was in Akure the capital of Ondo state on a working visit to the state’s Speaker of the House of Assembly Hon. Bamidele Oleyelogun on Tuesday, August 3, 2021.
The visit came on the heels of the highly acclaimed 2-day regional summit of Southwest Diaspora Focal Point Officers which was held in Ado Ekiti on June 28-29 with the theme “Harnessing Southwest Diaspora remittances for Regional Development.”
The SSA on Diaspora Affairs to Gov Fayemi, who also doubles as the spokesman for Southwest Diaspora Focal Point Officers, in his address, said he came to seek audience with the Speaker and members of the state’s House of Assembly Committee on Diaspora Affairs to intimate them of the communiqué and resolutions that came out of the summit with a view “to finding regional solutions to certain problems and challenges that can mitigate regional development.”
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Odere said that the visit was necessary because “there are some problems and challenges that are common to us as a region. These problems and challenges can only be effectively tackled and surmounted if they are addressed on a regional platform.” He said the issue of insecurity is one of those problems.
“Sir, one of the things we agreed to pursue after the summit was to incorporate Nigerians in Diaspora of southwest extraction into tackling our insecurity challenges in the region through the setting up of what we called the Southwest Diaspora Security Trust Fund which would compliment the individual state’s security preparedness,” Odere emphasized. “But we also know that this idea can only come to fruition if it has some laws backing it up from across the southwest states,” he added.
Odere said he sees the southwest Diaspora as the region’s untapped ‘oil’ just sitting there asking to be explored for the region’s developmental purpose but the “right strategies and policies must be deployed to accomplish this objective.”
“Just as we cannot just scoop oil with our bare hands. We need sophisticated machines to extract it from the deep and undergrounds, so must we create the right policy frameworks in order to tap this huge resource pool for our region’s development,” he told the Speaker. The SSA said he has constantly been advocating that the right policies for the Nigerians in Diaspora must be embarked upon at every opportunities he gets not only because it is the right thing to do considering the fact that “we’re just so far behind the eight ball of our developmental journey” but also because he believes in policy to get things done quicker. “I am a policy wonk,” he declared. “You define your goals and objectives and then you craft the right policies to accomplish them,” he said matter-of-factly.
He said the overarching goal of southwest Diaspora Focal Point Officers is to upgrade their offices into Commissions just as the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) at the centre under the incredible leadership of Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa. “This is the only way by which we can be effective in harnessing our diaspora resources for our developmental agenda. And we need the support of our governors and Houses of Assembly to accomplish this goal.”
In his remarks, the Rt. Hon. Speaker Bamidele Oleyelogun said he’s already told on the presentation of the Ekiti governor’s aide on Diaspora Affairs as he would take his message to his colleagues in the other southwest states, being the chairman of the region’s Speakers. At the meeting was Hon. Tomide Akinribido, chairman of the state’s House Committee on International Relations and Diaspora Affairs; Hon. Favour Tomomewo, a member of the House Committee and also chairman of the House Committee on Women Affairs; Mr. Ajibola Abayomi, president Journalists International Forum for Migration (JIFORM).
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