Alhaji Yahaya Ndu. Photo Credit: The Nation Newspaper.
Guest Speaker Address
Delivered by: Alhaji Yahaya Ndu
Occasion: Official Luncheon of the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change
Theme: Representation Matters: Diaspora Inclusion for a Stronger Nigeria (Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for a New Nigeria)
Hosted by: Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for a New Nigeria
Date: Saturday, April 26, 2025
If you are preparing for an examination involving many others, it is safer to aim and work to come first. If you desire to take the first place, you may not succeed in taking the first place, but you can be sure that you are guaranteed to do very well in that exam.But if you just aim at a pass mark in the exam, there is the likelihood that you may even fail in the exam. This is the angle from which I would like us to interrogate the theme of this conference to achieve the desired results.
Though the theme of this important and timely conference as we all know is “Representation Matters: Diaspora Inclusion for a Stronger Nigeria,” I would like to pretend and urge us all to pretend that the theme is rather something like – “Redemption Matters: Nigerian Diaspora to the rescue for a New Nigeria”.
What I am trying to say is that perhaps the Nigerian Diaspora should not just be seeking representation in the polity for a stronger Nigeria but rather should aim to drive the very process of Nigerian national redemption, integration, unity, development and Renaissance.
Rather than aiming for a seat or an accommodation in the Nigerian political/governance bus, the Nigerian Diaspora should aim at assuming the very role of the driver of the Nigerian national bus or polity.
This should not be viewed as strange in any way, after all, most of the pioneers and leaders of modern Nigeria who led the very process of Nigerian nationalism and Independence such as Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo were from the Nigerian Diaspora encouraged and inspired by the extraordinary Ijaw man Ernest Sisei Ikoli who more than anyone else laid the very foundation for Nigerian journalism, Nationalism, educational advancement and Independence.
The political elites of Nigeria have never hidden their disdain for the inclusion of the Nigerian Diaspora in the polity. All they have always wanted from the Nigerian Diaspora has been a steady flow of capital from all over the world to the homeland.
Since even before the return to civil rule in 1999 concerned patriots have been clamoring for Diaspora voting and inclusion in the polity. Nigerian successive administrations have always found reasons to set up impediments of all nature to shut them out.
Since 2007 when Hon. Akeem Bello and others approached the courts and obtained judgement in favor of Diaspora voting which will be exactly 20 years in 2027, Nigerian governments have refused to make Diaspora voting and inclusion possible. So, I say that we should change gears and aim for the Diaspora to sensitize, mobilize, and galvanize the generality of Nigerians from all over the country and its global Community for national redemption, integration, unity, development, and Renaissance in such a way that the issue of Diaspora voting and inclusion shall be an integrated and inextricable component of the process.
It is said that: “The stone that the builders rejected, shall be the chief corner stone.” This is an apt expression of the scenario that I envisage.
Virtually all the impediments to Diaspora participation in Nigeria’s polity and politics are man-made and consciously imposed by the ruling elites of all political parties in government.
There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Nigeria has all it takes to enable and implement Diaspora voting and inclusion in its polity. If so many other African countries can handle Diaspora voting for their countries, why can’t we?
PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
1. Initiate a well-articulated court action of 10 million (of Nigerian Diaspora community) and 50 million (of Nigerian home community) plaintiffs to compel INEC and the federal government of Nigeria as well as all the 36 states and the FCT to implement the judgement obtained in 2007 to ensure Diaspora voting and inclusion from 2027 compulsorily onwards.
2. Initiate a well-articulated and coordinated lobby of the National Assembly and all the 36 states state House of Assemblies to ensure Diaspora voting and inclusion from 2027 onwards.
3. Seek and aim to install the next president of Nigeria in 2027 who has a history of favoring Diaspora voting and inclusion; seek and aim to get all members of the National and state assemblies to make appropriate laws to ensure Diaspora voting and inclusion from 2027 onwards and to initiate moves to recall all members of the National and state assemblies who refuse and fail to initiate and support moves to ensure Diaspora voting and inclusion from 2027 onwards.
4. Seek to register a special political party or adopt an already registered political party one of whose core mandates shall be to champion Diaspora voting and inclusion from 2027 onwards.
5. Make the Nigerian Diaspora the center for the evolution of a New Nigeria by actively leading the process in partnership with committed home-based Nigerians.
6. Sensitize, mobilize and galvanize major organisations in Nigeria such as the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Medical Association, Association of Nigerian Engineers, National Association of Nigerian Students, University lectures, women organizations, civil rights organizations, Council of Traditional Rulers, etc. to all insist on Diaspora voting and inclusion from 2027 onwards.
NIGERIAN DIASPORA COALITION FOR A NEW NIGERIA
Perhaps it may have been a good thing that up till now the Nigerian Diaspora has been excluded from the Nigerian governance polity so that they remain unsoiled until now, the right time. The situation in Nigeria today in all ramifications to say the truth has gone far, far beyond bad.
For instance, the constitution of Nigeria says that the security of lives and the welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of the government. Insecurity in Nigeria has gone pro-max.
The insecurity situation has degenerated beyond words to an unbelievable level. The Punch Newspaper of 7th April 2025 in a report by Jide Ajia on the title: GENERALS, CIVILIANS RAISED RANSOM FOR EX NYSC DG, TSIGA’S RELEASE -Brigadier General Ismaila Abdullahi (retd), has said that the release of retired Brigadier General Maharazu Tsiga(retd), who was abducted from his Katsina state home on February 5, 2025,was facilitated by generous financial contributions from fellow army generals, serving and retired military officers, and a wide spectrum of civilians.
In a note of appreciation shared on Facebook on Sunday, on behalf of Tsiga and his associates, Abdullahi detailed the community-driven efforts that secured the retired general’s freedom. He highlighted the role of a WhatsApp platform named “TSIGA”, created on February 9th to coordinate information and solicit donations after bandits demanded a N400 million ransom.
A situation where governments at different levels now negotiate with bandits and criminals who should be in jail, to say the least, says it all.
To the best of my knowledge, no political party in Nigeria or presidential candidate in the 2023 Presidential elections said anything meaningful as to how they intended to tackle the security situation in Nigeria. Not the ruling party and not any of the so-called opposition parties.
If any participant in this event remembers any presidential candidate or political party putting forward any meaningful program for dealing with the insecurity situation in Nigeria, the person should please remind us.
I say this because if none of the political parties including the one in power today knows what to do about the insecurity ravaging Nigeria today, then Nigeria is truly in trouble and in dire need of salvation and deliverance and I dare say that the Nigerian Diaspora community could be the source of salvation for the nation.
So I say once again without any equivocation that the opportunity is here for the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition For Change to transmute itself to the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for a New Nigeria and take the lead in sensitizing, mobilizing, and galvanizing the generality of the people of Nigeria both and home in Nigeria and throughout our global Diaspora to rescue the nation from its predicament beginning with security and welfare of the people which should be the primary purpose of government. If they do this the challenge of Diaspora voting and inclusion will be taken care of automatically.
THE WAY FORWARD: YES, WE CAN
If the Nigerian Diaspora community decides to embrace its destiny, below are some suggestions on how to go about it:
1. Establish a mass participatory and multi-interactive website that can accommodate the active participation of tens of millions of interested Nigerians from all over the world and country for the coordination and synergizing of the intellectual capital of Nigerians for national redemption, integration, unity, development and Renaissance.
2. Commence the organizing of a Nigerian people’s national peace and security summit beginning from all communities in Nigeria and all localities of the global Nigerian Diaspora to provide practical solutions to the nation’s security challenges.
3. Establish shadow governance portfolios corresponding with all ministries, agencies and departments of the federal, state, and local governments to provide alternative and also complimentary viewpoints and strategies for national progress and development.
4. Since most developed nations are technologically advanced and most underdeveloped nations on earth today are technically backward, the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change should partner with patriotic Nigerians to organize a Nigerian technology revolution summit both physically and virtually to Marshal out a Nigerian technology revolution blueprint. Many may find it difficult to believe for instance that though the Nigerian Government said early last year that they wanted the Ajaokuta Steel resuscitation and needed an investor to fund it with about $5bn., a Kuwaiti investor who sent a letter of Intent since June 2024 was not responded to till March 2025. And that even the chairman of the Senate Committee on Steel Development could invite the representative of the group to a meeting in Abuja and turn around to refuse to meet him when he honored that invitation. Strange but true. That is Nigeria for you. The bottom line is that it is essential that the governance process in Nigeria must be transparent and responsive before we can make progress as a nation and that without the full involvement of the Nigerian Diaspora community, it is impossible to achieve this desired transparency and responsiveness.
5. There can be no gainsaying that unless and until we stop corruption in Nigeria, the nation cannot make any meaningful progress. The situation in Nigeria in reality is that the federal and state governments fight the opposition and never fight corruption. This is not new in Nigeria and has been invariably the case since the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was established in 2004. If anything, corruption in Nigeria can be said to have become institutionalized under the current administration and a former female Minister who was most reluctantly removed from office following a public outcry of corruption is in the news awarding scholarship to twenty-four thousand students in her state. Of course, she has never been charged to any court. The Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change should find a way to connect with anti-corruption organizations and individuals in Nigeria, departments of accounting and public finances in Nigeria and globally to arrest this trend.
6. One extremely disturbing trend that has become bolder and most pronounced since the inception of the current administration is that the three arms of government, viz, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary, are expected to act as checks and balances to each other to ensure the observance and adherence to the rule of law have increasingly become collaborators if not outright conspirators in the destruction and disregard of the rule of law with the result that impunity is at an all-time high which has occasioned the total disregard to clear provisions of the constitution of Nigeria.
7. Clearly there is a world of merit in the assertion by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Western liberal democracy has failed in Nigeria and Africa and that perhaps it is time for Nigerians and Africans to look inwards, think out of the box so to say and come up with a clear-eyed and home-grown African democracy model that works for us at this point in time for our very survival before anarchy takes over our world. Nigerian Diaspora community represents our eyes, ears, hands, and feet as well as brains in the diverse global world of politics, diplomacy, technology, economics, social engineering, military know-how etc, which gives us access to global best practices and state of the arts innovations that can be applied for the benefit of Nigeria creatively if we know what is good for us.
The Nigerian polity and nation are currently divided along ethnic, religious, tribal, and partisan political lines, and the Nigerian Diaspora community led by the Nigerian Diaspora Coalition for Change should step up and assume the positive role of cementing and unifying the nation toward tangible progress and development in all ramifications.
