Assessing the Nigerian diaspora financial experiences

BY OLUWOLE OKE

Nigerian diaspora has long been critical stakeholders in the functioning of the country. They have been very useful from two perspectives: First, from the intangible but significant aspect of knowledge transfer, through the generation of ideas on national development, having been exposed to some of the most civilized nations of the world.

Secondly, they have also been very useful in the tangible aspect, in the physical, existential respect, through their remittances, growing up to $25billion annually in recent estimate. This is over ten times the size of foreign direct investment, more than three quarter of the 2018 budget and far higher than total foreign aid received annually. The diaspora members are therefore important and strategic stakeholders in the evolution of the nation’s economic and political growth and development.

Because of the importance of the diaspora, many countries have sought to harness their wealth of material and knowledge resources towards national progress. India and China are good examples of these kinds of countries. They have over the years developed policies geared towards encouraging the returning of the migrants, while some of the policies have been shaped to alleviate their fears, and address their concerns. Such policies are in the areas of infrastructure, housing, provision of job, security, social security, etc, if they do return.

The essence of these is to integrate as many stakeholders as possible in the process of national evolution, and more especially to benefit from the experiences of those who have been exposed to some of the most developed parts of the world.This is in effect reversing the erstwhile brain drain and turning it into brain gain, particularly, from Diasporas in countries like the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, amongst others.

The practice of courting diaspora population is not to say that nations have absolute believe in them. Nations are more often tuned to courting the productive sections of the population, in what implicates the fact that many of them may not have been doing well. Moreover, not doing well, especially in the case of the migrant Nigerian population may not be deliberate.

The challenges of regularizing residency, in most cases, plus the trials around discrimination, xenophobia and racism and similar other difficulties often reduce the potential of the average migrant and moreso the Nigerian. Many have however always risen beyond this limitation, in a concerted bid to earn a living and then starve off the trials of homeland.

These facts do not exonerate the huge population of criminals amongst the lot, however. Not a few Nigerians have been lately identified amongst internet crime perpetrators. These ones unfortunately hack into the websites of companies and corporations, and pervert their payment and benefit process to their own criminal advantage. There are many other forms of criminality readily identified with the migrants. Some of these are identity and real property theft, fake marriages, benefit and credit card fraud, amongst others.

These outliers are however not enough to tar the entire Nigerian migrant population as bad, as the chair of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa has reiterated. It is not enough reason to profile the Nigerian migrant as negative in airports, transit points, work places overseas and everywhere else. Many Nigerians are indeed credible professionals plying their legitimate trades in their different places of work, while many are still determined to do the same as legitimately as possible.

It is for this reason that recent stories that suspicious diaspora transactions can actually be discussed at no other time than now. Reason been that we have lately been fed with report about a fraud of $11million, involving a young Nigerian, often earlier celebrated as an entrepreneur, who is into construction, oil and gas, agriculture, amongst other things. He was said to have offices in Lagos, Johannesburg, London and New York.

From nowhere, the youngman became the envy of many, growing to become a role model for much younger ones, and even someone envied by older nationals. The bursting of the bubble was a rude shock, which still confounds many. Nearly six dozens Nigerians were also lately listed and published on the FBI wanted list, in what combine to attract the attention of the law enforcement agencies to be more vigilant in the national and international spaces.

Regardless, in being vigilant, attention need to be well paid to the interest of the genuine and the honest, I mean those who are legitimately plying their trade, with their reputation and credibility in mind. To that extent, it is shocking that there are allegations that in the recent past, some funds transferred by Nigerian Diasporas to Nigerian beneficiaries are being ceased or frozen by banking institutions and anti-money laundering agencies based on suspicion that these funds are proceeds of crime. It is estimated that these seized funds are said to be hitting $6billion in total value.

Yes, we have said many of the migrants might be involved in illegitimate business, but a lot of them who are genuinely doing their businesses or practicing their profession should be freed from the traumatic financial transactions executed in bid to nap the guilty ones. Their lawful dues and assets should not be denied them, because of an expanded investigation, as reported in the media. The process of sifting clean money from dirty money needs to be seamless and efficient, in a manner that does not become an instrument for restricting legitimate business transactions.

Our anti – money laundering agencies and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, will need to understand the fact that Nigerians both home and abroad will bear some form of backlash from events of the recent past. But they will need to put in their best efforts towards ensuring that Nigerian diaspora do not suffer targeted profiling abroad and unnecessary restrictions in transfer of funds back home. They must also address the issue of seized and trap funds by segregating legitimate transfer from others.

Trusting in the rigour of our criminal investigation agencies, our priority should be to fish out the bad eggs, perpetrating acts of criminality, and rightly prosecute then as deterrence to others, and then exonerate obedient local and diasporic residents to encourage concern for original homeland and a willingness to support its growth and its development.

Hon. Oke (Obokun/Oriade federal constituency of Osun state) is chairman of house of representatives committee on public accounts.