Female senate president hopeful backs diaspora vote

Binta Masi Garba, the senator-elect for Adamawa north district who is eyeing the position of speaker of the 8th national assembly, says she will include Nigerians living abroad in her plans for rebuilding the country and has promised to support the realisation of the elusive Diaspora vote ahead of the 2019 general election.

Speaking with the UK arm of her party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), she expressed happiness with the smooth conduct of the 2015 elections and promised to work with fellow lawmakers to set up a “committee for Nigerians in the diaspora”.

Garba, who is also the chairperson of the Adamawa state chapter of APC, said she would “push for Diaspora vote”, which President Goodluck Jonathan promised ahead of the 2011 presidential election but has been unable to fulfill.

There have been several calls on the Nigerian government to ensure Nigerians abroad are able to vote, especially on the argument of their financial contributions to their homeland.

Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK-based think tank, recently put remittance from the UK to Nigeria at $21 billion in 2014, with the projection that the figures would rise in 2015 with anew government in place.

“I have mapped out plans to work in setting a committee for Nigerians in the Diaspora. The board is expected to discuss and provide solutions to challenges confronting Nigerians abroad,” Garba said.

“People abroad have asked to be able to cast their votes and as we can see what happened in the last elections, Nigerians in diaspora played a very vital role in terms of creating awareness and that is part of what gave us the victory that today we are now enjoying.

“There are lots of Nigerians that are doing other countries proud, so the onus lies on the government to go out there and hunt for all those talent out there and bring them so we can work together as a team to bring about the good Nigeria.

“If everything goes well in Nigeria, those in the diaspora will want to come home to be partakers of nation-building and like I said, if this government wants us to move forward, it has to tap into this skills.”