Chair of senate diaspora committee wants Nidcom upgraded into a fully fledged ministry

NEWLY-elected chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora Senator Michael Ana-Nnachi has called on the federal government to upgrade the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (Nidcom) into a fully fledged minister as India recently did.

Creating following the passing of a National Assembly act,  Nidcom operates as a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with its chairperson reporting to the foreign minister. Currently, the former chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who recently celebrated her 60th birthday, is the Nidcom chairperson.

Speaking yesterday during an interactive session held at the National Assembly with the Nidcom management team, Senator Ana-Nnachi, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora, NGOs and Civil Society, said more needs to be done. He suggested that the commission be upgraded to a full ministry in line with global practices, noting that India had to set up a full Ministry for Indians Abroad for total inclusion of its diaspora.

Senator Ana-Nnachi added:  “The volume of your work is huge, you interact more with the grassroot diasporans and with this much responsibilities, this agency should be a fully fledged ministry. You should consider having attaché across all embassies, as well as diaspora desks since Nidcom is a grassroot agency."

During the meeting, Senator Ana-Nnachi said he was happy with the activities of the commission despite paucity of funds. He said he wondered how Nidcom has been able to achieve such landmark achievements within the short period of its establishment and advised that more structures be put in place to engage more diasporans and assure them that their investments are safe back home.

Senator Ana-Nnachi assured Nidcom that the senate will revisit the controversial issue of diaspora voting as well as issue of under-funding of the commission. He then advised the commission to propose amendments to the Nigerian Diaspora Act to capture all the missing links especially on remittances.

Earlier, Hon Dabiri-Erewa briefed the senate committee on the activities of Nidcom and pleaded for more support especially in the areas of appropriation as the commission cannot achieve anything with little it is currently given. At the moment, recurrent cists are just N8m, while the capital budget is N40m.

Other issues raised by the Nidcom boss included the rejected Diaspora Voting Bill, as she reassured the lawmakers that there is nothing to worry about, as smaller countries in Africa have diaspora voting. Also, Hon Dabiri-Erewa used the opportunity to reiterate her appeal to Nigerians abroad to be good ambassadors by respecting the laws of their host countries.