By Boluwatife Adedokun
The Senate has pleaded that Nigerians in Diaspora Commission should be upgraded to Ministry so as to meets its obligations to citizens in diaspora.
The plea was made on Thursday by the red chamber during an engagement with its committee on the Diaspora and Nongovernmental Organizations and the NIDCOM officials led by its chairman, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
It should be recalled that the chairman of NIDCOM had earlier complained about the challenges the agency was having in meeting its mandate due to poor funding.
While speaking at the meeting, Dabiri-Erewa noted that it has been difficult for her office to render helping hands to Nigerians passing through difficulties in foreign lands, adding that there is no provision for foreign trips for her office.
Dabiri-Erewa also noted that there has not been any reimbursement for the three trips she embarked upon on behalf of Nigeria.
Dabiri-Erewa said, “It is in the act that we should have five diasporan offices, but we don’t have money. It’s in the act but we don’t have money.
“Some diasporans help us out when we travel. The diaspora is the most important thing for Nigeria right now and I can tell you that we haven’t even engaged 10 percent of our diaspora.
“What we always do is that we have been using technology. We plead to the National Assembly to assist us so that we could have continental offices so that we would be able to have direct access to Nigerians in the Diaspora.
“Our inability to have offices abroad is not allowing us to engage 10 percent of Nigerians in the Diaspora.”
While reacting, the panel explained that the responsibilities on NIDCOM was more than its capabilities.
Moreso, the panel members opined that NIDCOM should be an umbrella for the Technical Aids Corps.
In his own reaction, the Senate panel channel Chairman, Senator Micheal Nnachi urged the NIDCOM Legal department to discuss with the National Assembly to amend the Act that established it.
He said: “There is the need to upgrade NIDCOM to a full-fledged ministry. The legal department should start work towards the review of the Act.
“The National Assembly is ready to support and work with you to make your agency a full-fledged ministry
“That would enable you to have adequate funding to sustain you and empower the agency to carry out its mandate.
“We believe that your agency has a lot of responsibilities to the Nigerian in the Diaspora. We need to encourage them to come and invest here.
“NIDCOM has a lot of roles to play. The leadership of the National Assembly will be interested in you delivering on your mandate.”
