ABIKE Dabiri-Erewa, the Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, has disclosed that more than 5000 Nigerians are presently stranded in the middle East country of Iraq.
Dabiri-Erewa stated that the women were sent to Iraq as caregivers only to be stranded, as they get there to meet harsh realities
She disclosed this in Lagos while addressing participants at the seminar on “Sensitisation and Advocacy Program for Promoting Diaspora Investment Potentials in South-West Nigeria” organised by NIDCOM in conjunction with G-Consulting International Services Limited.
She told the participants selected from the Six South-West states that there are huge opportunities in Nigeria instead of migrating in the name of seeking greener pastures.
The Chairman disclosed that a husband sent his wife to Iraq to be a caregiver but the woman died mysteriously and the Nigerian Mission is helping to bring back the corpse.
She said, “As I speak with you today there are about 5000 women stranded in Iraq. I just dealt with a case last week. A husband sent his wife to Iraq to go and be a caregiver. She’s dead.
“Can you imagine! Now how do you bring the body back? That’s what is troubling the husband. He doesn’t know where to start.
“So we had to intervene. The Nigerian high commission had been able to intervene, they would do an autopsy to see how she died because she just died mysteriously being a caregiver.”
She explained that while there are challenges in Nigeria just like other countries in the world, there are huge opportunities for investment.
“And this is why we are having this workshop,” she said, adding it would be replicated in other five geopolitical zones of Nigeria to train and educate the participants on the untapped opportunities in Nigeria for Diasporan investment.
She said as many Nigerians try to Japa to other countries in search of greener pastures, more and more people in the Diaspora are tracing their roots to Nigeria.
“As I speak with you, we received about 14 people yesterday, they traced their roots and did their DNA, they realized that they are Nigerians, they don’t know where they come from but they are beginning to find out where did I come from, so we are here to meet with them, some are Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba and they want to know everywhere, they are saying ‘I want to know my village’ and they want to come back home and invest in Nigeria.
“While some people want to japa, many African Americans want to come back, so we have to encourage investment in every region in Nigeria, there’s no region in Nigeria that doesn’t have something to tap into.
“I know we keep saying dollar, but the biggest issue is what are we producing? So if we are not producing anything we can’t be complaining.
“So this is our own way of contributing to the development of the Nigerian economy through the diaspora, we want to show those that want to invest in Nigeria the pathway for investment, so this is our brainstorming session.”
Godfrey Ajayi Sunday, the group managing director of G-Consulting, stated that through the workshop, the firm would be mobilising over $100m funding to support participants who want to engage in one business or the other in partnership with those in the diaspora.
He said there are various investment opportunities in real estate, agriculture, among others for Nigerians to tap into, adding the idea is to sell the opportunities to those in the diaspora to put in their money.