By M.O. ENE
In addition to the waves of successes by Nigerians all over the world, more good news ushered in the month of May 2019. In Canada, Kaycee Madu was sworn as Minister for Municipal Affair; in England, Ernest Ezeajughi became the first Black Mayor of the London Borough of Brent. More good tidings are loading in USA and in Europe as record numbers of Nigerians rise in academia, business, diverse professions, and politics.
What we see now is not new. It dates back in recorded history to Abraham leaving Ur Kaśdim in Southern Iraq to settle in the and of Canaan. It continued with Joseph’s enslavement, his elevation to the governorship of Egypt, on to the coming of Jews across the Sinai to the land of pharaohs, and the exodus led by Moses.
Ancient Africa had its own movements of peoples up and down the continent, which may explain the contact of Igbo and Hebrew speakers. The Eze Chima and Eri migrations, the founding of Owere by Ekwem Arụugo, the transatlantic slavery, and the Aro economic expansionism are known to students of history. Of course, the dust raised by the European colonial experiments in Africa is yet to settle.
From America to Australia and from Angola to Azerbaijan, every country has a community of immigrants from other countries. The Nigerian overseas communities are the modern diasporas. The emigrants left Nigeria for better opportunities. An overwhelming majority of the diasporans still reach out to their home communities individually and collectively. This is not a small sacrifice; it is a commitment to cherish and celebrate.
The diasporans send home billions of dollars annually. It is difficult, if not almost impossible, to get an accurate account of their remittances because many countries still do not track these transfers faithfully. Officially, Nigerians in USA send home $7 billion annually. Anyone familiar with Nigerian Americans knows that much more money are remitted in ways that elude official tracking. Large sums of money “transfer” without the corresponding dollar amount leaving USA. Thus, a conservative estimate of $10 billion entering Nigeria from USA annually is not off-the-Mark.
Worldwide, Nigerians remit $25 billion. Using similar considerations as in USA, it could be stated that a whopping $30 billion or more funnel into the Nigerian economy annually from diaspora communities worldwide. This figure compares favourably with the income from crude oil (about $30 billion or less) depending on oil price fluctuations. This means that Nigeria’s greatest export is slowly becoming her human resources! It is a sad commentary because Nigeria needs competent and skilled manpower to drive its own economy: medical doctors, engineers, professors, scientists, nurses, and other professionals.
Neither oil nor diaspora remittances will sustain Nigeria. Oil, as we know, has most of its glory in the past. Renewable energy production is on the rise. The burning of fossil fuel has become detestable in major cities of the world. On remittances, as subsequent generations melt into their new-home cultures and lose the longing to sustain distant relatives in the old country, the flow of remittances will ebb.
For now, the figures from diaspora human resources could be closer to $40 billion annually: cash carried physically into the country every
dollar entering Nigeria; exchanges on trust; flight tickets charged abroad but used by home-resident Nigerians; cars and goods shipped to Nigeria; small favours paid in dollars abroad and compensated in naira; etc. These transfers of money and materials do not readily show as cashflow in international transfer tracking systems.
Using any of these numbers and no matter how we dice it or slice it, about $3 billion easily enter Enugu State annually, even if about 50% of the money melts out of state. So, conservatively, Enugu State could be staring at ₦500 billion annually, over four times the state’s annual budget (₦109.19 billion, 2019 and ₦103.5 billion, 2018).
Question: On what fiscal index does the remittances show? How much of the money
gets into the state IGR of ₦14 billion (2015) and ₦18 billion (2016)? Why so little? How does the state make up the gap of what the federal government sends to states? Borrow some more, we must presume? What about our local government areas with executive chairs: do they focus solely on erecting estates and tall buildings in Coal City for themselves? Is there no way the state and LGAs could tap into the revenues streaming across the land and use them for productive purposes?
The bottom line is that the power to change the disorder is in the hands of the people who vote, not “in the hands of God”the divine power who has bestowed on us beauty, brain, and brawn. Until we get the gist that our destinies are in our own hands (“echi anyị dị n’obiaka anyị”), until some good people in diaspora and in Nigeria formulate a vision for collective wellness, nothing will change. We will continue to crawl and dig deeper into the dirt of diseases and igloos ignorance.
Just with the revenue realizable from the diaspora remittances and outreaches from groups and individuals abroad, there is no reason why clean water should not reach every community in Enugu State. Free and compulsory education is possible in a decent educational environment freed from the current cesspools of corruption and inlets of incompetence.
The revenues under review are just those from overseas diaspora: We are yet to address the ‘internal diaspora’ of those living in ECOWAS region and in other parts of Nigeria outside the boundaries of southeastern states we now call Aladimma.
THE ECHO 