Nigerian professionals in U.S. have expressed determination to bring back home their expertise and resources to develop the economic and other key sectors in the country.
The Deputy Mayor Newwark, U.S.A, Ugo Nwachuku, said this at an interactive session between President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerians in Diaspora in America.
The meeting was convened by the Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on the sideline of the ongoing 73rd UN General Assembly in New York.
“We want to bring back home our resources to come and make changes in health, power and other key sectors in Nigeria.
“I want to commend you on what you are doing with corruption in Nigeria; you are doing a lot, we in the Diaspora we applaud you; we support you,” he said.
He however urged the president to get the Diaspora more involved in the affairs of the country.
“I want to tell you that that we love Nigeria and we are very passionate about Nigeria as you can see that from the remittances of 22 billion dollars per year.
“Nigerians in the Diaspora should be more involved, I think we are not utilising the resources that the Nigerians in the Diaspora have for instance.
“We have a lot of expertises and resources that are not well utilised. Nigeria should have mechanism whereby it could take advantage of those resources,” he said.
President, Nigerian America Business Forum (NABF), Kenneth Shobola, also corroborated Ugochukwu’s submission that the professionals could use their expertise to assist in the development of Nigeria.
“ NABF is a group of Nigerian professionals with different backgrounds from various professions that you can think of.
“What we can do professionally is to use our expertise to assist our government back home; what we decided to do is to see how we can invest back home.
“The level of entrepreneurship that we have here can be brought back home to develop the country. We have the resources to come and make changes in all sectors of economy,” he said.
Responding, Buhari told the group that his administration had done well in the areas of security, economy and anti-corruption.
He said that his government had provided a conducive environment for investment with security in place and mechanism to fight against corruption.
Buhari urged the Diasporans to invest more in education of their different areas and Nigeria in general, stressing that it is only education that enhances development of a nation.
