The love of a nation. Most received discounted college education which provided the ladder for their ascensions. Today, most are at the zeniths of their games, outside the nation. And they are not forgetting the homeland. I have experienced the power of Nigerian diasporas. They are a force – for good.
Any political leader who understands them, and can give them comfort through honour, decency and values, can unlock enormous resources to transform Nigeria.
The whole construct of brain drain is real. Yet, we have to also consider brain gain. Collectively, the real issue is having someone in Abuja or the state capitals that can harness the wealth of these men and women.
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Nigeria has everything it needs to rise to the mountaintop. It has got an extremely affluent diaspora tribe. With our great home team, a national redesign can happen. I have seen patterns: more than 50% of tech startups in Nigeria receive their first funding via diasporas or diaspora-affiliated systems. Another 20% come from those in the oil & gas sector; pray that sector remains strong because the oil people #move. Trust my data as we run a really sizable investing company, Tekedia Capital; diasporas can fix any state with a plan!
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The challenge is always knowing how to transition from abstract possibilities to practical realities. Who has the acceptable template on how to advance Nigeria? I do not mean fanciful ideas or academic solutions, but that which majority of Nigerians are ready to take ownership and run with it.
We all harp on ‘leadership’ each time Nigeria’s shortcomings are mentioned, but who’s this supposed leader that can have confidence of those at home and the ones in the diaspora? Our suggestions and debates always lack context, we can cite countries that are supposedly well run but we fall short when it comes to profiling traits of their citizens and sacrifices made.
Our people do well in already established systems, but which systems have we built and sustained on our own? That is where the big breakthrough needs to happen. All the things we complain and see as obstacles here are the very things people elsewhere overcame and thrived, but in our case, we first want to escape from the land, then become successful elsewhere and magically, we now position as saviours for the land we ran away from in order to be successful. These things are deeper than superficial solutions we put forward, we still don’t seem to grasp the fundamental problems.