PeeCeeJay By Jideofor Adibe

NiDAN: Turning Brain Drain into Brain Gain

pcjadibe@yahoo.com

They or their parents emigrated to the more advanced economies of the West either to escape from political persecutions or more likely in search of the good life.  Many have really improved themselves – superior education, good jobs and even owning businesses. And just when you think they have adapted well to their country of domicile, they tell you of their nostalgia for ‘home’, of their alienation and loneliness in their country of domicile and how strongly they desire to return ‘home’. For some, the increasingly complicated processes of getting resident permits or good jobs or other hassles that are embedded in living in self-imposed exile abroad such as endemic marital disputes and divorces, issues with raising children or loneliness and alienation have raised doubts whether the grass is truly greener in their country of domicile. They, too, long to return ‘home’. The cumulative effect of all these is a noticeable  ‘reverse migration’ in many advanced economies, especially in the US and the UK as many highly skilled and entrepreneurial  immigrants choose in droves to take their skills or businesses back ‘home’. For most, ‘home’ is their country of birth or where their parents were born.  Though this ‘reverse migration’ appears to be most widespread among the Chinese, Indians and Brazilians, a similar trend could be noticed in virtually all immigrant communities abroad, including the Nigerian communities. Among the reasons often cited by immigrants for leaving are the better opportunities offered by the economy back ‘home’, increasing unemployment in the West and the need to be closer to family members back ‘home’. Members of the Nigeria Diaspora Alumni Network (NiDAN) are Nigerians who have spent at least one year living outside the shores of the country and are now either back in the country for good or spend a considerable part of their time here.  More on NiDAN later.

 In an article in the Forbes of May 24 2011 Dane Strangler of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation underlined the likely negative impact of ‘reverse migration’ on the US economy where immigrants have contributed disproportionately in the country’s high-tech sector. In the US immigrants have been co-founders of such iconic companies as Google, Intel, eBay and Yahoo. In addition, immigrant inventors contribute more than a quarter of U.S. global patent applications. In 2006 alone, immigrant-founded U.S.-based companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in revenue. Strangler in the aforementioned Forbes article expressed concerns that there are no visible signs of rising business creation among native-born Americans to fill the gap being left by the departing immigrants.

With some 3.25 million Nigerians (counting from the first to the fourth generations) living in the USA alone, there is a tremendous resource out there to be harnessed. For instance among Nigerian immigrants in the US, recent figures show that over 115,000  are  medical professionals,  some 174,000  are IT professionals,  about 87,000 are pharmacists,  some 49,500 are engineers and over 250,000 are  legal,  financial, real estate and related business professionals. Though between 2005 and 2011 the Nigerian government supported the Diaspora Day celebration by assisting 500 Nigerians each year to return home to dialogue on ways and means of engaging Nigerians in the Diaspora, the emphasis has often been on sensitising such Nigerians about the investment opportunities back ‘home’. While such a sensitisation is useful, it is however not always clear that concerns about investment opportunities is among the main hindrances to people returning ‘home’.  It would seem that for most Nigerians in the Diaspora, stories of pervasive insecurity in the land, fears of how to negotiate the inevitable reverse culture shock amid the intractable crisis in the country’s nation-building project and its fallouts are among the strongest disincentives to those itching to return ‘home’. NiDAN, an independent, non-governmental, non-political and non-partisan forum for Diaspora Nigerians, with membership from 36 states of the federation, appears to tap into the fears and concerns of those itching to return as well as the existential needs of those who have relatively settled down.

Formed on October 1 2010, NiDAN, which has its Head Office in Abuja, says its key objective is to “promote, advance and advocate the economic, political, social and professional interests of Nigerians who have spent at least one year outside the country, and have returned to contribute to national development.” The group is therefore both a networking group and a sort of ‘soft-landing’ for returning Diaspora Nigerians as it offers them a forum to comingle with people who have a similar background of living away from home and are possibly also navigating through the same labyrinth  of reverse culture shock. It particularly helps the new arrivals in negotiating how to re-engage with the country. With several of its members being well established either in public service, academics or running their own businesses, NiDAN is a bold statement to Diaspora Nigerians that returning home is ‘doable’. For instance an ICT firm owned by a member of the group employs some 400 Nigerians across the country. A member of the group’s executive was also recently appointed a Vice Chancellor of one of the new federal universities. Several members own successful businesses - from hospitals and dental clinics to hotels and law and architecture firms. Though a majority of NiDAN members are professionals or people who run their own businesses, the group also has members who have returned ‘home’ with virtually nothing but an overwhelming desire to be ‘home’ again. Such members are often helped with searching for work and with tips on how to survive while they struggle to find their feet.

As a networking group, NiDAN encourages its members to set up Special Purpose Vehicles to bid for contracts or develop viable project proposals. It also helps its members with sourcing for funds for such projects. NiDAN equally encourages its members to use whatever contacts they may have to attract investments into the country as part of its mission of helping to expand the country’s economic base.   

A very laudable philosophy of the group is the idea of institutionalising ‘giving back something to the fatherland’. For this, last year it instituted an annual Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP) aimed not just at helping young unemployed people to develop requisite skills that will help them get jobs or set up their own businesses but also inculcate in them the ‘can do’ attitude that will help them excel in other aspects of life.  In this year’s YEP, which was held on July 23-24, 2012 at Nicon Luxury, Abuja, though 378 young people from across the country applied to participate in the programme, 520 people actually attended. Participants received several gifts and awards such as plasma TVs, laptops, state-of-the art mobile phones and scholarships to pursue various IT programmes.  All the gifts were donated by members of the group.  Given the relative success of the YEP  this year, NiDAN plans to expand it in the coming years as well as institutionalise a mentoring scheme under which members can take on some unemployed young people and mentor them over a specific period of time.

Despite their remarkable role in the remittance economy, Nigerians in the Diaspora and Diaspora groups in general are not always popular with ‘resident’ Nigerians – for various reasons. If NiDAN is able to sustain its current momentum, it could help not just to re-invent the perception of the Nigerian Diaspora but will also go down in history as a good interface in turning the country’s brain drain into brain gain.

More information about NiDAN is available from its website: www.nidangroup.com

Complex insurgencies

The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) organised a four-day ‘Eminent Persons and Expert Group’ meeting on complex insurgencies in Nigeria from August 28-31 2011 at Kuru, near Jos. Among the recurring theme in several of the presentations and comments was the issue of alienation of several groups from the Nigeria project and the need for the government to engage both insurgent and protest groups to address their perceived sense of injustice. It was also recognized that insurgencies are manifestations of years of authoritarianism and the absence of good governance, implying that any effective counter-insurgency strategy in the current democratic framework, must also put the issue of good governance at the front burner.  

Though the meeting was well organised and the organisers deserve commendations for working round the clock to pull it off, it will however seem that bringing some 200 ‘eminent persons’ and ‘experts’ to a four-day meeting was a little unwieldy, especially as these ‘experts’ and ‘eminent’ persons come from different professional backgrounds and also seemed to have different levels of engagement with the subject matter.