Brain Drain: A Legitimate Commercial Asset for Export

By

Dozie Ikem Ezeife, Esq.

ezeife@yahoo.com

 

 

During the mid-80s a phenomenon commonly referred to as the “Brain Drain” appeared on the Nigerian landscape. Brain drain heralded the flight of educated Nigerians, especially professionals and University professors, to North America and Western Europe. Subsequently, every country outside of Nigeria became a destination for desperate Nigerians. I was one of those desperate Nigerians. These economic refugees were in search of work and better life for themselves and their families. It is estimated that since 1983 Nigeria has lost in excess of five million of her best and her brightest.

 

The Buhari/Idiagbon administration frowned at this new trend and mounted a public relations campaign to checkmate it. The image of “Andrew” attempting to “checkout” of the country played to a mass local television audience in the mid 80s. The administration was evidently distressed that the country was loosing its corps of educated and talented population to North America, Western Europe and the Middle East. The government was of the view that Nigerians ought not to jump ship in search of greener pastures but should stick around and help turn the fortunes of the country around. The Buhari government obviously meant well but Nigerians had a better forecast of the social and economic future of Nigeria.

 

The computer revolution of the late 90s that drove the United States economy into the stratosphere was oiled, fueled and managed by brains from India and Pakistan. The pre-eminence of the European Soccer League owes its meteoric rise to soccer talents from Africa and South America. The United States National Basketball Association is currently enjoying the influx of talents from the Peoples Republic of China. The government of China is receiving monetary and social benefits from this arrangement.

 

Currently North America and Europe are in desperate shortages for qualified and experienced nurses for their hospitals and patient care facilities. There is an on-going campaign to poach experienced nurses from Africa and Asia. Countries such as South Africa have cried foul because they are loosing experienced and qualified staff from their local hospitals to foreign recruiters. Large bodies of Nigerian doctors are presently employed in Trinidad & Tobago, Saudi Arabia and several other gulf states. The Nigerian government ought to invite these medical staff recruiters from North America and Western Europe and assist them in recruiting from the pool of several thousand doctors and nurses in Nigeria without jobs and from the nurses and doctors who are presently in early retirement. This will effectively lower our unemployment figures and also help several families raise their standards of living.

 

It is my thesis that the excess pool of educated and experienced workforce in Nigeria is an exportable national asset. Nigeria is filled with a plethora of unemployed University graduates and talented men and women that are suffering needlessly in the country. Unemployed Nigerians with requisite education and talent in science, technology, music, the arts, entertainment and sports, should be recruited, trained and encouraged to seek opportunities in Asia, Europe and the Americas. These bright sons and daughters of Nigeria should be encouraged to assist in Nigeria’s economic recovery by repatriating to and investing in Nigeria, a percentage of their yearly earnings abroad. They can also be persuaded to use their contacts abroad to attract foreign investment to Nigeria.

 

It is fallacious for Nigeria’s policy makers to continue to labour under the erroneous impression that crude oil and cash crops are the only commodities Nigeria can export. Expertise and technical know how are lucrative earners of foreign exchange. Countries such as India, Pakistan, China and the Philippines, to name a few, are making a killing in Europe and North America in some of these areas of human endeavour. Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are doing it with soccer. Nigeria should create a cabinet rank department devoted solely to this enterprise.

 

Nigeria must restructure her educational system in order to promote the teaching of those courses and subjects that would help in building up the right kind of manpower for export abroad. The offering of liberal arts and social sciences in all our Universities are theoretical fine but realistically a colossal waste of resources that could be put to better use in the areas of science and technology. There is no reason why a small percentage of our local Universities cannot offer these courses while the rest of the Universities concentrate on training Nigerians to use their hands to produce and to fix things. People with the training and talents to produce or fix things are in high demand abroad. That ought to be the thrust of our education system.

 

The cross-cultural influence that is inherent in exporting manpower abroad will help Nigeria solidify the democratic process and reverse the trend towards the debasing of our moral structure. It will also teach us to disown fraud and violent crimes. The recent call by Dr. Alexander Ekwueme on Nigerians abroad to come home and aid in the rebuilding of the nation is rather out of tune with reality. What exactly does Dr. Ekwueme expect of these Nigerians? Where are the jobs for them when they return? Where is the social infrastructure to anchor investments they may wish to bring home? SoundBits pronouncements like that credited to the respected leader sends out a wrong message and tends to lend credence to the idea that there is something wrong with Nigerians emigrating to foreign lands. I know the respected leader meant well but obviously he seemed not to know how it feels to graduate from the University and have to pound the pavement for years on end hoping to find a job. Any job. In the face of crushing unemployment, coupled with a dearth of social infrastructure, our leaders ought to encourage Nigerians to seek their fortunes abroad and to repatriate some of their earnings home for local investment. We should not discourage the practice. We do not have any viable option anyway. Should we rather they stayed back in Nigeria and form part of the bourgeoning social problems besetting the nation?

I

n today’s Nigeria, Andrew would certainly have checked out. And I would not have blamed him.

 

Dozie Ikem Ezeife, Esq.

Attorney-At-Law

Oakland, California