The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the Diaspora Voting Bill.
Dabiri-Erewa told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that millions of Nigerians in the Diaspora are currently excluded from voting rights, which the bill is expected to address.
Dabiri-Erewa said: “The Diaspora voting is inevitable but the challenge goes to the National Assembly.
“It is important that the National Assembly amends the laws to make it possible.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari has said on Diaspora Voting, that he’s ready for it, so is INEC. So the only thing delaying Nigeria is the National Assembly.
“If the National Assembly can make it possible by amending the relevant laws, nothing stops the Nigerians in the Diaspora from voting.
“Even, Diaspora voting doesn’t have to start in 2019 because it’s not realistic but you can amend the law now and make it start, maybe 2023.
“But it is inevitable for a people who remit so much money – over $24 billion in one year. I think it’s their right to vote.
“So it’s unto the National Assembly to make that happen and then when you look at many things about the Diaspora,” she said.
According to her, Diaspora voting, Diaspora remittances, even the issue of terrorism, Diaspora can do a lot of things and it’s important to key into that,” she said.
She commended the success of the $300 million Federal Government’s Diaspora Bond, saying many countries in Africa now wanted to do a bond.
“Nigeria floated a very successful $300 million Diaspora Bond. You see Africans in the Diaspora, who are even asking that the bond be floated for them to invest in Africa.
“So it is important to work on this collaboration and what we are doing in Nigeria is to create a seamless transition for them to make it possible.
“A lot of them are doing their DNA, which is showing where they come from and they are demanding that ‘if our DNA showed that we are from Nigeria, we want a Nigerian Passport, we don’t want visas anymore’.
“So it is dynamic, it’s evolving and I believe it’s a very great area we should tap into and Nigeria, of course, is taking the lead in this regard,” she said.