THE DIASPORA AND NATION BUILDING: LOOKING BACK AND FORGING AHEAD.
A Speech by Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji, at the Imo State Diaspora Summit, held on January 4, 2025, Protea Hotel, Owerri, Imo State.
Protocol
Your Excellency, the Governor of the great State of Imo, Senator Hope Uzodimma, CON
Your Excellency, the Former Governor of Imo State, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, Chairman of the summit
All other Excellencies and Honorables in our midst
All government and party officials present
Ndi Eze na Ndi Echiriechi
Ladies and gentlemen of the press,
Sisters and brothers from the Diaspora, using as a point of reference, Engineer Chief Sampson Ude, President General of the Imo State Leadership in the Diaspora,
Ndi Nwem, na Ndi Nkwuru Nwere
Please kindly allow me to adopt the rest of the protocol list as already established.
Greetings
I bring you greetings from my father, HRH Eze Stephen Nwabueze Ugorji, who is the traditional ruler of my autonomous community of Lorji Nwekeukwu, in Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area. Owerri Zone.
May the blessings of the Lord be with all of you!
And to those of you who share the Igbo heritage with me, I say Udo diri Unu!
I thank the Imo State Leadership in the Diaspora for the opportunity and honor to speak at this very important gathering. In the interest of full disclosure, by virtue of my service in government, I remain a member of the 3R Shared Prosperity family of Governor Hope Uzodimma. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve, because it was that service that brought me in contact with the fabulous men and women of the Imo State Leadership in the Diaspora.
Let me share a story with you
Sometime in the 1980s, a Nigerian man immigrated to the US. About six months after getting there, the man started sending money to his family at home, in the care of his younger brother. Impressed by this blessing in their family, the younger brother wrote to his big brother in America. Dede, he wrote, how do you make this money?
Big brother wrote back and told his younger brother that money grew on trees in America. That he would just go on the streets and pick up cash that had fallen from trees. The younger brother wrote back. He said Dede, in that case, would it not be better for the family if you helped me come over there too, so that we can join hands in picking this money.
Big brother wrote back and said sure. He packaged an invitation for his brother, which resulted in the American Embassy issuing his brother a visa. Big brother bought a ticket for little brother and off the young man boarded a plane to America.
Upon getting to America, Big brother was already at the airport to pick up his younger brother. Once the young man cleared immigration and customs, his older brother escorted him to the parking lot where he had parked his big American Oldsmobile.
As they approached the Oldsmobile, the brothers saw about four $100 dollar notes and a couple of $20 notes being blown around by a gentle breeze. Noticing the dollars dancing around in the parking lot, big brother turned to his brother and said: You see. That’s what I told you. In America, you just see these notes from trees and pick them. Then he said: Go ahead brother, pick your first dollars in America.
The young brother said: Are you serious? His older brother said that he was serious. Go ahead pick your first dollars in America.
The young brother looked at his older brother and said: Dede, you want me to start working on my first day in America? I refuse to work on my first day in America.
The Summit
While this is the first time that an independent group is organizing a summit of the Imo Diaspora in Imo State, this is not the first time that the attention of Nigerian governments, including governments of Imo State, has been drawn in an organized fashion, to the activities of the diaspora.
In July of 2005, Nigeria held its first Diaspora Day in Abuja, organized by that Nigerian patriot, Ambassador Joe Keshi, who was a Permanent Secretary in the presidency at that time. He organized it in collaboration with several Nigerian organizations around the world, including Nigerians In Diaspora Organization (NIDO) and the Nigerian Peoples Forum-USA (NPF). After that initial Diaspora Day, the Obasanjo administration asked me to write, produce and present a documentary on the Nigerian Diaspora. That documentary, titled “The Nigerian Diaspora: An Introduction,” was aired during Diaspora Day 2006 in Abuja, with President Obasanjo and his cabinet in the audience.
Subsequently, a program aired for twelve months on NTA Channel 5 Abuja, titled “Tall Drums: Portraits of Nigerians Who Are Changing America.” It was produced and presented by yours truly. That program, which was supported by a grant from Minister Frank Nwaeke of the Ministry of Information at the time, was the forerunner to the current television programs on the Diaspora that you see on NTA and Channels Television.
In Imo state, the government of Achike Udenwa and other governments after him, have invited Imo delegates who attend the Diaspora Days in Abuja, to come down to Owerri for a meeting with the governor, after their activities in Abuja. On two occasions – once during the Udenwa administration and once during the Ohakim administration, I was chosen by the delegates as the spokesperson for a contingent of Diaspora folks who proceeded to Owerri after Diaspora Day activities in Abuja.
Now, of course, the activities of the Nigerian Diaspora have been formalized in policy statements, including the creation of the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission, headed by Hon. Abike Dabri-Erewa. Diaspora Day is now celebrated annually on July 25th in Nigeria.
I commend the Imo State Leadership in the Diaspora for the bold step of being the first non-governmental entity to organize a Diaspora Summit without waiting for government sponsorship. Last year I was with you when you organized your first gathering here in Owerri. It is great to see that your initial foray here as an organized entity has metamorphosed into a full-blown summit.
My Task
I have been asked by the organizers to speak to the topic of the Diaspora and Nation Building. In doing so, I will present perspectives that are steeped in history, as well as contemporary realities of the consequential impact of the Nigerian Diaspora in the building of our dear nation, and by extension, in the building of Imo State.
However, I must warn you that some of us attended the Fidel Castro School of Public Speaking. Brother Castro (May his gallant soul rest in peace!) would speak for three hours straight. And that’s just the introductory part of his speech.
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Defining the Diaspora
Due to incidents and accidents in history, humans of common culture, who were otherwise located within a particular geographical confine, disperse and move in different directions, to different parts of the world. Sometimes the dispersion is involuntary (e.g. the European Slave Trade) and sometimes voluntary, as in the contemporary immigrants who disperse in search of education or better economic opportunities.
The Nigerian Diaspora refers to those from the geographic enclave now known as Nigeria, who have found themselves in other nations of the world, voluntarily or involuntarily. I propose that for one to be considered part of the formal Diaspora, that person needs to have been away for at least four years. This is the length of time for a typical university degree, and it is generally the time it takes immigrants to begin to feel at home at their new nations of residence.
There are two groups of diaspora folks: Perennial Diaspora (PD), which refers to those immigrants who have stayed in their foreign locals for more than one hundred years (five generations); and Contemporary Diaspora (CD), which encompasses those immigrants who have stayed in their foreign new homes for less than 100 years.
A Historical Perspective
In the 1800s, some Africans who are descendants of former captives in the Americas, returned, upon their freedom, and made their way back to the continent. Some of them settled in Lagos and became part of the fixture of returnees who helped develop Lagos. Their descendants would include the likes of Samuel Ajayi Crowther and Olayinka Herbert McCaulley.
In the 1900s, a set of Africans were either sent or stowed away to America and Europe in pursuit of European education. Among this group were the likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Eyo Ita, and Kwameh Nkrumah. All three ended up at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, one of the preeminent Historically Black Colleges in America.
Azikiwe, Ita, McCaulley, and Nkrumah would return to Africa and lead the efforts of Africans for political independence from the colonial agents. In other words, the emergence of an independent Nigeria that became a republic, was rooted in the activities and contributions of those who had sojourned abroad and returned to participate in the building of new, modern nations, such as Nigeria.
Zik (Azikiwe) would later see to it that other Nigerians were sponsored to go to America, among whom were Ozumba Mbadiwe, Nwafor Orizu, and the proponent of “boycott all boycottables,” Mazi Mbonu Ojike. These men would not only go overseas and study but did return triumphantly to play major roles in nation building. There were so many such compatriots from the breadth of this nation, but I just named a few here to illustrate the fact that what we now call the Nigerian Diaspora has been critically consequential at all stages of Nigeria’s development, including many actors from Imo State.
Contemporary Perspective
A great degree of Nigeria’s development has been made possible by citizens who may not have been beyond the shores of this nation. However, there is no debating the fact that in more recent times, our sisters and brothers who have studied, worked, and lived overseas, have been indispensable in the onward march of Nigeria as a developing nation. I will give you just a few examples.
In Public Service – The players range from Okonjo-Iweala who served as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, to Professor Bart Nnaji who served as Minister of Power and eventually established the Geometric Power Company. They also include the global stateman, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR, who served severally as Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador to the UN, and most recently as President Mohammadu Buhar’s last Chief of Staff. He, Gambari, established the Abuja-based Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development.
Governor Udenwa brought many Imonites home from abroad to serve in his administration in Imo State. Ditto for Governor Ohakim and Governor Okorocha.
More recently, yours truly was invited by Governor Hope Uzodimma to serve, first as the Special Adviser on Homeland Security and Intelligence, and later as the Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs. Others who have come from the Diaspora to serve are Chuck Chukwuemeka, the current Commissioner for Finance, and Professor Kenneth Amaeshi, the Economic Adviser to Governor Uzodimma, to mention a few.
In Businesses and Remittances – According to statistics from the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission, in 2019 alone, the Nigerian Diaspora remitted over $25 Billion Dollars to friends and family in Nigeria, which constituted about 6% of the country’s GDP.
Several business enterprises have either been established in Nigeria by our folks in the Diaspora or by capital sent in from the Diaspora. These enterprises continue to provide goods and services to Nigerians, as well as provide needed employment for our fellow citizens.
Critique
I am going to end my presentation by pointing out a task that those of us in the Diaspora are positioned to take on. That task is the need to provide critique.
Critique is a deep analysis of phenomenon, events, acts, policies, etc. Critique involves not just the identification of the merits of an issue or policy, but also the perceived faults in the subject being analyzed. You can provide critique on culture itself, on the norms of doing business, and on the art of governance.
Critique is good; critique makes societies greater. Critique is at the root of the improvement of all human conditions.
I submit to you that every invention in human history, every innovation, and every creative masterpiece stemmed from a critique of the situation in that field at the time. Inventions of machines and improvements on those machines come from a deliberate analysis of what was or is and how to improve on what was or is.
Critique is particularly needed in governance and politics, because politics runs everything. However, you find all over the world examples of where criticism of the government of the day is very costly. Some who offer critique have been known to be arrested, jailed, disappear, and in some cases assassinated altogether. As such, there is often a chilling effect on those who would want to offer a critique.
Those of you in the Nigerian Diaspora have the advantage of being distant from the theater here and are therefore better positioned to offer constructive and instructive criticism with less fear of repercussions. Everyone likes and welcomes praises, especially politicians. Not so much love for criticism, even though I posit that grounded and constructive criticism is essential in nation building.
I am an APC man. I am a member of the 3R Shared Prosperity family in Imo State. I am also a writer, a publisher and scholar. In writing, publishing and scholarship, the freedom to speak is fundamental. Constructive criticism of our party and of our government is necessary for the improvement of the human condition in Nigeria and in Imo State. I call on those of you in the Diaspora, with the skills of analysis, to offer us critique. And I call on all who seek to lead us to embrace and draw from critique.
Having said that, I must also caution that critique and criticism must be based on facts and figures. Defamation is not critique. Libel and slander are not critique. As long as your criticism and your critique are based on verifiable facts, the truth is the best defense in allegations of defamation, libel, or slander. I call on the Imo State House of Assembly and the great governor of our state to decriminalize defamation in public discourse in the state, if it is not already decriminalized.
And now this concluding story.
I entered the bus once in New Jersey heading to New York. At one of the bus stops, a man entered the bus and sat next to me. He had in his hand a brown bag, which appeared to serve as a cover for the bottle of alcohol he had brought on board. He reeked of alcohol too.
Every two minutes or so, the man raised the brown bag with a bottle in it, took a sip or a gulp, and he would sneeze out loud. He did this several times until I had had enough. So, I said to him “brother, if keep drinking that stuff, you are going straight to hell.”
The man turned towards me, offered me the bottle and then said: Brother, if I am going to hell, you might as well take a sip of the wine, because you and I are on the same bus, going to hell.
My brothers and sisters, the Diaspora and the home base are all on the same bus. Come help us improve the system. Come help us drive the bus.
Chinua Achebe (may his soul rest in peace) told us that one characteristic of integrity is the blunt refusal to be compromised.
Many of us, including Governor Hope Uzodimma, are committed to making a positive difference in our homeland. Those on this mission include some of us who returned from the Diaspora. Come join us.
As Chukwu is our witness, we shall make that positive difference or, if necessary, we will die trying.
Ndewo nu!
© Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji, January 4, 2025
Odoziobodo Mbaisewww.iheatu.org.ng
