Amb. Bashir Yuguda, the Supervising Minister, National Planning Commission, says Nigerians in the Diaspora have been remitting more than N21 billion annually to the country.
The minister said this on Thursday in Abuja at a seminar with the theme “Promoting Better Management of Migration in Nigeria”, organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
According to Yuguda, one of the things Nigeria benefits from its citizens living abroad is the inflow of remittances from various parts of the world.
The minister noted that irrespective of the illegal actions carried out by some Nigerians outside the country, most Nigerians had been “worthy ambassadors, representing the country well’’.
The minister recalled that when President Goodluck Jonathan met with U.S President Barak Obama in Washington in 2013, he was told that there were more than 25,000 Nigerian medical doctors in the U.S.
He said Nigeria must be commended as its citizens had been contributing significantly to the health sector of the U.S.
Yuguda expressed the need to add value to what Nigeria does, adding that the EU had been helpful in formulating policies to shape the country’s immigration system.
He also expressed the need for synergy among countries in tackling the issue of immigration, noting it could be handled holistically without it negatively affecting the interest collaborating countries.
The minister said Nigeria would work more with sister and friendly countries to address the issue of conflict with regards to immigration to ensure better management of immigration issues, including partnership in intelligence gathering.
Mr Michael Abrion, Head, EU delegation, described Nigeria as a strategic country, saying the union would help it to developing better relationship with other countries in the drive for a safer and more secure world.
Abrion called on the Federal Government to be mindful of brain drain in its quest to promote migration, adding that Nigeria remained third on the list of drug trafficking in the world.
He said that the EU would also help Nigeria to organise better legal migration, adding that “migration is part of the window of global terrorist threat’’.
