Abike Dabiri Tasks Buhari On Signing Diaspora Commission Bill

Abike Dabiri-Erewa-Diaspora CommissionA former member of the House of Representatives and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Lagos State, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the bill for the establishment of a Diaspora Commission.

Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa, who was Chairman of the Diaspora Committee in the House, said doing so would fast track the efforts to produce a workable database to ascertain the number of Nigerians abroad.

She made the call at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, yesterday, while delivering a lecture titled: “The State of Nigerian Diaspora and Gender Relations in the 21st Century”, organised by the university’s department of Diaspora and Transnational Studies.

According to the former lawmaker, “It is a shame that we do not have accurate database of our people in the Diaspora. We are only dealing with estimates. There is a need for a proper database. It is estimated that we have 15 million people in the Diaspora globally with approximately four million of them in the United States of America alone”.