NIDO 2011 HOLDS IN ABUJA

Nigerians in diaspora organisation , nido 2011 confernce held in abuja  between 25^th and 27^th of july . The conference  which  holds yearly since inception  took place  at the nicon luxury  hotel , abuja while the opening ceremony took place at the transcorp hilton hotel, abuja.

As usual, president goodluck jonathan , who was schedule to declare the con ference open was not around so the vice president, nemadi sambo performed the opening ceremony. The secretary to the federal government of nigeria, anyim pius anyim was also at the opening ceremony.

The diasporas were disappointed in president jonathan  because  he did not also  attend the minna, niger state edition in 2010.the story then was that he was away in uganda for an official function.

The nido conference was originally scheduled to take place in lagos but was moved  to  abuja because the lagos state government could not meet the deadline . Over three  hundred  and  fifty diasporas  participated in the three day conference .

Papers were presented by the key speakers made up of diasporas and  nigerian government  officials   at the event . Nigerians professionals in various fields   residing in  different  continents of the world took part in the  conference.

At the end of the conference ,  some participants  visited  their various home states to meet with their governors .  However, some state government e.g delta  state could not comprehend the importance and the value of nigerians in diaspora. The government officials were more interested in wasting tax payers’ fund to travel abroad to meet some persons or associates that they considered to be nigerians in diaspora in order to claim esta-code.

The previous nido conferences were held in different states of the federation  including cross river state while the 2010 edition  held in minna , niger state .

The conference was successful in the sense that it afforded the participants  an opportunity to interact with their counterparts from the different parts of the world.  Some met new friends.

 they exchanged views on the various ways that nigerians in diaspora could contribute to the growth of nigeria especially in the area of foreign investments and repartriation of funds to nigeria by nigerians abroad.

However , the inability to organise things properly on the part of the federal government officials and some selfish so called ‘ volunteer ’ diasporas took the shine off the conference. For instance, the participants registered online and also sent their passport photograph in order to receive their photo identity cards on arrival.

It was so disappointing that on arrival at the venue on 24^th of july 2011 no arrangement had been made to provide participants with photo identification card when the organisers knew the security implication of not having such ids with regards to security situation in abuja. Participants stayed awake all night taking ‘fire brigade’ approach pictures on  an  ineffective  cameras provided by the organisers and manned by inefficient staff. The waiting game continued throughout the three days of the conference.

In the end, photo identity cards were not made or printed for participant who spent sleepless night on queue. 

They were given general  id cards with the inscription‘diaspora’ without even names on them. One can recall that those id cards were a problem to the participants. Only a few of the organisers made photo ids for themselves.

The ‘diaspora’ ids were a hinderence to the nigerians in diaspora during their visit to the presidential villa at the aso rock  (office and residence of the nigerian president ) for a state banquet for two reasons.  Firstly, some fraudulent officials and their ‘ arrangee’ associate diasporas alterated the original list of participants and smuggled the names of their favourite friends into another list sent  to the state security service,sss operatives at the presidential villa in order to embarass majority of the participants at the entrance.

The unsuspecting diasporas who were told officially before embarking on the journey to the aso rock that all participants were invited to the state banquet, were shocked at the entrance that out of about three hundred fifty names on the original list, only about one hundred names were on the ‘mago mago’ list.

Diasporas stood on the queue for hours like primary school pupils at the assembly ground waiting for their names to be called. The sss operatives took their  turns  in mocking the same nigerians  that the federal government invited home to contribute their quota to the  growth  and development nigeria .

A lot of persons remained outside the gate most part of the state banquet because their were not mentioned and could not leave without the buses that conveyed them to the state house. It was unimaginable to trek all that way to the main gate which was quite a distance. They could even be arrested and detained for wandering around the presidential villa without proper identification. Fela anikulapo- kuti could have discribed that as ‘ double wahala deady body ‘.

However, when the party was almost over, people were still howling out the names to the sss, when the same the same officials and their arrangee diasporas came out to beg the security operatives to allow their fellow diasporas go in. After the unnecessary begging, the poor participants entered the venue as the guest of honour, vice president nemadi sambo and the secretary to the federal government, anyim pius anyim were leaving.

President goodluck jonathan could not even participate in an event that took place in his own residence to pacify nigerians in diaspora whom he disappointed during the  nido 2010 edition in minna, niger state and the opening ceremony  at the transcorp hhilton hotel in abuja in 2011. The diasporas expressed their disappointment on  the issue  while chatting with  unique international magazine before leaving nigeria for their various countries of residence. Watch out for the interviews.