By Olukayode Idowu
President Muhammadu Buhari has called for a strong interface among Africans and their Diasporas around the world.
Buhari, while speaking at the opening of the 2nd edition of Global African Diaspora Symposium, Abuja, 2023, with the theme “Building Stronger Connections Between Africa and the Global Diaspora”, said it would be a good platform for the promotion of the global Diaspora as a key resource for positive projection of Africa.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Transport, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo said it was necessary for Africans to connect and build a common front and also lay down strategic frameworks to address the challenges arising in the new world.
He said: “Today presents another milestone in the history of our nation in hosting Africans and its Diaspora. The choice of Nigeria as its country is timely and historic in the face of our political transition to a new government presently.
“This symposium being the 2nd in the series talks on some very key objectives such as to create an interface for networking among Africans and other Disaporas around the world. To also promote the implementation and institutionalisation of Pan-Africanism at the United Nations through the celebration of the International decade for people of African descent, hoping that it becomes a platform for the promotion of the global Diaspora as a key resource for positively projecting Africa.
“This is why the theme of this symposium is apt and has been in tune with the current realities of the global scene.
“It is empirical for Africans at home and in the Diaspora to connect and build a common front and also lay down strategic frameworks to address the challenges arising in the new world.
“The best approach to connect the Diaspora for sustainable development is to harness its vast materials and resources whether in the continent or in the Diaspora.”
He added that: “It is expected that the objectives of this symposium lead to outcomes that portray the entire African Diaspora, a sense of belonging with an ease of entering and movement of the Diaspora into and around Africa.
Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on her part, said it was high time Africans come together to tap into the vast opportunities of Diaspora so as to develop the continent.
Dabiri-Erewa noted that Africa needs to engage more with her Diaspora, stressing that: “It is us coming together. We have everything that should make us great.”
In her remark. the Chairman, Global Organizing Committee Global African Diaspora Symposium, Mrs Ibukun Odusote,, said all Africans must work together to achieve greatness.
She said: “Only Africans can develop Africa. This goal of developing the African continent may not be achievable without the involvement of ‘the Sixth Region of the African Union: The African Diaspora.
“It is by harnessing the skills and expertise of this sixth Region can our dreams of a better Africa can be achieved, even as those of us within Africa join hands with those in the Diaspora to carry out the task of building the Africa of our dream.”
