Nigerians abroad under the auspices of Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO) on Monday described the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Idris Wase’s remark on ‘no right to petition’ over insecurity in the country as the worst statement a House member can make about its citizens in foreign lands.

NIDO said Nigerians abroad deserve an unreserved apology from Wase, giving the Deputy Speaker a 14-day ultimatum to do so.

News Express reports that Wase had recently declared that Nigerians in the Diaspora have no right sending petitions to the House on issues happening in Nigeria.

Wase who sat in for Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila during Thursday’s plenary, rejected a petition filed by “Mutual Union of the Tiv in America” on insecurity in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba.

Mark Terseer Gbillah, the lawmaker representing Benue Gwer east/Gwer West federal constituency had presented the group’s petition in which they accused the Federal Government of not resettling the Tiv people displaced from their ancestral land through various attacks.

Responding to the petition, the Deputy Speaker said they have no right to complain about insecurity since they don’t live around.

Irked by his comments, Nigerians in Diaspora (NIDO) knocked the Deputy Speaker over the statement which it described as “uncharitable and derogatory”.

The position of the organization was contained in a statement jointly signed by its stockholders in Europe, America, Asia, Oceania and Africa and addressed to the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

The organisation which strongly condemned the comment made by the Deputy Speaker said that the whole Diaspora community is still in total shock over the video that emanated from the Green Chamber where Wase presided to discredit Nigerians abroad.

NIDO expressed disappointment that with such an action and statements everything that has been done and achieved in the last 20 years on Diaspora engagement is now being rubbished and put to nullity by the utterances of the Deputy Speaker.

The statement dated March 14, 2021 reads partly: “The attention of the Nigerian Diaspora community all over the world has been drawn to the attached video clip that has gone viral on the social media, in which the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, standing in for the Speaker during a plenary session in the Green Chamber of the House of Representatives, is seen making disparaging and derogatory statements to vilify the whole Nigerians in Diaspora and putting to doubt our citizenship, privileges and rights as Nigerians.

“The whole Diaspora community is still in total shock that this particular video could emanate from the Green Chamber where the Speaker presides. We all are aware that the Speaker himself is a returnee Diaspora and that issues concerning the Diaspora are always close to his heart. However, this unfortunate statement from the Deputy Speaker has helped to cast doubt in the minds of the Diaspora community as to the genuineness of the Federal Government’s intentions towards its Diaspora.

“We cannot understand up till now, why Hon. Ahmed Wase, a person occupying such a high position in the National Assembly, has decided to run down the whole Nigerians in Diaspora and the policy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Diaspora in such a manner at a time when the contributions of the Nigerians in Diaspora are highly needed and desired.

“Such an action and statements are clearly at variance with what we, the Nigerians in Diaspora are being made to understand and believe by the Federal Government of Nigeria. We are still in shock and total disbelief that everything that has been done and achieved in the last 20 years on Diaspora engagement is now being rubbished and put to nullity by the utterances of one single person.

“Rt. Honourable Speaker, Nigerians in Diaspora have been extremely patient with the broken promises of both the Government and the Legislators, where the rights of Nigerians in Diaspora to vote have been treated with levity. Even, at that, the Nigerians in Diaspora community has never faltered in remitting millions of foreign currency to Nigeria and bringing in potential investors.

“In his frantic effort to shut down a petition being presented by one Hon. Mark Gilbah at the instance of ‘Mutual Unions of Tiv in America,’ a social organization of Nigerian Tiv ethnic group living in USA, Hon. Ahmed Wase openly displayed total ignorance of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that allows for dual citizenship, with rights and privileges of the Diaspora to call to the attention of the Federal Government on issues of common concerns.

“Instead of availing himself the opportunity to listen, Hon. Wase decided to pick on the whole Nigerians in Diaspora for attack and questioned their citizenship rights and their rights to petition the National Assembly on issues of mutual interests to them. In the video clip, he castigated the Nigerians in Diaspora as intruders and persons of no locus standi on issues bothering on Nigeria socio-economic wellbeing. He showed without self-restrain, his hatred and disdain for the Nigerians in Diaspora. This is an affront to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“It vividly showed in his body language, coupled with the list of unguarded utterances he invoked erroneously to justify why the Nigerians in Diaspora cannot protest to their government, over any injustice and lack of good governance. In essence, Hon. Ahmed Wase is telling us, out of his abundant ignorance to ‘continue to leave in their comfort zones abroad and allow Nigerians to face their fate in Nigeria’. What a statement! Are Nigerians in Diaspora merely seen as “cash cows” to help plug the hole in the Federal Government efforts to improve its GDP? Are Nigerians in Diaspora only useful to help lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty through home remittances, something which in the first place should have been the duty of the Federal Government through a comprehensive social development package?

“We are therefore wondering, if Hon Ahmed Idris Wase’s view and position are the same as those of other members of the NASS? In that case, the $23 billion yearly remittances (according to the World Bank records), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), medical missions, community development programs and professional skills transfer, amongst others, that Nigerians in Diaspora, routinely brings into the economy of Nigeria should also be seen as unwelcoming distractions and undesirable," the statement stated.

NIDO made four key demands as follows:

a) A full retraction of this unfortunate statement by the Deputy Speaker;

b) An unconditional public apology from the Deputy Speaker to the Nigerians in Diaspora Community;

c) That Hon. Mark Gilbah be allowed to present the motion for and on behalf of Mutual Unions of Tiv in America’ as a concerned group of Nigerians in Diaspora;

d) That the Rt. Honourable Speaker convenes an urgent Virtual Meeting with the Nigerians in Diaspora community to address this issue and to reassure us of his full support.

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