The Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) Europe has resolved to constitute an indivisible force behind the current Board of Trustees and subsequent ones offering non-committal advice, solicited and unsolicited, with the aim of ensuring that our cumulative NIDO Europe organisational experiences as past chairmen are put to meaningful use in strengthening the organisation in the interest of the country.

Emerging from a consultative session following recent successful elections in NIDO Europe that ushered in a new seven-member Board of Trustees, headed by Hon. Kenneth Gbandi, past chairmen of the organisation between 2006 and 2016, in a Communiqué signed by Dr. John C. George, Mr. Alistair Soyode, Hon. Collins Nweke and Dr. George Manuwuike unanimously resolved to “deploy our individual and collective capacities to stand up against all forces militating against the progress of the organisation.

“We shall liaise with and hold to task, all relevant bodies, including the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign & Diaspora Affairs, House Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Senate Committee on Civil Society & the Diaspora, Nigeria National Volunteer Service, to name but a few, to negotiate common grounds and achieve cohesion in driving a purposeful Nigerian Diaspora input to national development in line with the strategic objectives of NIDO Europe Board.

“Where possible and expedient we will facilitate the activation of working relationships with other Nigerian Diaspora Organisation past leaders around the world to support the objectives of the Nigerian Government.

“We believe that it is an imperative of our time to stand together and act together to facilitate our nation’s growth trajectory in line with the founding objective of NIDO, which hitherto appears to have eluded us. It is not too late to reverse the trend and engineer a new positive narrative from our vantage points.

“The four past leaders are global business executives and owners of thriving businesses as well as holding elective political offices in Europe.”

The organisation pointed out that “through the years, the Nigerian Diaspora landscape has changed dramatically. Each of the changes have presented the key stakeholders especially the leadership of NIDO as official Diaspora body for Nigeria, with different sets of new challenges. Tackling these challenges has met different degrees of success and failure.

“The fact that the organisation is still standing today in spite of these daunting challenges is an attestation of the resilient nature of its leadership. It bears mentioning that some of the issues that the organisation has faced are externally inspired while some were internally generated.

“However, it becomes obvious for all discerning observers that the absence of internal cohesion has effectively armed external elements with potent tools which they continue to efficiently deploy in constituting a cog on the organisation’s wheel of success, from open hostility to subtle divide and rule in the guise of ‘care for the organisation’. These have got to stop as a matter of urgency.”

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