The federal government has called on Nigerians in the diaspora to return home and help build the Nigeria of everybody’s dream, assuring them that things are changing in the country. .
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, made the appeal at a series of Town halls with Nigerians in the U.S., assuring that old ways are now giving way to new ways of doing things. .
The minister was in the U.S. to sensitise diaspora Nigerians on the Presidential Executive Order V signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in February, to improve local content in public procurement with science, engineering and technology components. .
Onu thanked the diasporas for their remittances to Nigeria estimated at $22 billion yearly, saying it is a major contribution for our nation “but we want you to return home”. .
The minister said: “Please we want you to return home, it is important. Not everybody will return but some can start coming home, and that’s the essence. .
We are telling you that things are changing in Nigeria, this is the message, that’s why I’m here. .
I heard all the complaints – people will do this and nobody responds and all that and so on; yes, these are things that happened in the past and we can’t correct these things just overnight. .
This is the truth, there is no way you can make these changes and then make the corrections and all that overnight. But the important thing is that there is a change.
We can’t all be waiting until everything is okay in Nigeria before we can return home” According to him, there are many Bill Gates in Nigeria, adding, we need to give you the opportunities and we are giving these opportunities. .
“If there were pioneers that built America, there must be pioneers to build Nigeria. Please I beg you, let us not wait until everything is ready. Somebody has to get it ready. .
If we keep waiting until everything is ready, it may never be. We must decide that we have to look at the future of our children.”
He said Nigeria had never had it like this before about the level of infrastructure development.