In an interview with COLLINS OLAYINKA, the National Coordinator of the Civil Society Network on
Migration and Development (CSOnetMADE), Dr Emeka Obiezu, explains why Nigeria must declare
diaspora remittances tax-free and allow banks to administer cash inflow to instill the much-needed confidence for investment in the economy by Nigerians living abroad.

There is too much talk about ‘japa’ in recent times whereas Nigerians have been traveling to the UK, Canada and the United States for ages. Why is the sudden rise in attention as if Nigerians were not traveling before now?
Your question is pertinent. Pertinent because it is a question with urgency and timely in the sense that it responds to reality as it is. Yes, you are right to say that from time immemorial, migration has been part of human history. There are reasons for that. Human beings are adaptable beings. In other words, they move from conditions that are not favourable to conditions that seem to be better. Now, why do we talk about migration these days in ways like it was not thought of before? This is largely because some issues are associated with migration now more than ever before.

Now, we are experiencing a high rate of explosion, exploitation and abuse of migrants in their routes for migration and reasons that are propelling migration are becoming more complex now in a way that needs more attention.

Individual development and national development are all interwoven in the conversation. For instance, in the case of Nigeria, which we are using as our own best study here, the ‘Japa’ is becoming a movement now which is captured in the current ‘japa’ by the syndrome of concept is a presentation of desperation which is necessitated by the unconditional environment.

So, you see that people are not just living because they are going on an expedition or going on vacation or that kind of thing. These are people that are desperate to escape just like someone who is locked up in a cell. Some are leaving because of insecurity of life and security of opportunities and others are not guaranteed.

These are one of the major reasons why it is more heightened now and the world has come to know the interwovenness between migration and development. Associated also is the conversation around human rights. Therefore, the world is beginning to engage constructively in migration issues, building alliances.

It is starting to look at frameworks and mechanisms for partnerships and cooperation. These are the things that make the current migration discourse more visible than before. When you look at the foreign exchange and the foreign inflow, I think between the remittances by people who have migrated and what Nigeria earns from its oil and gas industry, the percentage of the accruals indicates that remittances are very high.

How can Nigeria commercialise and fully leverage the migration of its nationals to boost its economy?
While I agree that Nigeria can get more money from the remittances of its nationals, human beings cannot be commercialised. How we can maximise the opportunity migration offers is a legitimate aspiration we should have. Yes, you are right about what we get from remittances in terms of economic remuneration being higher than what we get from both foreign aid and foreign income, it is important to focus on migration. I think Nigerians can maximise the opportunities in two ways. One practical thing is to ensure that the migrants make adequate use of what they receive to be able to improve their lifestyle.

Secondly, the way the government can harness the opportunities is to produce and provide projects and programmes that could attract these people to get into. So, they also could come in, like what the Diaspora Commission is trying to do in collaboration with the Federal Mortgage Bank to set up a diaspora mortgage where diasporas were encouraged to set up buildings in Nigeria. So, in such a way, they are systematically managing that inflow, taking it away from just direct assistance to families. But also, if our money comes through the regular channels, will the banks and other financial institutions that manage this make commissions? Countries like Kenya, for instance, do not tax remittances as it were. What they do is that they encourage you to send your money through a commercial bank. When the money comes to the commercial bank, it is obvious that even if it is one day it stays, the banks use such money for business purposes. But what is so interesting is that the Central Bank of Kenya makes it easier for the Kenyan government to borrow money from within the country and not from international bodies. This is the money from remittances. This also makes accountability possible as all the money passes through the official channels and that helps the government to calculate how much is coming from remittances at every point in time. This is one way of showing transparency to the migrant workers without having to preach to them about the need for them to invest in their country.

Things do not work the way we want it to work in Nigeria. The enabling environment when created, in turn, engenders confidence to invest. Here in Nigeria, Nigerians believe more in projects that are done by the private sector and not the government when the situation ought to be the very opposite.

What informed the formation of a Civil Society Forum (CSF) on Migration?  
The CSF on Migration is an initiative of civil society organisations in Nigeria that work in the areas of migration and development. It is a very strategic group that deals with issues of policies and governance processes and provides a space for interaction with other civil societies to strengthen partnerships and participation in different spaces. Because we are engaged in the policy space, especially migration issues, we began to look at more constructive ways of engaging so we can become systematic in responding to issues as they emerge within the migration space. So, three years ago when the first forum was held, we decided to set it side by side with the national migration dialogue, which is an annual event. The Nigerian management of migration brings stakeholders together in celebration of International Migration Day to have a national discussion on migration issues.

Our goal is that as a civil society, we are on the ground and we have a direct perspective of the grassroots. When we come to meetings like this, we harness those thoughts and make them strategic in our advocacy. We have done several activities in this regard. Why did we choose internal migration as a topic for this year? Again, it is built back to the first question you asked on why migration discourses are taking the central stage. Migration starts from the rural to urban centres. That is migration but within the country. You can see that young people are constantly moving from rural to urban areas. When these people migrate to the city, they then discover that the cities do not give them what they want because they might have gone to school or acquired skills that require a new and challenging environment. So, the movement continues. Therefore, we chose to deal with internal migration to highlight the interconnections. Also, for a long time, internal migration has not been given attention. We believe that a well-managed internal migration will lead to a well-managed international migration.

What are the expected outcomes?
There are three things we are looking at. One, we want to develop a policy. A policy that aims at recommendations that can enable us to key into the national migration governance process to enhance the engagement of internal migration for national development. Two, we also want to set up an advocacy by civil society that takes into account grassroots engagement and one that leads us to the third one. The third one is to help decentralize migration governance in Nigeria by taking it to the states.

So, the outcome of this meeting will be shared with our networks around the 36 states and then encourage them to set up or start the processes of engaging their local government. We want to go to local governments where we can begin from there to come up so that we can now localize migration governance and then be able to see how to mainstream that into the entire national agenda.