I’d like to say a big “Thank you!” for this article. I’m a bit confused as to whether the story is fiction or true life. It’s so real though.

Nigerians need to be less cynical and maintain a positive outlook. There is a need to inculcate some degree of patriotism in the citizens right from school age. I think that’s what keeps citizens of other countries fighting for the emancipation of their fatherlands even in the face of very dire circumstances, situations worse than what obtains in Nigeria.

I agree with the gist of the article. But there is another side to the story. For example, the money Kenyans in diaspora send back home is contributing more to the country’s foreign exchange earnings than any other sector of the economy. Some professionals who work abroad also return home with more exposure and experience which benefits their country.

Very good effort and suggestion from Egbunike.
However, I would like to say that we cannot all return home. And the cost of returning to Nigeria to help uplift the country may be too high for a lot of people abroad. This is not the place to elaborate on the obstacles to any lemming-like homecoming of Nigerians abroad, it’s a pretty involved, even knotty, matter.
Of course Soyinka’s song ‘I love My Country’ still resonates in my head, but how I wish my own generation - I believe Egbunike is a coeval - is as lucky as Soyinka’s.
I read Achebe’s interview and it is clear that the grand old man of Nigerian letters will never to the country - and he gave the reason: inability to buy antibiotics and be sure that what you have bought is the real thing. Paltry as this may seem, it is true. Apropos, I was a martyr to malaria while I was living in Nigeria and I nearly lost my life after taking a fake dosage of Chloroquine.
By the way, Egbunike, I read your piece about your typical day in office in Ibadan. It truly puts me in the mind of the lovely city, just as my re-readings of Achebe’s novels always remind me how I loved to live in the quiet agrarian Igbo villages I used to see on the way whenever I was travelling to Port Harcourt.

Well written, Nwachukwu. What we need now is also for well meaning nigerians to bring the youth together in groups and mentor them. There are many who can do so. They are probably waiting for a push. There are many things young African professionals can do within the country if only people could willingly show them, help them and support them. This is a call on all selfless older mentors.

Having lived in Nigeria as a small child during the Biafran war I remember a beautiful green country and a friendly population (and soldiers with machine guns). Nwachukwu is absolutely right to say that the wealthy countries are exploiting Nigerian education and taking the best and brightest after Nigeria has funded their education. What does it cost to train a doctor, for instance? Australia can’t train enough doctors to look after our own ageing population, so the solution is .. take them from poor countries, to the detriment of those countries. Good on you for going against the tide, Nwachukwu.

The news is surely depressing.However the good news is that there is nowhere like home.There are quite a number of us who are willing to stay in the country and make changes. With God on our side( this is a very important point in Nigeria) Victory is ours.
Efun Reis

Very interesting article. The idea of encouraging Nigerians abroad to come back and help develop our beloved country is a wonderful one (kindly take India as a case study). But as Adebowale Oriku pointed out, this may be no easy option. Therefore, I’ll like to agree with Regina Eya that the hope for this troubled land still remains those of us living here. Again, kindly take Singapore (between 1965 and 2000) as a case study.

An emerging power in the Nigeria elite society, Nwachukwu you are carving a name for yourself, let it shine more.

Please allow me say a few. Nigerians are just like the Jews as you are well informed, travelling and inhabiting in peoples land is a curse and a gift which mother nature gave us and we cannot fight the government over corruption without the kind of foundation which the likes of Wole Soyinka’s and Co’s have.
I personally will return a better person for technology, work beliefs and ideas which i learn here daily beats any imagination i ever had in Nigeria. We accept lesser standards and rights over here, not because it is interesting but, we have aims and targets set before us and how on NIGERIA can you raise capital without being corrupt? LET ALL NIGERIANS ABROAD WHO CARES TO READ THIS, STUDY THE LEBANESE IN NIGERIA AND BRAZIL.
They all work where they find resources and take the proceeds to their country, just like the colonials did in their time. Its our time to inhabit these lands and make good returns to our country

This article is lazily written. The whole “return home” drum beat is becoming like the tennysonian sirens that send people to their misfortune in one way or the other. As another commentator noted, many developed countries exported a lot of its people who were able to send back resources to support the organic growth of their society. Some of those immigrants went back, some stayed and some leaders were organically grown. Not everyone had to return home as though people at home are incapable.

The idea that those abroad know it all and are the elistist who need to come home and change the country continues the welfarist thinking of citizens. If the government is not the entity with the obligation, then the immigrants are. People need to take responsibility where they are, RIGHT where the are.

When you talk of immigrants prefering streets paved with god, you continued to affirm this misinformation that people who live abroad or in your words are “janding”, are having a grand old time. Most Nigerians at home cannot imagine the sort of determination and strength that it takes to work around the clock and send that money to people who tell you stories about how they used those resources. Obviously, I am also taking their easier route by noting only those Nigerians who love to sit around on the cushion of “My people are in America” as though “My people” are plucking these dollars from treetops.

There are immigrants who scratched their way to an education and now have responsibilities to pay back whether through military service or loans to the country that helped them to get that education. So do a bit more research and suggest practical things and note that the issue of immigration is more nuanced that you portray.

Living in abroad is miles away from easy for the immigrant and I think citizens living at home should be thankful for what the imigrants remittances does for the home economy.