Nigerians in Switzerland reportedly fought over a huge sum of money made available by the Swiss government for those set to be deported back to Nigeria.
This was made known by the Chairman, House of the Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, while speaking at the inaugural meeting of the committee in Abuja, on Tuesday, October 22, 2019.
Akande-Sadipe said the crisis between Nigerians in the Diaspora forced the Swiss government to suspend the migration programme. She said:
“I just returned from a NIDO (Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation) conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and I was upset by one of the issues that came. The Swiss government had given Nigerians in the Diaspora a large sum of money to relocate Nigerians being deported to set up (something) for them upon their return to Nigeria.
“Rather than for our people to collaborate, they started fighting. The Swiss government took the money back. We need to be very actively involved with Nigerians in the diaspora to ensure that situations like that don’t recur.”
She added, “The recent and most unfortunate incident involving a sitting Senator Ike Ekweremadu in Germany and Senator Buruji Kashamu in the United Kingdom are warning signs of dangerous trends; that this committee must nip in the bud.”
The lawmaker noted that one of the responsibilities of the committee which was inaugurated, is to discuss with governments, regional and local authorities on diaspora matters.
Meanwhile, the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo said that in the near future, rich Nigerians won’t be able to sleep because the poor, homeless and angry are awake.
According to him, if high poverty and unemployment rates are not quickly tackled, the rich in the country will suffer greatly.
