Gboyega Akinsanmi
The Forum of Global Nigerian Professionals (FGNP) has unveiled an intervention aimed at combating poor leadership and underdevelopment in Nigeria and other African countries by extension.
FGNP, an assembly of accomplished professionals without bias for any ethnic nationality, political party and religious sects, also promised to boost inflows of diaspora remittances into the country with its drive to spur sustainable socio-economic development.
It disclosed this ambitious plan in a statement its conveners, Sir Dan Amechi, Dr. Victor Abayomi Oluwi Chief Stanley Wokocha and Dr. Sanni Mahmud issued yesterday.
While Amechi and Oluwi are respectively a senior financial crime compliance consultant and adjunct professor at Concordia University of Edmonton, Alberta, Wokocha is a technocrat and international businessman and Mahmud specialises an information technology security
But in its statement yesterday, FGNP, also christened Global Professionals, said it set up an influential think-thank, which would positively catalyse development in the country with a drive for a new national order.
Quoted in the statement yesterday, Oluwi, also an adjunct professor at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, said FGNP had come to inspire Nigeria to victory against under-development, poor leadership.
Oluwi said the forum “aims to inspire Nigeria’s victory against mediocrity. The professionals in FGNP have a good tactical mind, and Nigeria is still the place to go for discerning investors in the world. Everyone will soon come to rave about the FGNP ideas,” Oluwi said.
Oluwi, currently Faculty of Business Administration, Canadian Imperial College, emphasised that Nigeria needed “all its accomplished professionals scattered around the world today – more than ever before – to driver sustainable development. At FGNP, we have decided to answer that call.”
Explaining the mission of the forum, Amechi was quoted in the statement saying the need to sustain whatever Nigeria “has achieved since the return of democracy in 1999 – and since independence in general, continuously motivate and inspire Nigerians – the leadership and the led, as well as tell the authentic story of Nigeria to the entire world, are some of the reasons behind the decision to rally round accomplished professionals from every corner of the world to partake in the ‘Greater Nigerian project.”
Amechi, who has worked for global systemically important financial institutions (G-SIFIs) in various countries in the world, said the intervention “is in keeping so much with the Nigerian season in a global context, and tends to suggest that things will only continue to change for the better, every circle.”
Also quoted in the statement, Wokocha observed that more than ever before, Nigerians in every part of the world should partake in the transformation project which Nigeria has been pursuing, albeit slowly, over the years.
Mahmud justified the unveiling of the forum, noting that its goal “is to help support and advance good governance; and ultimately influence the image and progress of the Nigerian community back home and in the Diaspora.”
The statement further said: “With a specific purpose to mobilise Nigerian professionals and leaders to support national growth, Nigeria at this time, needs her exceptionally good and talented ‘world beaters’ to help scale our developmental programmes internally and externally.
“This is a great opportunity to help reshape our African and global story and build our current programmes as a nation,” the forum said in a statement its conveners released to the public yesterday.
The statement said the forum, currently with strong presence in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Germany, France, Nigeria, China and South Africa among others, planned to tell the story of Nigeria’s loaded capacity.
In these countries, the forum explained that Nigerians “are known to be at the heart of the economies, helping to make them the most advanced in the world. FGNP wants to fully harness, finally, for the benefit of Nigerians anywhere in the world.”
The statement also emphasised its drive to boost Nigeria’s diaspora remittances, which it said, had recorded significant growth in the recent years based on data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The statement observed that Nigeria’s diaspora remittances in the first quarter of 2022 rose by 20.3 per cent year- on-year to $ 5.6 billion from $4.29 billion in the corresponding period of the first quarter of 2021.
It said: “The remittance inflows were even projected to grow by 7.1 per cent by the end of last year. The current population of Nigeria is 219,011,841 as at Tuesday, January 10, 2023, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
“This shows that Nigeria remains the go-to-, for global investors who value investible environments with one of the best source of cheap labour and good return on investments.”
